Billion Dollar Babies | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 27, 1973 | |||
Recorded | August 1972 – January 1973 | |||
Studio |
| |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 40:51 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Producer | Bob Ezrin | |||
Alice Cooper chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Billion Dollar Babies | ||||
|
Billion Dollar Babies is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on February 27, 1973 by Warner Bros. Records. [1] [2] The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hitting number one on the album charts in the United States and the United Kingdom, and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The album has been retrospectively praised by such critics as Robert Christgau, Greg Prato of AllMusic, and Jason Thompson of PopMatters , but The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) gave the album only two and a half stars.
Songs were recorded in both the state of Connecticut and London, England. Lyrics cover topics and themes such as necrophilia, dental fear, horror, and sexual harassment. At 40 minutes and 51 seconds, it is the longest studio album the band has ever released; this does not count any of Cooper's solo albums.
Drummer Neal Smith has said that the album can be traced back to the song "Caught in a Dream" from the album Love It to Death (1971). The first recording sessions for the album took place in Greenwich, Connecticut, in a mansion called the Galesi Estate. To achieve certain vocal sounds and echoes, microphones were run through rooms of various sizes and through a greenhouse. Other sessions were held at Morgan Studios in London, where singer Donovan contributed to the album by singing on its title track. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin with Gerry Lyon as assistant in New York, Connecticut and London. [3]
Guitarists Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce both used Gibson SGs for the album. [3] Three additional guitarists (including longtime band friend Mick Mashbir and New York-based session musicians Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter) were retained to cover for Buxton, who suffered from alcohol abuse-related pancreatitis throughout the sessions. [4]
A quadraphonic mix of the album was released on both 8-track and reel-to-reel format, as well as vinyl. This features radically different mixes of all of the songs, including different vocal tracks ("Raped and Freezin'"), unfaded endings ("Generation Landslide"), and editing ("I Love the Dead"). Alice's lead vocals are more upfront in the quad mix than the stereo mix. Rumors that this mix of the album can be found on the DVD-Audio release are untrue. The DVD-Audio release contains a newer 5.1 channel mix of the album, based on the original 2-channel tracks as opposed to the quad mix.
The album's title comes from the fact that the five members of Alice Cooper were surprised about their success. Cooper related: "How could we, this band that two years ago was living in the Chambers Brothers' basement in Watts, be the Number One band in the world, with people throwing money at us?" [5] The title was also later used as the name of the group Neal Smith, Dennis Dunaway, and Michael Bruce formed after Alice Cooper group had split up. [6] Cooper said, "The whole idea behind the Billion Dollar Babies album was exploiting the idea that people do have sick perversions." [7]
Alice Cooper, who wrote the majority of the album's lyrics, cited Chuck Berry as a key influence on his writing. [3] "Hello Hooray", the album's opening track, was written by Canadian singer/songwriter Rolf Kempf and was previously recorded by Judy Collins. The band wanted their version of the song to sound like "Alice Cooper meets Cabaret". [8] The album's third track, "Elected", is a rewrite of the song "Reflected" from Pretties for You (1969). "Raped and Freezin' has been called a "hilarious and gorgeously catchy" take on the idea of sexual harassment by PopMatters 's Jason Thompson. [9] "Unfinished Sweet" is about visiting a dentist with sound effects recorded by Gerry Lyon. [9] The title track was co-written by Reggie Vinson (credited on original pressings of the album as "R. Reggie", i.e., "Rockin' Reggie Vinson"), who had played guitar on and performed vocals for School's Out (1972). [10] Donovan described the song as a "horror story song". [11] The album's closing track, "I Love the Dead", is a tongue-in-cheek song about necrophilia. [12]
After the album was released, the band embarked on a tour which broke the United States box office records previously held by the Rolling Stones and included a scheduled 64 concerts in 59 cities in 90 days. The gross revenue of the tour was anticipated to be close to $20 million, [13] but only about $4 million was achieved. [3]
Cooper hired magician James Randi to design effects for the show, and Randi traveled with the tour to supervise and coordinate the effects. Randi even played a role in the stage show as "The Executioner". [14]
The live performances featured Cooper wearing a costume with fake blood stains at the crotch, tearing apart baby dolls, attacking mannequins, and being decapitated by a guillotine. [15] Cooper has said that the mutilation of the dolls symbolized child neglect. [16] Between 40 and 50 people were employed and 26,000 pounds of equipment were used. [17] In preparation for the tour, two semi-trailer trucks carried a wide variety of props including a dentists drill, four whips, a surgical table, six hatchets, 33,000 program books, 300 baby dolls, 22,000 sparklers, 58 mannequins, 280 spare light bulbs, 1,000 patches, 6,000 mirror parts, 14 bubble machines, 28 gallons of bubble juice, and 250,000 packages of bubble bath. [18]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [19] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B [20] |
