"Rise to It" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Kiss | ||||
from the album Hot in the Shade | ||||
Released | April 1, 1990 (US) | |||
Format | 7" | |||
Recorded | The Fortress, Hollywood, CA: 1989 |
|||
Genre | Hard rock | |||
Length | 4:08 | |||
Label | Mercury 875-098-7 (US) | |||
Songwriter(s) | Paul Stanley, Bob Halligan, Jr. | |||
Producer(s) | Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley | |||
Kiss singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
Music video | ||||
"Rise to It" on YouTube |
Rise to It is a song by the American hard rock band Kiss, released on the band's fifteenth studio album, Hot in the Shade in 1989. It is the opening track on the album and was released as the third and final single on April 1, 1990. However, it only charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Rock Tracks. The band only performed the song during the Hot in the Shade Tour.
The song, written by Paul Stanley, the band's rhythm guitarist, and Bob Halligan, Jr., starts with an acoustic intro, which has been compared to Cinderella's "Bad Seamstress Blues" by one review . The lyrics explore a singer's life of an unknown musician who claims that he will "rise to it". The story was re-told in a music video, where Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons are seen in 1975 putting on make-up and talking about what would happen if they took the make-up off. Then, the song starts and the band is seen in 1989 playing in a club in a small crowd. The song was added to the setlist for the second show of the Hot in the Shade Tour and was performed until the end of the tour, but the band dropped the song from the setlist for the Revenge Tour and have never played the song again. The song was the lowest charting single off the album, reaching number 81 on Billboard Hot 100 and number 40 on Mainstream Rock Tracks. It is notable for being the last Kiss single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
In the music video, directed by Mark Rezyka, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons appeared in their iconic make-up personas for the first in 6 years, after the Creatures of the Night Tour. In the video, the band was in 1975 preparing for a show, when Stanley and Simmons were putting on make-up. However, the costumes they appeared in were historically inaccurate; Simmons' costume was from the Unmasked (1980) era while Stanley's was from Love Gun (1977). In the scene when the band is in 1975, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley didn't appear since they weren't members of the band at the time, and neither did Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick, then current members of the band. However, when Simmons asks "As long as we know what we're doing, right guys?", one of the two unseen members mumbles to confirm.