The original band called Alice Cooper released its sixth studio album, Billion Dollar Babies, on this date, February 25th, in 1973. Billion Dollar Babies, which went to the Number One position on every chart, is a very special album for me. Favorite Song: “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”
Here I am on one of Alice Cooper Drummer Neal Smith’s drum kits. All of Neal’s Gold and Platinum Albums earned for sales of Alice Cooper band records are on the walls behind me. Billion Dollar Babies is in there, somewhere.
A great cake — an even better record. A career best for the band.
Wow, I’m such an old timer!
-Chris
Happy Birthday BDB! Love it!
40 years? WOW! This record still makes me feel like a snotty nosed kid with the world at my feet. Thanx a billion to the Coopers for creating such a wonderful soundtrack to my life. Still head and shoulders above the pack. “Generation Landslide” in deed !!! Love, frogs and ZAZZ, Mac
Billion Dollar Babies – The Alice Cooper GROUP
Everybody can remember the exact moment when their adolescence was invaded and forever contaminated by rock and roll. In the fifties it was Elvis , in the sixties, the Beatles. and in the seventies (where my innocence fell) it was the Alice Cooper group. I had first heard of Alice Cooper a few years earlier when strains of “Killer” would seep out of my brothers bedroom and would start its inevitable takeover of my mind, body and soul. I mean it’s hard to go from “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond to “Dead Babies” and not have it have a profound effect on ones psyche. When, “Schools Out “ overtook the airwaves a year later I was officially a fan and ready for the ultimate baptism that would come in the form of “Billion Dollar Babies”.
The Billion Dollar Babies concert tour was not only my first concert at the tender age of 15 but it was also the largest grossing tour (to date) in the history of music covering an exhausting 56 cities in 62 days, an overwhelming schedule that would put Alice Cooper on the map to stay but would also prove too much for the groups members to sustain their own identities when public perception was blurred regarding Alice Cooper (the group) against Alice Cooper (the singer).
This record was truly one of rocks most important and influential releases as it “set the stage” so to speak for what was to follow. Artists such as David Bowie, Kiss, Marilyn Manson and even Pink Floyd have credited the Alice Cooper group as inspiration for their theatrics, but what is more important and can not be overshadowed by the visuals is the music.
“Hello Hooray” raised the bar for show openers, “Elected”, “Billion Dollar Babies” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy” were huge hits then and are still in constant rotation on the radio some 27 years later. “Raped And Freezin”, “Unfinished Sweet” and the underated “Generation Landslide” are a powerhouse trio of songs that helped propel the live show forward until revisiting the earlier hits like,”Under My Wheels”, “I’m Eighteen” and the classic, “School’s Out”. “Sick things “ and “I Love The Dead” served as the soundtrack to one of rocks most sinister stage moments and after being hung and electrocuted in previous shows, the forbidding guillotine was by far the bands finest hour.
“Billion Dollar Babies” encompasses all that was great about the’70’s youth. greed, lust, sex, drugs and last but certainly not least rock and roll. This record is a must not only for every Cooper fan’s collection but also an important timecapsule for todays’ kids so they might understand what it was like when rock and roll really meant something to the hopes and dreams of America’s youth.