Songfacts®:

• Kiss get soulful and sincere on "Forever," with Paul Stanley taking the lead vocal and expressing his undying love for his companion. He wrote it with someone you wouldn't expect to show up on a Kiss credit: Michael Bolton, the crooner known for ballads like "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" and "Said I Loved You... But I Lied." Bolton, though, is a surefire songwriter with a rock and roll pedigree. Before growing out his hair and going soft in the mid-'80s, he was a rocker known by his real name, Michael Bolotin.
• Kiss released "Forever" as the second single from their 1989 album Hot In The Shade. They were careful not to get too lovey-dovey: The first single was the murder ballad "Hide Your Heart," and the third was "Rise To It," a musical boner joke.
• Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, the creative engine in Kiss, wrote separately for the Hot In The Shade album, each pairing with various writers mostly from outside the band. They were looking for hits, and Stanley found the right guys for the job. Michael Bolton was all over the charts with his own songs and also co-wrote "I Found Someone," a 1988 hit for Cher. "Hide Your Heart" Stanley wrote with two of the top songwriters in pop music: Desmond Child and Holly Knight. "Rise To It" came from a session with Bob Halligan Jr., who delivered the Kix hit "Don't Close Your Eyes."
• "Forever" went to #8 on the Hot 100, one spot shy of their highest-charting song, the 1976 ballad "Beth." The musical climate was just right for a song like "Forever." This is when Guns N' Roses was charting with "Patience" and Extreme with "More Than Words." It was safe for rockers to release heartfelt love songs that played to a wide audience. Rock radio and MTV played these tunes, as did pop and even (gasp!) soft rock stations.
• The music video, directed by Mark Rezyka, is very simple, showing Kiss performing the song in a room, Stanley on acoustic guitar. It's a good look at the band without makeup, which they took off starting in 1983. They put it back on in 1996.