Alice Cooper: The Nightmare | ||||
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Video by | ||||
Released | 1975 TV Special 1983 VHS & Betamax 2017 DVD | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 66:00 | |||
Label | Warner Home Video | |||
Alice Cooper chronology | ||||
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Alice Cooper: The Nightmare was a conceptual television special showcasing the music of the Welcome to My Nightmare album by Alice Cooper. It originally broadcast in North America on April 25, 1975, by ABC. [1]
In the TV special, Alice Cooper stars as "Steven" who is trapped in a nightmare he can't wake up from and tries to escape. Vincent Price also appears throughout the special, starring as the "Spirit of the Nightmare". The special features the Welcome To My Nightmare album in its entirety, with the addition of the song "Ballad of Dwight Fry" from the album Love It to Death by the original Alice Cooper band.
In 1983 the TV special was released on VHS and Betamax home video in the US.
The TV special was released on a DVD titled Welcome to My Nightmare: Special Edition on September 8, 2017, which also serves as a re-release of the 1976 concert film Welcome to My Nightmare . [2]
In 2020, while being interviewed on the Bob Lefsetz podcast, Ezrin recalls that; Alice Cooper's manager Shep Gordon, had a clause that allowed the Alice Cooper band members to make a soundtrack album for another label. As a result, the Welcome To My Nightmare album that the television special was based on, needed have a storyline to become a soundtrack. Ezrin and Cooper came up with a story concept for the album, with Cooper telling the story of the nightmares of the character Steven.[ citation needed ]
During the Bob Lefsetz podcast, Ezrin recounts that he and Alice Cooper initially created the storyline whereby; a rock star name Steven and his mistress are on a private jet, flying over the rocky mountains. The jet goes down and crashes, and both Steven and his mistress disappear. However, 28 days later, Steven emerges alone unharmed. During those 28 days, Steven became a vampire and he now lives out his days as a rock star by day and killer at night.
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, reptiles, baby dolls, and dueling swords, Cooper is considered by many music journalists and peers to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock audiences.
Welcome to My Nightmare is the debut solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released on February 28, 1975. It is his only album for the Atlantic Records label in North America; in the rest of the world, it was released on the ABC subsidiary Anchor Records. Welcome to My Nightmare is a concept album. Played in sequence, the songs form a journey through the nightmares of a child named Steven. The album inspired the Alice Cooper: The Nightmare TV special, a worldwide concert tour in 1975, and his Welcome to My Nightmare concert film in 1976. The ensuing tour was one of the most over-the-top excursions of that era. Most of Lou Reed's band joined Cooper for this record.
Alice Cooper Goes to Hell is the second solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in 1976. A continuation of Welcome to My Nightmare as it continues the story of Steven, the concept album was written by Cooper with guitar player Dick Wagner and producer Bob Ezrin.
Love It to Death is the third studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on March 9, 1971. It was the band's first commercially successful album and the first album that consolidated the band's aggressive hard-rocking sound, instead of the psychedelic and experimental rock style of their first two albums. The album's best-known track, "I'm Eighteen", was released as a single to test the band's commercial viability before the album was recorded.
Richard Allen Wagner was an American rock guitarist, songwriter and author best known for his work with Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, and Kiss. He also fronted his own Michigan-based bands, the Frost and the Bossmen.
Welcome to My Nightmare is a 1976 concert film of Alice Cooper's show of the same name. It was produced, directed and choreographed by David Winters. The film accompanied the album, the stage show by the same name and the TV special Alice Cooper: The Nightmare, the first ever rock music video album, starring Cooper and Vincent Price in person. Though it failed at the box office, it later became a midnight movie favorite and a cult classic.
Alice Cooper: Live at Montreux 2005 is a live video and album release by Alice Cooper. It was released worldwide in May 2006 as a combined DVD and CD package. In 2014 it was issued as a limited double vinyl release for Record Store Day under the title 'Live In Switzerland 2005'.
Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper is a 1974 feature film starring Alice Cooper. The movie primarily features live concert footage of the Alice Cooper band on their record-breaking Billion Dollar Babies tour, filmed in Texas in April 1973, with some footage from other tour stops, including the Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Oregon, intercut with 'comedy' scenes of a German film director chasing the "Cooper gang" for revenge after they abandoned his would-be masterpiece movie.
"I'm Eighteen" is a song by rock band Alice Cooper, first released as a single in November 1970 backed with "Is It My Body". It was the band's first top-forty success—peaking at number 21—and convinced Warner Bros. that Alice Cooper had the commercial potential to release an album. The song and its B-side feature on the band's first major-label album Love It to Death (1971).
"Only Women Bleed" is a song by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released on his debut solo studio album Welcome to My Nightmare (1975). It was written by Cooper and Dick Wagner and was the second single from the album to be released.
Alice Cooper Trashes the World is a live concert video by Alice Cooper.
Brutally Live is a DVD of American rock singer Alice Cooper's concert on 19 July 2000 at the Labatt's Hammersmith Apollo in London, England, released later in the same year. It was re-released in 2003 on DVD accompanied with an audio CD of an edited version of the DVD's soundtrack.
The Strange Case of Alice Cooper is a live concert video released in September 1979, of Alice Cooper performing with his backing band The Ultra Latex Band. The concert was filmed on April 9, 1979 during Cooper's 'Madhouse Rock' Tour in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Sports Arena, in support of the album From the Inside.
Alice Cooper and Friends was a live music television special starring Alice Cooper. Broadcast in the United States in September 1977, it was released on VHS in 1978. This rare video has a running time of 52 minutes, of which 25 minutes feature Cooper. It also features live footage of The Tubes, Nazareth and Sha Na Na.
The Nightmare Returns is a live concert video of Alice Cooper.
Stephen John Hunter is an American guitarist, primarily a session player. He has worked with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, acquiring the moniker "The Deacon". Hunter first played with Mitch Ryder's Detroit, beginning a long association with record producer Bob Ezrin who has said Steve Hunter has contributed so much to rock music in general that he truly deserves the designation of "Guitar Hero". Steve Hunter has played some of the greatest riffs in rock history - the first solo in Aerosmith's "Train Kept A Rollin'", the acoustic intro on Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" and he wrote the intro interlude on Lou Reed's live version of "Sweet Jane" on Reed's first gold record.
"Welcome to My Nightmare" is the title track to Alice Cooper's eighth studio album. The song is written by Cooper, Dick Wagner and Bob Ezrin. It peaked at 45 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song itself mixes elements from disco, jazz, hard rock, and keeps a "heavy-yet-funky beat". Cooper would later perform the song on The Muppet Show. The tune was placed tenth on a list AOL Radio made of the "10 Best Halloween Songs".
Alice Cooper a Paris is a French television special starring shock-rocker Alice Cooper.
Welcome 2 My Nightmare is the nineteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in September 2011. Peaking at No. 22 in the Billboard 200 it is Cooper's highest-charting album in the US since 1989's Trash. The album is a sequel to his 1975 album Welcome to My Nightmare.