God gave Rock & Roll to you
Testify!
I don't know if the series ever aired elswhere, but following Jack Black's 2004 '
School of Rock', (or allegedly, quite co-incidentally), the UK's Channel 4 put out this reality TV show called '
Rock School', in which Kiss's own Gene Simmons is tasked with turning a group of unlikely school kids into a fully-fledged rock band. The first school he was sent to was a C16th foundation called (believe it or not) "Christ's Hospital", a boarding school where the kids still adhere to the Tudor school uniform code of 1553!
I mention this 'cos in episode 1, Gene Simmons introduction to the school community is via a packed-out school chapel into which he wanders, strumming a guitar singing '
God Gave Rock'n'Roll To You'.
Much as I enjoyed the show and Gene Simmons performance on it, I don't particularly like Kiss's version of this song - or more particularly, I don't particularly like the lyrics they put to it. Far too preachy; far too much of the 'hard work brings its own salvation' sermonising for my taste. So here I went back to the original Russ Ballard lyrics he wrote for Argent way back in 1972 (Russ Ballard went on to write hits for groups as diverse as America and Hot Chocolate).
All that said, I never imagined I'd ever be covering a song Kiss & Gene Simmons made famous, not now, not any time ever. So I blame you, Linda, for this racket :rotfl: