A remake of Kiss’ 1979 classic “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” by Dutch electronic producer Oliver Heldens has reentered the charts and become a 2022 dance hit, following its release in May.
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In 2015, Heldens initially created a “funk and disco inspired bass line” and connected with musician and producer Nile Rodgers to help him expand on the track. “He also loved it and he blessed the track with his signature jamming electric funk guitars,” said Heldens of working with the Chic founder, “which was a dream come true for me.”
On how the Kiss track was incorporated into the song, Heldens added, “Finding the right vocal for this track has been a real journey. I’ve done over a dozen top lines on it with several singers, and songwriters, but in the end the hook of Kiss’ iconic hit ‘I Was Made for Lovin’ You’ turned out to be a match made in heaven.”
The new version omits the original verses and repeats the chorus in various ways with instrumental dance fills in between. The track has been steadily climbing the charts and has reached the Top 20 of the Mediabase Dance Chart along with hitting more than 8.5 streams on Spotify.
Originally released in May 1979, off the band’s seventh album Dynasty, “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” was a major hit for Kiss and reached No. 11 on the Billboard Singles chart, though the band was never big fans of the track since its more disco beats turned off some hardcore fans.
“I hate playing that song to [this] day,” said Gene Simmons. “Stadiums full of people jump up and down like biblical locusts. They go nuts with tattoos and grills on… they’re all jumping up and down and I’m going… ‘kill me now.’”
Regardless of the band’s mixed feelings for the song, the single sold more than a million copies and remains part of the Kiss set list today.
“The funniest thing is when we do festivals sometimes in Europe… the bands are quite heavy. When we do an encore of ‘I Was Made for Lovin’ You,’ you suddenly have all these people with spikes in their eyeballs or bones through their noses singing along,” added Paul Stanley. “So it’s a song that seems to transcend everything—although it went through a period, certainly, of a big backlash against it.”
Photo: Michael Ochs
