"Kiss" is a song by American musician Prince. Released by the Paisley Park label as the lead single from Prince and the Revolution's eighth studio album, Parade, on February 5, 1986. It was a No. 1 hit worldwide, holding the top spot of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks. The single was certified gold in 1986 for shipments of 1,000,000 copies by RIAA. NME ranked the song at No. 4 in their list of The 150 Greatest Singles of All Time, and voted "Kiss" the best single of 1986.

Following Prince's death in April 2016, the song re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 28, and jumped to No. 23 a week later. The song also reached No. 2 on the French Singles Chart. As of April 30, 2016, it had sold 1.33 million digital copies in the U.S.

Age of Chance and Art of Noise also released versions of the song that were critical and chart successes.

Development, production and release

"Kiss" started as a rough acoustic demo, with a verse and chorus written by Prince. He gave his demo to the funk band Mazarati (who approached him in the first place for an extra song for their debut album), and they worked on it with producer David Z at Sunset Sound Studio 2, while Prince was busy working in the studio next to them, Studio 3. Z recalls having one of the band members play a piano part inspired by Bo Diddley's song "Say Man". In the Sound On Sound article for "Kiss", he recalled programming the song's beat on a LinnDrum drum machine, but in the Mixonline article he refers to a Linn 9000. In the end, Prince decided to finish the song, retaining David Z's unique, funky rhythm and background vocal arrangements by Mazarati's Bruce DeShazer and Marvin Gunn (David Z recounts how the band had expected a songwriting credit, and were "pissed" when it did not materialise); he removed the bass line, and added the signature guitar and falsetto vocal. For the distinctive "ah-wah-ah" backing vocals, David Z adapted vocals by Brenda Lee - one of the biggest US chart toppers in the Sixties - from her 1959/1960 hit "Sweet Nothin's", a single from her eponymous album. The final, minimalist song was a hard sell to Warner Bros., but upon Prince's insistence, the song was released and added to Parade.

Despite Warner Bros. not wanting to release it as a single, "Kiss" became Prince's third number-one US hit, following 1984's highly successful "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy". It was also a big hit across the Atlantic, reaching number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. The song won Prince another Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. The song became a staple at Prince's concerts and was usually sung partially by the audience.

The 12-inch single of the song is an extension of the album track. The extended section is based on the funky guitar line and contains much fuller instrumentation than the main track, including bass guitar, organ and horns. New lyrics are present from Prince, along with Jill Jones, that end with a humorous dialogue between a wife and her husband watching Prince on television. The B-side of "Kiss" was "♥ or $" ("Love or Money"), sung in a processed, higher-pitched vocal, which Prince would later use for his Camille material. The song relates to the theme in Under the Cherry Moon, and a bit of the song was heard in the film, as was a bit of the extended version of "Kiss". The extended "Kiss" was included on 2006's Ultimate; "♥ or $" was re-released as a digital B-side on iTunes.

Revolution bassist Brownmark claims to have co-written the song with Prince: he most likely wrote the second verse as the first verse was on the demo Prince provided himself and Mazarati with to work from. Despite being promised a songwriting credit by Prince, he never got any proper credit and has not received any royalties from it.

Critical reception

Robert Hilburn from Los Angeles Times wrote, "The single combines an ever-so-cool update of a classic James Brown guitar-accented funk riff with witty lyrics that suggest a bit more humility in Prince's sexually aggressive posture. You don't have to be rich to be my girl, he advises. You don't have to be cool to rule my world. Even the put-downs are tinged with humor: Act your age, not your shoe size, he tells one prospective lover."

Music video

The accompanying music video for "Kiss" was filmed on February 13, 1986, at Laird International Studios in Culver City, California, and directed by Rebecca Blake. Prince appears in a half shirt and leather jacket and then shirtless and performs dance choreography in a hall. The trousers he wears are strip-off pants. He is accompanied by the veiled dancer Monique Mannen wearing black lingerie and sunglasses while Revolution member Wendy Melvoin sits playing guitar.

Legacy

"Kiss" is widely considered one of Prince's finest songs. In 2016, Paste ranked the song number two on their list of the 50 greatest Prince songs, and in 2022, American Songwriter ranked the song number three on their list of the 10 greatest Prince songs.

In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs", at number 28: Mark Beaumont wrote that with this song, "Prince took his crown while the Hip-Hop Wars raged".

The "Kiss" video was parodied by Australian band The Go-Betweens in their video for the song "Head Full of Steam", with Robert Forster dressing in a Prince-like midriff-exposing top and Grant McLennan playing guitar in drag ala Melvoin.

Track listings

  • 7-inch single
  1. "Kiss" – 3:46
  2. "♥ or $" – 3:57
  • 12-inch single
  1. "Kiss" (extended version) – 7:16
  2. "♥ or $" (extended version) – 6:50
  • CD single
  1. "Kiss" (extended version) – 7:16
  2. "Girls & Boys" – 5:30
  3. "Under the Cherry Moon" – 2:57

Personnel

Credits from Duane Tudahl, Benoît Clerc and Guitarcloud

  • Prince – lead and backing vocals, electric guitar
  • Bruce DeShazer (a.k.a. Tony Christian) – backing vocals
  • Marr Star – backing vocals
  • David Z. – acoustic guitar, Yamaha DX7, Linn LM-1, Linn 9000

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="text-align:center"

|+Weekly chart performance for "Kiss"

!Chart (1986–1987)

!Peak<br />position

|-

!scope="row"|Australia (Kent Music Report)

|2

|-

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Belgium (VRT Top 30 Flanders)

|4

|-

!scope="row"|Canada (CHUM)

|4

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)

|6

|-

!scope="row"|Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)

|8

|-

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Italy (Musica e dischi)

|11

|-

!scope="row"|Luxembourg (Radio Luxembourg)

|align="center"|3

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

!scope="row"|South Africa (Springbok Radio)

|10

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

!scope="row"|US Cash Box Top 100

| 1

|-

|}

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|+1988 weekly chart performance for "Kiss"

!Chart (1988)

!Peak<br />position

|-

|}

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|+2013 weekly chart performance for "Kiss"

!Chart (2013)

!Peak<br />position

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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+2016 weekly chart performance for "Kiss"

!Chart (2016)

!Peak<br />position

|-

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Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+Year-end chart performance for "Kiss"

!Chart (1986)

!Position

|-

!scope="row"|Australia (Kent Music Report)

|25

|-

!scope="row"|Belgium (Ultratop)

|30

|-

!scope="row"|Canada Top Singles (RPM)

|57

|-

!scope="row"|Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)

|23

|-

!scope="row"|Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)

|23

|-

!scope="row"|Netherlands (Single Top 100)

|20

|-

!scope="row"|New Zealand (RIANZ)

|14

|-

!scope="row"|Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)

|22

|-

!scope="row"|US Billboard Hot 100

|19

|-

!scope="row"|US 12-inch Singles Sales (Billboard)

|7

|-

!scope="row"|US Dance/Disco Club Play (Billboard)

|6

|-

!scope="row"|West Germany (Media Control)

|28

|}

Certifications