“Hair Metal” KISS. What’s not to love? franKENstein fan remix of “Turn on the Night” (Bruce Approved)

[Wiseacre]

Several people have requested that I remix something from the Crazy Nights album and at least one suggested this song. I thought it would be a good one to do since there is an official video for it.

I decided to have a little fun and rather than do a straight remix, I decided to play around with the arrangement a bit. I've added a bass intro and a chorus breakdown after the solo. I also added a build up to a hard ending instead of the fade. I took Bruce's "fade out" solo and instead joined it with his main solo to extend it using a half-time drum beat under the main part. I also made quite a few changes to the drum parts to accent the vocal grooves a bit more. I'm not sure if Eric was on this or if Paul used a drum machine, but I'd like to think Eric would have put a lot more fills in instead of the fairly straight-ahead patterns used on the album.

I added a bit of grit (not much, just a bit for "color") to the bass guitar and blended the original guitars with tracks that were run through an amp modeler for more of a mid-range tone since they are a bit bright on the album. Per usual, the drums were re-sampled using the album track for the main "body" with cymbals, snare and kick enhanced using custom samples. The fills were also all replaced using toms from Dynasty.

I also left keyboards out completely. I didn't feel like they were really necessary and only made the main riff sound even more like JBJ's "She Don't Know Me" than it already does *wink* (a lot of "Panama" in that pre-chorus bridge as well). I also changed up the guitar rhythm parts in the verses to make them a little less RATT-like and a more straight-forward.

Although I was a much bigger makeup-era fan, I did follow the band all the way up to the Reunion-era and do like some of the mid-late '80s material. This is a good, catchy pop song and the video is pretty much a time-capsule of the MTV "hair-metal" era at its peak.

Speaking of the video, since this remix was quite a bit longer than the original video version, I borrowed a lot of the "Crazy, Crazy Nights" video to fill in the rest of the song (upscaled from the 480p version I grabbed from iTunes). Together, these videos give a great overview of that tour and stage show. I also moved shots around to match Eric's drumming better.

If you guys like the sound of this, I could always do a version with the original arrangement. I know some fans hate changes to the original material, but like I always say these are done by a huge fan as a creative outlet and not for the purists among us.

BTW, Bruce liked it and shared it on his FB page this morning. He’s always been a really good guy. Would he even say if he hated it? Ha.

KISS - "Turn On The Night" (franKENstein Remix and Video Redux)
https://youtu.be/lUPjBDEHCz8

[pieceofme]

Isn't this the KISS song that some members of KISSfaq think would have been a smash hit if Bon Jovi had released it?

The bass is very prominent. Maybe a bit too much for me. But an interesting remix of the song.

[Wiseacre]

Isn't this the KISS song that some members of KISSfaq think would have been a smash hit if Bon Jovi had released it?

The bass is very prominent. Maybe a bit too much for me. But an interesting remix of the song.

he did. It was called "She Don't Know Me" and it was about 4 or 5 years earlier.

[rockker]

Very cool

[HoldenSSV]

Good job. A little too much bass, but still good.

[Rocker4Real]

https://youtu.be/IEadr0aOrR0?si=00-4tbgTgVgWnSQN

[DonJuanDeMarco]

How the heck are you doing this? Do you have a copy of the masters? It’s an amazing effort but after hearing it a certain way for nearly 40 years, it’s hard to hear it any other way!

I immediately missed the keyboards.

It really helped bring out the vocal though. Paul Stanley doesn’t get enough credit as a singer. When he was good, he was REALLY good.

[Wiseacre]

How the heck are you doing this? Do you have a copy of the masters? It’s an amazing effort but after hearing it a certain way for nearly 40 years, it’s hard to hear it any other way!

I immediately missed the keyboards.

It really helped bring out the vocal though. Paul Stanley doesn’t get enough credit as a singer. When he was good, he was REALLY good.

I use a few different ways to isolate instruments and then replace most of the drums sounds and lots of other stuff depending on the project. SOmetime like with the live concerts I've done I replace vocals and guitars, etc using perfectly synced audio from other better-sounding sources to create the new mix (this "frankenstein" mixes).

I am uploading a version of this one now with Piano replacing the synth parts and most of the guitar stuff added back to the verses. Everyone always wants to hear their later stuff "without the keyboards". I warn them and then remove it and then everyone bitches about "something missing". people

[rubysdad]

It’s been a very long time since I listened to the original.
That was really good.
Well done.

[Wiseacre]

Several people have requested that I remix something from the Crazy Nights album and at least one suggested this song. I thought it would be a good one to do since there is an official video for it. With a song like this there are endless possibilities, and this is the 2nd version (yes, it even works very well as a piano ballad).

If you saw me on the Three Sides of the Coin Podcast when one of guys mentioned simply removing the keyboards (from UNMAKSED) I mentioned that this is not always as good of an idea as it seems. What I did this time was to change the '80s synth sound to a piano which makes it more of a power rock recording and not as "'80s" I guess you could say. I left the intro and Bruce's extended solo and everything else as described below but brought the regular guitars back into the verses this time. So, it is closer to the original arrangement aside from the intro, ending and drum changes. The video is the same

The description from the first remix in the OP...

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_82h-SWdMnE

[LAglamrocker]

Kiss hair metal is 3/10 for Kiss music it’s 8/10
Almost every band on cover of Metal Edge did hair metal far superior to Miss
Bon Jovi-Poison- Cinderella-Skidrow-Vain-Wildside- Danger Danger-Warrant Fasterpussy Cat- Def Leppard- GNR- Asphalt Ballet-Southgang-Vixen-Kik Tracee and million others

Kiss hair metal is definitely overrated why would anyone waste time listening to it when almost every band featured in Metal Edge was superior

[Wiseacre]

Kiss hair metal is 3/10 for Kiss music it’s 8/10
Almost every band on cover of Metal Edge did hair metal far superior to Miss
Bon Jovi-Poison- Cinderella-Skidrow-Vain-Wildside- Danger Danger-Warrant Fasterpussy Cat- Def Leppard- GNR- Asphalt Ballet-Southgang-Vixen-Kik Tracee and million others

Kiss hair metal is definitely overrated why would anyone waste time listening to it when almost every band featured in Metal Edge was superior

Not over-rated by me. I pretty much tapped out after LIU. I was being facetious because I know some of you girlie-guys like that sort of thing.