Steve Sils Photography

Ethan Sacks | New York Daily News

Back before they could afford to party all day, they were already rock ’n’ rolling all night.

Forty years ago this month, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, guitarists Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss dabbed on some black and white facepaint bought in a Manhattan hobby store and forever left their mark on music history.

“We were just four kids off the streets of New York that dreamed big,” Simmons, who was born Chaim Witz, told the Daily News this week.

There’s no historical plaque in front of the six-story, cast-iron building at 10 E. 23rd St., where Kiss first formed and practiced their three-chord riffs in a dingy fourth floor loft with yolk-encrusted egg crates nailed to the walls to muffle the noise.

COURTESY OF KISS

First promo in their makeup in 1973.

But maybe there should be one: Kiss has gone on to sell more than 100 million records and perform live in front of an estimated 22 million fans.

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