SIX DEGREES OF KISS: BILL HALEY & HIS COMETS

Bryan Thouvenel I accept your challenge and will link Bill Haley & His Comets to KISS in six steps or less.

Bill Haley & His Comets (aka Bill Haley and the Comets) were true pioneers of rock and roll and one of the very first acts to expose the new Frankenstein genre of music to the masses by having four top ten hits between 1954 and 1956. How am I going to connect these very early rockers to KISS in six steps or less? Like this:

1. Bill Haley & His Comets had a top ten hit with “Shake Rattle and Roll” in 1954. The song was written by Jesse Stone and originally released by Kansas City bluesman Big Joe Turner.

2. A god awful version of “Shake Rattle and Roll” was used as the opening tune on the 1994 album Four Chords and Several Years Ago by Huey Lewis and the News.

3. The 1982 album Picture This by Huey Lewis and the News included a top ten hit single called “Do You Believe In Love?” It was the band’s first hit, reaching number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.

4. “Do You Believe In Love?” was actually written by some guy named Robert John “Mutt” Lange and originally released as “We Both Believe In Love” by his band Supercharge on an album called Body Rhythm in 1979. Great album cover, guys.

5. Among other things Mutt Lange co-wrote the mercilessly corny title track to Michael Bolton’s 2002 album Only a Woman Like You.

6. In the seventies Michael Bolton (then known as Michael Bolotin) was in the band Blackjack with future KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick and also of course Michael Bolton co-wrote KISS’ 1989 top ten hit ballad “Forever” with Paul Stanley.