Although Peter Criss appears in the video and on the album cover, he did not actually play on the track. As with most of the "Dynasty" album, session drummer Anton Fig took his place, as Poncia had deemed Criss unfit to play. There is a bootleg audio recording of the writing sessions for the song in which Stanley mentions Criss's name a couple of times, indicating he was present during the arranging of the song. Stanley plays the rhythm guitar and bass guitar while Frehley provided the guitar solo. "The Return of KISS" was how "Dynasty" was billed in commercials and advertisements for the album.