First, allow me to state I am a huge Alice Cooper fan, remembering the first album I purchased “Goes to Hell” and from there went a full-on ride to get them all, which brings us to the time to reviewing some of his classic recordings. Alice Cooper had significant importance throughout the 1970s he took to shock rock, reshaping it and explored his talents. All of it aided by a great band, using the basis of rock n roll and creative lyrics that some critics mistakenly called ‘Heavy Metal’ this album is far from that that genre. His guitarists Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, began turning their direction of rock, into a harder rock edge, but it defiantly doesn’t carry through all the tracks, some just spill over into insanity, at times it drifts firmly into satire and then later in his career the horror elements began rising more firmly upwards.

Nevertheless, this isn’t about Cooper’s legacy or career, rather in 1973 Billion Dollar Babies, their sixth album (consider a band and not quite a solo artist), released by Warner Brothers, right after his very successful “School’s Out” (1972) influenced a greater influence with the audiences, as some argue it’s the band’s most successful album. The album reached the #1 slot on both the US and UK billboard charts. Alice had already set ablaze many characters of himself from in his previous albums, but this outing he showed many of them as a collection and the band showcased their talents exquisitely too. That came with a solid sound rocking them through most of ‘Raped and Freezin’” until the last minute it sweeps into a Mexican feel of the music, a song dealing with the topic of sexual harassment. Then a series of great songs follow, from the politically fun track of ‘Elected’ (a rewrite of the song ‘Reflected’ from his Pretties for You (1969), then the title track ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ before launching into ‘Unfinished Sweet’ an interesting song, concerning a dentist, complete with the wretched drill sounds and the music heightens to something found in a spy-thriller soundtrack. This particular sound changes significantly around 3:13 mark of a 6:20 length track, almost as if Alice suffers through a painful root canal procedure. However, it’s the legendary sixth track ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’, a song done in rebellion of his mother’s church group and it found itself featured in Dark Shadows (2012) horror movie, and in the now cancelled TV-show Ash vs. Evil Dead. A side note, the track actually covered by the band Megadeth for the horror movie Shocker (1989) by Wes Craven.  Then an almost forgotten song, never known to be played at any of his shows, ‘Mary Ann’ a ballad, a full on piano track, yet plays in grandiose fashion, that at times feels something from the 1920s.  The album closes out with ‘I Love the Dead’ a song quite humorous about the very sick topic of necrophilia, during the singing of the lyrics noting the pleasure of sexual attraction, the music rising each time with the repeating of the chorus, and emotional of love-making in the background. An extremely risky track, for the times, then again, no one expected anything less than that from Alice Cooper. The band excels greatly with this track, showing their talents with fine precision, the song belongs in the most twisted horror movies.

Track Listing:

• Hello, Hooray (4:14)
• Raped And Freezin’ (3:19)
• Elected (3:43)
• Billion Dollar Babies (3:42)
• Unfinished Sweet (6:19)
• No More Mr. Nice Guy (3:07)
• Generation Landslide (4:30)
• Sick Things (4:16)
• Mary Ann (2:22)
• I Love The Dead (5:07)

Band Members:

• Alice Cooper – Lead Vocals, Harmonica
• Michael Bruce – Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals
• Glen Buxton – Lead Guitars
• Dennis Dunaway – Bass, Vocals Guitars
• Neal Smith – Drums

If you want to hear Alice and his original band at their peak, then Billion Dollar Babies is the album to discover, it contains brilliant musicianship, decadent lyrics, and macabre songs, ‘Sick Things’ and ‘I Love the Dead’. These two songs heavily covered by a few music artist first Sick things repre4sent by Crest of Darkness and Vestal Claret; while ‘I Love the Dead’ (a favorite of mine) done first by Death SS in 1988 and then Samael on their “Rebellion” released on May 23, 1995. Even now listening to the entirety of the album brings great entertainment with the songs, the musical quality still reigning true, perfect not quite, however with an expanded addition released in 2000  it shows the lasting influence of Cooper’s music.

Baron’s Rating: 4.9/5