Released on KISS’ seventh album, Dynasty, the disco-rock hybrid “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” entered the top five in several countries, and remains one of the band’s biggest hits. The song, according to its co-writer Paul Stanley, was written inside a “musical whorehouse.”
This “den of inequity,” as Stanley also called it, was Studio 54, where he was hanging out at the time from sunset to sunrise. “I had heard all these 126-beats-per-minute songs and listened to the lyrics and thought, ‘Gee, I can do that,’” recalled Stanley in his 2014 book Face the Music. “I went home and set a drum machine to 126 BPM and sat down and started ‘I Was Made for Lovin’ You.’ It’s funny that some KISS fans think the song has a sanitized connotation of disco because it was written in a musical whorehouse.”
Stanley continued, “Studio 54 was a den of iniquity. It was sordid to a level and degree that I wasn’t completely comfortable with. It was hardcore debauchery—sexual relations between everybody and anybody and drugs everywhere—but I loved going there to dance. Nobody at Studio 54 wore a white suit and danced like John Travolta. I could go down there in jeans and a T-shirt and dance. Sometimes I’d go there on a Saturday night and not leave until the next morning.”
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In all its debauchery, Studio 54 helped Stanley come up with the first line of the song: Tonight I’m gonna give it all to you.
Tonight I want to give it all to you
In the darkness
There’s so much I want to do
And tonight I want to lay it at your feet
Cause girl, I was made for you
And girl, you were made for me
I was made for lovin’ you baby
You were made for lovin’ me
And I can’t get enough of you baby
Can you get enough of me
Tonight I want to see it in your eyes
Feel the magic
There’s something that drives me wild
And tonight we’re gonna make it all come true
Cause girl, you were made for me
Stanley later said that writing “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” was a conscious effort to prove how easy it was to write and record a hit disco song.
Desmond Child
It was 1977, and Stanley came across a flyer in Greenwich Village in New York City. The show featured the glammed-up foursome Desmond Child and Rouge. Topped with a mop of blonde locks, Child was backed by three, brunette backup singers—Myriam Valle, Maria Vidal, and Diana Grasselli. The R&B-pop group blew Stanley away, and he and Child soon became fast friends—and co-writers.
First, the two wrote a song called “The Fight” for Desmond Child and Rouge’s 1979 self-titled debut, then another song: “I Was Made For Lovin’ You.” Stanley and Child wrote the verses of the song within an hour at SIR Studios in New York City, while the chorus was written by Stanley and Vini Poncia, who is also credited as a songwriter.
Working with KISS shifted the trajectory of Child’s career. Several years later, Child co-wrote one of Bon Jovi‘s biggest hits “Livin’ on a Prayer” and went on to pen the band’s other hits “Bad Medicine,” “You Give Love a Bad Name,” and “Born to Be My Baby,” along with hits for Joan Jett, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Ricky Martin, Katy Perry, and more.
Child continued working with KISS’ co-writing “Heaven’s On Fire,” “Kiss the Rain,” “I’ve Had Enough (Into the Fire), “Let’s Put the X in Sex,” “Review My Kisses,” and “Under the Gun,” among others.
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The KISS Song Gene Simmons Hates
Regardless of the success of “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” it’s still one song within the KISS catalog that Gene Simmons still dislikes.
“Paul … he walks in and he’s got a song, and I said, ‘What’s it called?'” remembered Simmons in 2023 about hearing the track for the first time. “He said, ‘I Was Made for Lovin’ You,’ [and I’m like] ‘Oh that’s great. What’s the first line?’ [He said], ‘Tonight,’ [and I responded] ‘Oooh, that’s good. What’s the second line?’ [He said], ‘I wanna give it all to you,’ [and I’m like], ‘Yeah, that’s cool.’ ‘In the darkness, in the darkness’… ‘Yeah that rocks.’… ‘is something I wanna do.'”
Simmons continued, “What’s my part?,” before singing, “Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.” Simmons added, “No, no, come on, I’m the God of Thunder.”
Despite Simmons’ disdain for the song, “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” went to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained on the chart for 16 weeks. The band’s album Dynasty also did well, peaking at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, and staying on the chart for 25 weeks.
“I hate it to this day,” said Simmons, “Except, people to this day jump around like biblical locusts, and so I play along.”
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Read the American Songwriter interview with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, which appeared in the 2023 Legends Print issue, HERE.
Photo: Peter Cade/Central Press/Getty Images