Creem | B+ [21] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [22] |
Billion Dollar Babies was commercially more successful than Alice Cooper's previous albums; it went to No. 1 in both the United Kingdom and United States. [13] The album's singles "Elected", "Hello Hooray", "Billion Dollar Babies", and "No More Mr. Nice Guy", all became hits on the Billboard Hot 100. [23] In March 1973 the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and in 1986, it went platinum. [24]
In a contemporary review for Creem magazine, Robert Christgau said that Billion Dollar Babies is Cooper's "most consistent album", even though it lacks a song as strong as "School's Out". [21] In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Greg Prato awarded the album four and a half out of five stars and called it "one of Cooper's very best; it remains one of rock's all-time, quintessential classics". [19] Jason Thompson of PopMatters praised the album, saying it was "arguably the original Alice Cooper Group's best album". [9] However, the 2004 The Rolling Stone Album Guide was less positive about the album, giving it two and a half stars and criticizing songs like "I Love the Dead" for being "predictable". [22] Daniel Bukszpan, the author of The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal, called it a "classic" and "arguably the original band's finest offering". [25] In 2005, Billion Dollar Babies was ranked number 283 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. [26] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [27] Treble named it in its list "10 Essential Glam Rock Albums". [28]
Chris Cornell of Soundgarden stated that it was one of his favorite records. In an interview with Spin magazine in 1989, he commented that: "When I was in junior high, every Friday the teachers would let the kids play their favorite records. I brought in Billion Dollar Babies [Alice Cooper, 1973] and they wouldn't let me play it. They never vetoed anyone's choice before. It was then I knew that rock'n'roll could scare the fuck out of certain people." [29] The Norwegian band Turbonegro made a song called "Zillion Dollar Sadist" as a tribute to Billion Dollar Babies. [30] David Byrne of Talking Heads has said that the album inspired him to write the song, "Psycho Killer". [31] The Swiss extreme metal group Samael did a cover of the song "I Love the Dead" on their Rebellion EP. Italian heavy metal band Death SS covered the song "I Love the Dead" on their debut album, ...in Death of Steve Sylvester (1988).
Billion Dollar Babies is the second most-represented album in Alice Cooper's live sets, behind only Welcome to My Nightmare (1975). The only song from the album that has never been played live in any form is the short "Mary Ann", although "Generation Landslide" was not played until the tour eight years later following Special Forces (1981), on which it had been re-recorded.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Hello Hooray" | Rolf Kempf | 4:15 |
2. | "Raped and Freezin'" | 3:19 | |
3. | "Elected" |
| 4:05 |
4. | "Billion Dollar Babies" |
| 3:43 |
5. | "Unfinished Sweet" |
| 6:18 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
6. | "No More Mr. Nice Guy" |
| 3:06 |
7. | "Generation Landslide" |
| 4:31 |
8. | "Sick Things" |
| 4:18 |
9. | "Mary Ann" |
| 2:21 |
10. | "I Love the Dead" |
| 5:09 |
Total length: | 40:51 |
The 2001 CD reissue includes these additional tracks on a second disc: [32]
No. | Title | Music | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Hello Hooray" (Live) | Kempf | 3:04 |
2. | "Billion Dollar Babies" (Live) |
| 3:47 |
3. | "Elected" (Live) |
| 2:28 |
4. | "I'm Eighteen" (Live) |
| 4:50 |
5. | "Raped and Freezin'" (Live) |
| 3:14 |
6. | "No More Mr. Nice Guy" (Live) |
| 3:07 |
7. | "My Stars" (Live) |
| 7:32 |
8. | "Unfinished Sweet" (Live) |
| 6:01 |
9. | "Sick Things" (Live) |
| 3:16 |
10. | "Dead Babies" (Live) |
| 2:58 |
11. | "I Love the Dead" (Live) |
| 4:48 |
12. | "Coal Black Model T" (outtake of "Slick Black Limousine") |
| 4:28 |
13. | "Son of Billion Dollar Babies" (outtake of "Generation Landslide") |
| 3:45 |
14. | "Slick Black Limousine" |
| 4:26 |
Alice Cooper group
with:
| Technical
|
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [47] | Gold | 35,000^ |
Canada (Music Canada) [48] | Gold | 50,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [49] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Neal Smith is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock group Alice Cooper from 1967 to 1974. He performed on the group's early albums Pretties for You and Easy Action, their breakout album Love It to Death and the subsequent successful albums Killer, School's Out, and Billion Dollar Babies. The last new studio album with the five original Alice Cooper group members participating in new music was Muscle of Love in 1973. The original group's Greatest Hits studio album was released in 1974. In 2018, a live performance album Live from the Astroturf recorded in 2015 was released, featuring four of the original group members performing eight of their hit songs, with long-time Alice Cooper solo band guitarist and friend Ryan Roxie interplaying lead guitar parts with original group rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, on behalf of original group lead guitarist Glen Buxton, who died in 1997 of pneumonia at age 49.
