Exile – Kiss You All Over

Fifteen Years Playing Small Clubs Before A UK Glam Team Changed Everything

Released in mid-1978, “Kiss You All Over” catapulted a Kentucky bar band into international stardom after 15 years of grinding through regional gigs. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 30, 1978, holding the top spot for four consecutive weeks and becoming Billboard’s fifth biggest song of the year. It also reached number one in Australia and New Zealand, number six in the UK, and became a hit in over 60 countries worldwide. The track sold over two million copies globally and earned gold certification from the RIAA on June 24, 1978. In 2010, Billboard ranked it number ten on their list of The 50 Sexiest Songs of All Time. What made this success particularly bizarre was that the song had been written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, the British glam rock songwriters behind hits for Sweet and Suzi Quatro, recorded by a country-influenced rock band from Richmond, Kentucky, and produced as a soft rock disco hybrid that fit no obvious genre.

While “Kiss You All Over” dominated American radio throughout the autumn of 1978, it spent three weeks on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart, peaking at number 92 in December. The success propelled the Mixed Emotions album to number 14 on the Billboard 200 and gold certification by October 10, 1978. Exile appeared on variety shows including The Midnight Special and opened for Aerosmith and Heart after William Morris Agency booked them as a touring act. The followup single “You Thrill Me” reached number 40 on the Hot 100, while “Never Gonna Stop” failed to chart entirely. Exile would never crack the pop Top 40 again. Lead vocalist Jimmy Stokley left the band in 1979 due to tensions with producer Chapman, and died of hepatitis in 1985 at age 41. What nobody could predict was that Exile would reinvent themselves as a country act in the early 1980s and score ten number one country hits, proving more durable in Nashville than they ever were on pop radio.

The song emerged from pure desperation and unlikely chemistry. Exile had formed in 1963 as The Exiles, named after the boatloads of Cuban refugees fleeing Fidel Castro’s takeover. For over a decade they played cover songs in small clubs throughout Kentucky and the Midwest, writing their own material but never breaking through. Producer Mike Chapman first encountered them in 1975 and eventually signed them to a management deal, changing their name to Exile and producing “Try It On” for Atco Records in 1977. The disco track peaked at number 97 and disappeared. Chapman was ready to give up on them entirely, but his wife convinced him to give the band another chance because she liked their music and appreciated how polite they were compared to other acts Chapman worked with. In a flash of inspiration, Chapman wrote “Kiss You All Over” on keyboard rather than guitar, allowing him to replicate string sounds he’d never accessed before. He summoned Chinn from London and Exile from Kentucky, presenting them with the finished song at The Forum recording studio in Covington, Kentucky.

The recording sessions between November 1977 and March 1978 were grueling. Chapman’s demanding production style meant the band spent nearly an entire day recording the track. Major problems arose during vocal tracking when Chapman discovered Jimmy Stokley’s raspy delivery and poor pitch sense made recording nearly impossible. Years of screaming in clubs had destroyed Stokley’s ability to hit notes cleanly. After stressful sessions, Chapman brought in guitarist J.P. Pennington and bassist Danny Williams to handle vocal parts Stokley struggled with. On the final recording, Pennington shared verses and pre-choruses with Stokley, while Williams sang in a lower register and provided higher vocal notes during the choruses. The strings heard throughout the track were played entirely on synthesizer, giving the song its distinctive shimmer. Chapman mixed the final recording at Whitney Studio in Glendale, California in March 1978, where it was also mastered. The band initially disliked the song’s sexually suggestive subject matter and were reluctant to record it, but Chapman’s vision prevailed. The guitar riff was lifted directly from Hot Chocolate’s 1975 hit “You Sexy Thing,” while Chapman told Casey Kasem that Barry White’s “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me” inspired the overall feel.

Mixed Emotions arrived in 1978 as Exile’s second studio album via Warner Bros. and Curb Records, featuring nine tracks that blended soft rock, disco, pop, and country influences. Other singles included “You Thrill Me,” which featured an extended album version lasting nearly four minutes, and “Never Gonna Stop,” which Linda Clifford later covered and which was eventually sampled on Tupac Shakur’s “All Eyez on Me.” The album showcased the band’s versatility across tracks like “There’s Been a Change,” “Ain’t Got No Time,” and “Stay With Me.” Chapman and Chinn wrote most of the material, with six songs by Pennington and one by Williams. The vocal and instrumental arrangements were handled entirely by Exile, with the lineup featuring Stokley on lead vocals, Pennington on guitars and backing vocals, Sonny LeMaire on bass and backing vocals, Marlon Hargis and Buzz Cornelison on keyboards and backing vocals, and Steve Goetzman on drums. Williams contributed bass and vocals to several tracks before being fired due to frustrations with Chapman’s controlling approach.

German Eurodance trio No Mercy released a remixed version in 1997 that hit number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 47 in Australia. The Johnny Vicious and Darrin Friedman remix featured Latin-spiced production with swirling house beats and flamenco guitars layered over the original hook. Country singer Trace Adkins recorded a cover for his 2013 Love Will… album that featured the original Exile members. Adkins later described the session as surreal, noting that most afternoons during his senior year of high school were spent at the local drive-in shooting pool while “Kiss You All Over” played at least half a dozen times. The song appeared in films including Happy Gilmore, Man on the Moon, Employee of the Month, Zookeeper, and Wild Hogs, while the seventh episode of Netflix’s Mindhunter played it in its entirety. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation used it in a 2007 montage of hockey players kissing the Stanley Cup, possibly the most creative deployment of the track in any medium.

The original Exile members reformed in 2008 with Pennington, Les Taylor, LeMaire, Hargis, and Goetzman, continuing to perform for audiences decades after their pop moment faded. The band ultimately sold over eight million records worldwide with three gold albums and performed over 100 times at the Grand Ole Opry. During their 1980s country phase, they composed hits for Alabama, Restless Heart, Engelbert Humperdinck, Huey Lewis, Diamond Rio, and Janie Fricke, including the original version of “Heart and Soul” that became a massive hit for Huey Lewis and The News. Mike Chapman described the song perfectly in his 1978 Billboard interview when he called it very much about what music in America was in 1978—MOR soft rock, slightly disco though not pure disco, with sensuous lyrics Americans loved. “Kiss You All Over” remains proof that sometimes the most unlikely collaborations produce the most enduring results, a Kentucky bar band and British glam songwriters accidentally creating one of the decade’s defining moments.

BBC Top Of The Pops – 31 August 1978