Billion Dollar Babies (CD - 1973)

BILLION DOLLAR BABIES: DELUXE EDITION contains a remixed and remastered version of BILLION DOLLAR BABIES, a bonus CD of live tracks and outtakes, and a flexi-disc single. It is packaged in a digi-pak.

Alice Cooper Group: Alice Cooper (vocals); Michael Bruce (guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Glen Buxton (guitar); Dennis Dunaway (bass, background vocals); Neal Smith (drums, background vocals).

Additional personnel includes: Donovan (vocals); Mick Mashbir, Dick Wagner, Steve Hunter (guitar); Bob Dolin (keyboards).

Producer: Bob Ezrin.

Reissue producers: David McLees, Brian Nelson, Bill Inglot.

Engineers include: Shelly Yakus, Robin Black, Jack Douglas.

Recorded at The Cooper Mansion, Greenwich, Connecticut, Morgan Studios, London, England, and The Record Plant, New York, New York; live in Houston & Dallas, Texas on April 28 & 29, 1973. Includes liner notes by Brian Smith.

Digitally remastered by Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot (DigiPrep) and by Brian Kehew and Bill Inglot (November 2000, Capitol Studios).

With Billion Dollar Babies, Alice Cooper refined the raw grit of their earlier work in favor of a slightly more polished sound (courtesy of super-producer Bob Ezrin), resulting in a mega-hit album that reached the top of the U.S. album charts. Song for song, Billion Dollar Babies is probably the original Alice Cooper group's finest and strongest. Such tracks as "Hello Hooray," the lethal stomp of the title track, the defiant "Elected" (a rewrite of an earlier song, "Reflected"), and the poison-laced pop candy of "No More Mr. Nice Guy" remain among Cooper's greatest achievements. Also included are a pair of perennial concert standards -- the disturbing necrophilia ditty "I Love the Dead" and the chilling macabre of "Sick Things" -- as well as such strong, lesser-known selections as "Raped and Freezin'," "Unfinished Sweet," and perhaps Cooper's most overlooked gem, "Generation Landslide." Nothing seemed like it could stop this great hard rock band from overtaking the universe, but tensions between the members behind the scenes would force the stellar original AC band to split up after just one more album. Not only is Billion Dollar Babies one of Cooper's very best; it remains one of rock's all-time, quintessential classics. ~ Greg Prato

While their theatrical stage show (which featured the singer getting his head chopped off by a guillotine) may have made Alice Cooper a household name, the material on BILLION DOLLAR BABIES is so exceptional there is no danger of the music being overshadowed by gimmicks. The album became Cooper's biggest selling release, but it would prove the last effort by the original incarnation of the Alice Cooper band (who would up split a year later). But the group hits the mark completely here, combining the raw garage rock of earlier albums with a glossier production, but with plenty of edge, grit, and sleaze still at the music's core.

While mission statement "No More Mr. Nice Guy" is the best-known song, the rest of the album is just as strong. The title track features a backing vocal by Donovan and a mammoth backbeat from drummer Neal Smith, while sweet melodicism plays an important role in "Generation Landslide" and "Mary Ann." Cooper's rock-and-shock aesthetic can heard in the future concert staples "Sick Things" and "I Love the Dead," giving the sleek sound of the album a wonderfully seamy underbelly. Pound for pound, this is probably Cooper's finest release, and remains one of the true cornerstones of the '70s hard rock canon.

While their theatrical stage show (which featured the singer getting his head chopped off by a guillotine) may have made Alice Cooper a household name, the material on BILLION DOLLAR BABIES is so exceptional there is no danger of the music being overshadowed by gimmicks. The album became Cooper's biggest selling release, but it would prove the last effort by the original incarnation of the Alice Cooper band (who would up split a year later). But the group hits the mark completely here, combining the raw garage rock of earlier albums with a glossier production, but with plenty of edge, grit, and sleaze still at the music's core.

While mission statement "No More Mr. Nice Guy" is the best-known song, the rest of the album is just as strong. The title track features a backing vocal by Donovan and a mammoth backbeat from drummer Neal Smith, while sweet melodicism plays an important role in "Generation Landslide" and "Mary Ann." Cooper's rock-and-shock aesthetic can heard in the future concert staples "Sick Things" and "I Love the Dead," giving the sleek sound of the album a wonderfully seamy underbelly. Pound for pound, this is probably Cooper's finest release, and remains one of the true cornerstones of the '70s hard rock canon. minimize