Michael Owen Bruce is an American rock musician who was a founding member of the original Alice Cooper band.
Dennis Dunaway is an American musician, best known as the original bass guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper . He co-wrote some of the band's most notable songs, including "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out".
Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits is the only greatest hits album by American rock band Alice Cooper, and their last release as a band. Released in 1974, it features hit songs from five of the band's seven studio albums. It does not include any material from their first two albums, Pretties for You and Easy Action.
Welcome to My Nightmare is the debut solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released on February 28, 1975 by Atlantic Records. A concept album, its songs played in sequence 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 tour was one of the most over-the-top excursions of that era. Most of Lou Reed's band joined Cooper for this record. Welcome to My Nightmare is his only album under the Atlantic Records label in North America; internationally, it was released on the ABC subsidiary Anchor Records.
Muscle of Love is the seventh and final studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper. It was released in late 1973, the band played its last concert a few months later.
Lace and Whiskey is the third solo and tenth overall studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released on April 29, 1977, by Warner Bros. Records.
Special Forces is the sixth solo studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released in September 1981 by Warner Bros. Records. It was produced by Richard Podolor, best known for his work with Three Dog Night.
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.
School's Out is the fifth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released in June 1972. Following on from the success of Killer, School's Out reached No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart and No. 1 on the Canadian RPM 100 Top Albums chart, holding the top position for four weeks. The single "School's Out" reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 3 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart and went to No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart.
The Eyes of Alice Cooper, released in 2003, is the sixteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper. With this album, Cooper returned to his earlier hard rock sound, in the vein of The Last Temptation, and left the heavy industrial metal sound found in his last two studio albums. Of note is the album cover, which was released in four different versions, featuring alternate colours in Cooper's eyes and the crescent around the 'A' in the title. It was available in blue, green, purple and red.
Pretties for You is the debut studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on June 25, 1969, by Straight Records. "Alice Cooper" referred to the band and not its lead singer Vincent Furnier. The album has a psychedelic style to it and the group had yet to develop the more concise hard rock sound that they would become famous for.
Killer is the fourth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released in November 1971 by Warner Bros. Records. The album peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and the two singles "Under My Wheels" and "Be My Lover" made the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
This is the discography of American rock singer and songwriter Alice Cooper and his original band. It includes 29 studio albums, 50 singles, 11 live albums, 21 compilation albums, 12 video releases, and an audiobook. Six of his studio albums have achieved platinum in the United States and three more have achieved gold. The labels Cooper has recorded on are Straight, Warner Bros., Atlantic, MCA, Epic, Spitfire, Eagle, New West, and Bigger Picture. Over his career, Cooper has sold well over 50 million records.
"Billion Dollar Babies" is a popular 1973 single by the rock group Alice Cooper, the title track taken from the album Billion Dollar Babies. It was released in July 1973, a few months after the album had been released. The track is a duet between Alice Cooper and Scottish musician Donovan, who provides the falsetto and high harmony vocals. BMI lists the composers of "Billion Dollar Babies" as Alice Cooper, Michael Bruce and Reggie Vinson. Some sources list the composers as Cooper, Bruce, drummer Neal Smith, and "R. Reggie", the latter being an allusion to Vinson's nickname "Rockin' Reggie Vinson".
"No More Mr. Nice Guy" is a song by American rock band Alice Cooper, released in 1973 as a single off their sixth studio album Billion Dollar Babies (1973). The single reached No. 25 on the US charts and No. 10 on the UK charts, and helped Billion Dollar Babies to reach No. 1 in both the UK and the US. The song was written by Michael Bruce and Alice Cooper.
"Department of Youth" is a song by rock musician Alice Cooper featured on his Welcome to My Nightmare album. The song peaked at No. 67 on The Billboard Hot 100.
Welcome 2 My Nightmare is the nineteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released on September 13, 2011 by UME. It is a sequel to his 1975 album Welcome to My Nightmare. Peaking at No. 22 in the Billboard 200, it is Cooper's highest-charting album in the US since 1989's Trash.
Cosmic Wheels is the tenth studio album, and eleventh album overall, by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in both the UK and the US in March 1973.
Alice Cooper, also known as the Alice Cooper Group or the Alice Cooper Band, was an American rock band formed in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1968. The band consisted of lead singer Vincent Furnier, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith (drums). The band was notorious for their elaborate, theatrical shock rock stage shows.