Domino
by Kiss

Album: Revenge (1992)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Written and sung by Gene Simmons, this song is about a girl who is his "bad habit," and a costly one, as she loves his money. Sung by other rockers, we would question if Domino was a metaphor for drugs or alcohol, but those are not Simmons' vices. Young ladies though, have always gotten his attention, and we know Domino is young, as Simmons sings that she isn't old enough to vote (18).
  • "Domino" is part of the Revenge album, produced by Bob Ezrin during the non-makeup era of Kiss. Ezrin got the band in form when he worked on their 1976 album Destroyer, teaching them music theory and making sure they wrote storylines into their lyrics. He returned to produce their 1982 concept album The Elder, but didn't work with them again until Revenge.
  • The video shows Kiss performing the song in a warehouse (without makeup - Revenge was the last album before the put it back on), intercut with scenes of Simmons driving a convertible around Los Angeles. It was directed by Paul Rachman, who also did the videos for two other Revenge tracks: "Unholy" and "I Just Wanna." In a Songfacts interview with Rachman, he shared his thoughts: "It's fine. Listen, when you go three deep into a Kiss record, or into any record in an era when radio and MTV is still driving sales, not every song is a hit. You could almost never fail making a great music video for a hit song, but it was always very, very hard to make a great music video for so-so songs. It's not like I hate the song or anything. It's a good song. But I did 'Unholy' and 'I Just Wanna' for them, and those were hits on MTV and on the radio. The first one was a Gene Simmons song, the second one was a Paul Stanley song. By the time we got to the third song...

    This happened a lot in the music video era: The record company sends the song out to radio the same time as they're planning to do the music video, and if the song acts weak at radio at first, the music video can't always come and save it. That was the situation with that music video. That was creatively a much more difficult video to do."

Comments: 1

  • Avril from South AfricaDomino. Brilliant song Gene!!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Did They Really Sing In That Movie?

Did They Really Sing In That Movie?Fact or Fiction

Bradley Cooper, Michael J. Fox, Rami Malek, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow and George Clooney: Which actors really sang in their movies?

Part of Their World: The Stories and Songs of 13 Disney Princesses

Part of Their World: The Stories and Songs of 13 Disney PrincessesSong Writing

From "Some Day My Prince Will Come" to "Let It Go" - how Disney princess songs (and the women who sing them) have evolved.

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

History Of Rock

History Of RockSong Writing

An interview with Dr. John Covach, music professor at the University of Rochester whose free online courses have become wildly popular.

Grunge Bands Quiz

Grunge Bands QuizMusic Quiz

If the name Citizen Dick means anything to you, there's a chance you'll get some of these right.

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)Songwriter Interviews

Mike Rutherford talks about the "Silent Running" storyline and "Land Of Confusion" in the age of Trump.