Oh yeah, this album was the gateway to all things KISS for me. Dressed to Kill was KISS’ third album released on March 18, 1975. Prior to this album they had put out two albums in 1974, KISS and Hotter Than Hell. Both not doing that great.

I was living in Puerto Rico at the time and we were months, if not a year, behind what was going on in the mainland. So I was lucky enough to have a subscription to Creem magazine at the time when they featured KISS (first ever) in an article. The article I Dreamed I Was Onstage with KISS in my Maideform Bra by Jaan Uhelszki, August 1975, was the catalyst that started a lifelong love of the band.

Prior to hearing that album, I was listening to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Grand Funk Railroad. But Dressed to Kill and KISS as a whole, in its simplicity, captured my teenage urges in 3 minute proclamations full of sexual innuendos and overtly obvious demands for sex. Songs like Room Service, Ladies in Waiting, C’mon and Love Me and She all dealt with sex, hookers and more sex. What’s not to like.

Of course the album also included Rock and Roll All Nite but that wouldn’t become the huge hit until it was immortalized on KISS Alive! released just 6 months later in a last gasp to save the band and the Casablanca Record Label.

So because you have had such an influence on my life since that day I bought you in a department store (I forget the name) in Puerto Rico in 1975, Dressed to Kill – you are this weeks PawPaw’s Vinyl of the Week!