By 1977, KISS was ascending to rock superstardom, and with the help of a future guitar legend, one of their most controversial hits was taken to a whole new level.
Gene Simmons told Rolling Stone that his bond with a young Eddie Van Halen started in 1977 after seeing Van Halen live in Los Angeles. Impressed, he flew Eddie, his brother Alex, Michael Anthony, and David Lee Roth to New York’s Electric Lady Studios to produce their first professional demos.
Ultimately, KISS didn’t sign Van Halen, but Simmons’ friendship with Eddie continued. He utilized the future guitar god’s skills on “Christine Sixteen.”
Simmons revealed, “Around ’77, I wrote ‘Christine Sixteen’ and two other songs. On the way back from Japan, at one in the morning, I called Eddie and Alex and said, ‘I’ve got some songs — you want to help me do these demos?’ And they did.”
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He continued, “Eddie did the solo on ‘Christine Sixteen’ in one take. I loved it so much that I made Ace copy it note for note. So when you hear ‘Christine Sixteen,’ that’s Eddie’s solo you’re hearing, but copied by Ace.”
Why was ‘Christine Sixteen’ so controversial?
Pulled from their sixth studio album Love Gun, KISS’s 1977 hit “Christine Sixteen” stirred controversy upon its release thanks to its provocative title and lyrics. Several radio stations refused to play the song altogether, while others limited it to late-night airings after 7 p.m., according to Far Out Magazine.
Ultimate Classic Rock shared liner notes from The Gene Simmons Vault, a 2017 box set containing material from 1966 through 2016. Simmons discussed how writing the song came about.
“Paul would say, ‘Gene, all you ever write about are monster songs. Like ‘God of Thunder.’’ ‘And of course, he went home and wrote that song, as a semi-parody of a Gene song,” he began.
Simmons later told Stanley: “‘Oh, yeah? All you ever write are teenage girlie songs like ‘Christine Sixteen.’ And as soon as I heard myself say that, I quickly wrote it.”
The KISS bassist was 27 years old when he sang the song about a fictional 16-year-old love interest. The song is about his infatuation with a young woman and how she “drives me crazy.”
But perhaps the creepiest part of the tune was its spoken word segue. “I don’t usually say things like this to girls your age/but when I saw you coming out of school that day/that day I knew, I knew/ I’ve got to have you, I’ve got to have you.” (per Genius Lyrics).
As reported by the Billboard Database, “Christine Sixteen” peaked at number 25 in September 1977. Whether or not the controversy surrounding it helped with its chart success remains unknown.
This story was originally reported by Parade on Nov 9, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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