KISS ARMY NEWS
KISS - Smashes, Thrashes & Hits is released on this date in 1988.
Smashes, Thrashes & Hits is a greatest hits album by the American hard rock band Kiss. It was the third hits album overall but the second such album released by the band in the United States (Killers was not released in the United States originally). Of the 15 songs on the album, two were new compositions and three were released after the band's unmasking in 1983. The remaining ten were all released during the band's years in makeup.
It was certified 2x Platinum on February 26, 1996, when it sold 2,000,000 copies, Kiss' only album of the non-makeup era to achieve that RIAA status officially.
The two new songs on Smashes, Thrashes & Hits were "Let's Put The X In Sex" and "(You Make Me) Rock Hard," which feature the same polished production style as 1987's Crazy Nights. They were both produced and co-written by guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley, and were accompanied by videos that received moderate airplay on MTV.
Nearly all of the songs recorded by the band's original lineup were altered in one way or another. One song, "Beth," was re-recorded with lead vocals by then-drummer Eric Carr, who had replaced the original drummer Peter Criss in 1980.
