The Carnival of the Animals on 2 April at the home of Pauline Viardot with an audience including Franz Liszt, a friend of the composer, who had expressed a wish to hear the work. There were other private performances, typically for the French mid-Lent festival of , but Saint-Saëns was adamant that the work would not be published in his lifetime, seeing it as detracting from his "serious" composer image. He relented only for the famous cello solo "The Swan", which forms the penultimate movement of the work, and which was published in 1887 in an arrangement by the composer for cello and solo piano
Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions a reunion tour with the band's original lineup. Bootleg copies were circulated by fans, prompting the band to officially release the material in 1997 under the title "Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions". According to guitarist Bruce Kulick, the bootleg versions in distribution lacked songs that are part of the official release. There was no accompanying tour to support the album, and none of the songs on "Carnival of Souls" have ever been performed live by Kiss. Two former members of the band Black 'N Blue co-wrote songs on "Carnival of Souls"; vocalist Jaime St. James co-wrote "In My Head",