| The Essentials: Alice Cooper | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Greatest hits album by | |
| Released | June 4, 2002 [1] |
| Genre | Hard rock, heavy metal |
| Length | 40:21 [1] |
| Producer | Alice Cooper |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
The Essentials: Alice Cooper is a compilation album featuring Alice Cooper, released in 2002 by Rhino Records as part of their The Essentials series.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I'm Eighteen" | 2:58 |
| 2. | "Under My Wheels" | 2:47 |
| 3. | "Be My Lover" | 3:21 |
| 4. | "School's Out" | 3:29 |
| 5. | "Elected" | 3:43 |
| 6. | "No More Mr. Nice Guy" | 3:07 |
| 7. | "Billion Dollar Babies" | 3:39 |
| 8. | "Only Women Bleed" | 3:30 |
| 9. | "Welcome to My Nightmare" | 2:47 |
| 10. | "I Never Cry" | 3:43 |
| 11. | "You and Me" | 3:25 |
| 12. | "How You Gonna See Me Now" | 3:52 |
Alice Cooper is an American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spans over 50 years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props, including pyrotechnics, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, reptiles, baby dolls, and dueling swords, Cooper is considered by 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.
Billion Dollar Babies is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released in 1973. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on the album charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and went on to be 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.
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, Alice Cooper 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 three weeks before his 50th birthday.
Welcome to My Nightmare is an album by Alice Cooper, released in March 1975. It is Alice Cooper's first solo album, and his only album for the Atlantic Records label. 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 the 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 album by Alice Cooper, released in 1976. A continuation of Welcome to My Nightmare as it continues the story of Steven, this concept album was written almost exclusively by Cooper with guitar player Dick Wagner and producer Bob Ezrin.
Love It to Death is the third studio album by American rock group Alice Cooper, released in March 1971. It was the band's first commercially successful album and the first album that consolidated the band's aggressive hard-rocking sound. 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.
Hey Stoopid is the twelfth solo album by rock singer Alice Cooper, released on July 2, 1991. After his smash 1989 hit album Trash, Cooper attempted to continue his success with his follow-up album, which features guest performances from Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, Vinnie Moore, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars. Hey Stoopid was Cooper's last album to feature bassist Hugh McDonald before he joined Bon Jovi in 1994.
Killer is the fourth studio album by the Alice Cooper band, released in November 1971. The album reached number 21 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and the two singles "Under My Wheels" and "Be My Lover" made the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Trash is the eleventh studio album released by Alice Cooper in 1989. The album features the single "Poison", Cooper's first top ten hit since his single "You And Me" in 1977 and marked a great success in Cooper's musical career, reaching the Top 20 of various album charts and selling more than two million copies. Trash featured John McCurry on guitar, Hugh McDonald of Bon Jovi on bass as well as Bobby Chouinard and Alan St. Jon, both from Billy Squier's solo band on drums and keyboards, respectively.
"School's Out" is a song first recorded as the title track of Alice Cooper's fifth album. It was released as the album's second single on April 26, 1972. It has been regarded as the band's signature song and reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Caught in a Dream" is a 1971 song written by Michael Bruce and recorded by his band, Alice Cooper, on their first major label release album Love It to Death. As the album's second single "Caught in a Dream" was released backed with "Hallowed Be My Name" in May 1971; it peaked in the US at number 94.
The discography of American rock artist Alice Cooper consists of 27 studio albums, 48 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.
"Poison" is a song by American hard rock musician Alice Cooper. Written by Cooper, producer Desmond Child and guitarist John McCurry, the song was released worldwide as a single in late-1989 from Cooper's eighteenth album, Trash. It became one of Cooper's biggest hit singles in the United States, peaking at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It performed even better in the UK by peaking at number 2 in the UK Singles Chart. "Poison" remains one of Alice Cooper's best known songs. It is ranked by Billboard as the "91st top song of 1989", while Ultimate Classic Rock ranked it as the "7th best Alice Cooper song", commenting "Poison sounds like a typical ’80s pop-metal number at times, but Cooper’s intensity brings it to a whole other level." The song's main riff was written by guitarist John McCurry, who two years earlier had used it for the John Waite track "Encircled".
"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).
"Billion Dollar Babies" is a popular 1973 single by the rock group Alice Cooper, taken from the album Billion Dollar Babies. It was released in July 1973, months after the album had been released. The track is a duet between Alice Cooper and Donovan, who provides the falsetto 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".
"Elected" is a single by rock band Alice Cooper, released as the first Hot 100 hit on their sixth studio album Billion Dollar Babies (1972). The single reached #26 during election week on the charts in the United States, #4 on the charts in the United Kingdom and #3 in Austria. It inspired one of the first MTV style story line promo videos ever made for a song.
"No More Mr. Nice Guy" is a song by American rock band Alice Cooper, taken from the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies. 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.
Glen Sobel is an American drummer who has performed and recorded in many different genres. Mainly known for being the drummer for Alice Cooper since 2011, Sobel has worked with other musicians/groups, including Mötley Crüe, Hollywood Vampires (band), Richie Sambora, Orianthi, Beautiful Creatures, Chris Impellitteri, Gary Hoey, Tony MacAlpine, Jennifer Batten, Paul Gilbert, Saga and Shark Island.
Robert Roy Marlette is an American record producer, recording engineer, mixer, keyboardist and songwriter. His production, writing and mixing credits include: Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Sebastian Bach, Rob Halford, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Atreyu, and Ill Niño.
Alice Cooper was an American rock band formed in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1964. The band consisted of lead singer Vince Furnier, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith (drums). Furnier legally changed his name to Alice Cooper and has had a solo career under that name since the band became inactive in 1975. The band was notorious for their elaborate, theatrical shock rock stage shows. In 2011, the original Alice Cooper band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
