KISS

Right around the time Kim Fowley was assembling The Runaways, Lita Ford and Joan Jett’s pre-solo-success girl group, he was also co-writing songs for this album (“King of the Night Time World,” “Do You Love Me”). But it’s the tracks that producer Bob Ezrin co-wrote with KISS — “Detroit Rock City,” “Shout It Out Loud,” “Beth” — that have become the signature songs of Destroyer, the first KISS album to go platinum. Since its initial release in 1976, this album has become one of the most celebrated rock albums in history, even landing on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The post-smash accolades make it easy to forget that the members of KISS were not trained musicians when they recorded Destroyer; Ezra had to give them basic lessons in the studio. That’s part of the album’s charm, too — this collection of ’70s FM rock was truly a diamond in the rough for KISS. They may have sold 20 millions records since this one, but this was the springboard — the demon seed, if you will — of the self-proclaimed “best” rock band on Earth.