10 Legendary Songs That Almost Weren't Released

Whenever you think of KISS, you tend to think of the larger than life aspects of rock and roll. As far back as the early '70s, these makeup-clad freaks were creating some of the most aggressive rock music known to man, picking up right where heavier acts like Led Zeppelin had left off. When you're that shocking though, it's a bit of a harder sell trying to get you to go the soft rock route.

After gaining their first platinum record with Alive!, the Bob Ezrin produced Destroyer was a lot more fine-tuned, including the pseudo power ballad Beth. While we know it as classic now, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were hesitant to even do the song at first, thinking it was a bit too sappy to be taken all that seriously. Once Ezrin took it home though, he turned Peter Criss's country style love song into a lush ballad, complete with strings and horn lines for good measure.

Even then, KISS were still not all that proud of Beth, instead throwing it on the B-side of Detroit Rock City rather than releasing it as a single. As soon as DJs flipped it over though, the world got a taste of what the sensitive side of shock rock could sound like. For as much tonal clashing goes on here, the idea of a man in cat makeup singing about missing his love at home turned out to be just crazy enough to work.