"(You Make Me) Rock Hard" is a song by the American rock band

Kiss A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...

from their 1988

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

album ''

Smashes, Thrashes & Hits ''Smashes, Thrashes & Hits'' is a compilation album by the American hard rock band Kiss. It was the fourth hits album overall but the second hits album released by the band in the United States ('' Killers'' and '' Chikara'' were not released the ...

''. The song is the album's second track and was released as its second

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

Background and writing

"(You Make Me) Rock Hard" is one of two new songs on the Kiss

album ''

'' released in 1988, the other being " Let's Put the X in Sex". Both songs are about sex. The song was written by

Paul Stanley Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who was the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss (band), Kiss from the band's inception in 1973 to their retireme ...

Desmond Child John Charles Barrett (born October 28, 1953), known professionally as Desmond Child, is an American songwriter and record producer. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008. He has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, a Primet ...

and

Diane Warren Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956) is an American songwriter. She has won an Academy Honorary Award, Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards and three consecutive ''Billboard'' Music Awards for Songwriter of the Year from 19 ...

. It was recorded by Paul Stanley on his own in July 1988 at New York's Right Track Studios. According to ''The Official Price Guide to Kiss Collectibles'' by Ingo Floren, "Let's Put the X in Sex" and "(You Make Me) Rock Hard" "let some fans wonder about the new musical direction of the band" because they "were produced with lots of keyboards over a dance-orientated beat". The song was released in the United States as a

cassette single A cassette single (CS), also known by the trademark cassingle, or capitalised as the trademark Cassette Single, is a music single (music), single supplied in the form of a Compact Cassette. The cassette single was introduced in 1980 in music, 1 ...

in December 1988.

Music video

Howard Johnson writing for

Classic Rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

ranked the song's video at No. 8 on their list of The Top 10 Best Hair Metal Videos.

Personnel

– vocals, rhythm guitar, bass *

Bruce Kulick Bruce Howard Kulick (; born December 12, 1953) is an American guitarist best known as a former guitarist of the band Kiss (band), Kiss (19841996). He was also a member of Union (band), Union with John Corabi from 19972002, Blackjack (American ba ...

– lead guitar, backing vocals *

Eric Carr Paul Charles Caravello (July 12, 1950 – November 24, 1991), better known as Eric Carr, was an American musician. He was the drummer for the rock band Kiss from 1980 until his death in 1991. Caravello was selected as the new Kiss drummer afte ...

– drums, percussion, backing vocals *Phil Ashley – keyboards

References

External links

"(You Make Me) Rock Hard"
at Discogs * {{DEFAULTSORT:You Make Me Rock Hard 1988 songs 1989 singles Kiss (band) songs Mercury Records singles Songs written by Paul Stanley Songs written by Desmond Child Songs written by Diane Warren