As a child growing up in poverty in Haifa, Israel, all Gene Simmons wanted was to gain power and make lots of money. Joining Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss, Simmons formed the rock band KISS in 1973 New York City. More than five decades later, Simmons has built a legacy, with KISS selling more than 75 million records and gaining entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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So, who influenced one of the most influential rock bands of all time? Simmons has long paid his respects to the boys from Liverpool, previously saying, “There is no way I’d be doing what I do now if it wasn’t for the Beatles.” And the “Lick It Up” singer, 75, heaped more praise on John, Paul, George and Ringo during a recent appearance on The School of Greatness podcast.
“Clearly, the Beatles are beyond above and beyond anything that anybody’s seen in music over, oh, 200 years,” Simmons told host Lewis Howes. “Easily not since the Renaissance.”
Gene Simmons Thinks These Beatles Songs Are “Perfect”
Before it became synonymous with the Fab Four, Liverpool was just a place “where nothing ever happened,” Gene Simmons said of the English port city.
“High unemployment rate, no experience, no resume no nothing,” he said.
And yet, Simmons said, the quarter of George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr managed to reach unprecedented heights in the music industry. They didn’t rely on cheap gimmicks, instead getting straight to the point on most songs.
The KISS frontman lists “Yesterday,” “Hey Jude,” and “Michelle” as “perfect songs.”
He went on to laud Paul McCartney as “by far is the most successful songwriter in all of recorded history.” The 82-year-old bassist was responsible for some of the Fab Four’s most notable songs, including “Eleanor Rigby” and “Blackbird.”
[RELATED: The One Song Paul McCartney Thinks Defined His Songwriting Legacy: “It Says a Lot”]
“There have been over a thousand different artists who have recorded just ‘Yesterday,” Simmons said.
Speaking to Music Radar, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said, “To this day when I’m listening to Dear Prudence or some of those other great Beatles songs, you remember the bass part. You’re aware of what the bass is doing.”
He continued, “That doesn’t happen with The Rolling Stones. And I love the Stones! But name me a bass part [in a Stones song] that you remember.”
Featured image by Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT/Shutterstock
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