Double Platinum

With six studio albums and two live albums under their proverbial belts, Kiss opted for a two-LP greatest-hits album. Except in Kiss’ case, they opted to rerecord “Strutter” (the opening track to their self-titled debut album), give it a touch of a disco beat and a brighter performance, and call it “Strutter ’78.” This ensured the faithful would need the album, in case news of the remixed tracks didn’t excite them enough. For example, “Black Diamond” had its intro appended to the end of the track as well, while “Hard Luck Woman” and “Detroit Rock City” had parts removed. Earlier songs like “100,000 Years,” “Deuce,” and “Firehouse” were mixed brighter here to best fit in with the higher-budget productions of the band’s later studio albums. These decisions aside, Double Platinum was a decent overview that even hardcore fans enjoyed. It could be argued that casual fans would be best off owning the first two live albums—Alive! and Alive II—since Kiss were clearly in their element in front of live audiences. But for those not wishing to purchase all six studio albums, this is a smart collection.