Alice Cooper
Originally, there was a band called Alice Cooper led by a singer named Vincent Damon Furnier. Under his direction, Alice Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical and
violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock. Drawing equally from
horror movies, vaudeville, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and the Stooges, the group created a stage show
that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood, and huge boa
constrictors, all coordinated by the heavily made-up Furnier. By that time, Furnier had adopted the name for his androgynous
onstage personality. While the visuals were extremely important to the group's
impact, the band's music was nearly as distinctive. Driven by raw, simple riffs
and melodies that derived from '60s guitar pop as well as showtunes, it was
rock & roll at its most basic and catchy, even when the band ventured into
psychedelia and art rock. After the original group broke up and Furnier began a solo career as Alice Cooper, his actual music lost most of its
theatrical flourishes, becoming straightforward heavy metal, yet his stage show
retained all of the trademark props that made him the king of shock rock.
Furnier formed his first group, the Earwigs, as
an Arizona teenager in the early '60s. Changing the band's name to the
Spiders in 1965, the group was eventually called the Nazz (not to be confused with Todd Rundgren's band of the same name). The
Spiders and the Nazz both released local singles that were
moderately popular. After discovering there was another band called the Nazz in 1968, the group changed its name to Alice Cooper. According to band legend, the name
came to Furnier during a ouija board session, where he was told
he was the reincarnation of a 17th-century witch of the same name. Comprised of
vocalist Furnier -- who would soon begin calling himself Alice Cooper -- guitarist Mike Bruce,
guitarist Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal
Smith, the group moved to California in 1968. In California, the group met Frank Zappa and his manager Shep Gordon,
who signed Alice Cooper to their new label Straight
Records.
Alice Cooper released their first album, Pretties for You, in 1969. Easy Action followed early in 1970, yet it
failed to chart. The group's reputation in Los Angeles was slowly shrinking, so
the band moved to Furnier's hometown of Detroit. For the next
year, the group refined their bizarre stage show. Late in 1970, the group
signed with Warner Brothers and began recording their third album with producer
Bob Ezrin.
With Ezrin's
assistance, Alice Cooper developed their classic heavy-metal
crunch on 1971's Love It to Death, which featured the number 21 hit
single "Eighteen"; the album peaked at number 35 and went gold. The
success enabled the group to develop a more impressive, elaborate live show,
which made them highly popular concert attractions across the U.S. and
eventually the U.K. Killer, released late in 1971, was another gold
album. Released in the summer of 1972, School's Out was Alice Cooper's breakthrough record, peaking at
number two and selling over a million copies. The title song became a Top Ten
hit in the US and a number one single in the UK. Billion Dollar Babies, released the following year, was
the group's biggest hit, reaching number one in both America and Britain; the
album's first single, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," became a Top Ten hit in
Britain, peaking at number 25 in the U.S. Muscle of Love appeared late in 1973, yet it
failed to capitalize on the success of Billion Dollar Babies. After Muscle of Love Furnier fired the rest of Alice Cooper, retaining the name for a solo
career; the rest of the band released one unsuccessful album under the name Billion
Dollar Babies. In the fall of 1974, a compilation of Alice Cooper's five Warner albums, entitled Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits, became a Top Ten hit.
For his first solo album, Cooper hired Lou Reed's backing band from Rock 'N' Roll Animal -- guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, bassist Prakash John,
keyboardist Joseph Chrowski, and drummer Penti Glan -- as his
supporting group. Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper's first solo album, was released in
the spring of 1975. The record wasn't a great departure from his previous work
and it became a Top Ten hit in America, launching the hit acoustic ballad
"Only Women Bleed." Its follow-up, 1976's Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, was another hit, going gold in the
U.S. After Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, Cooper's career began to slip, partially due to
changing trends and partially due to his alcoholism. Cooper entered rehabilitation in 1978, writing an
album called From the Inside (1978) about his treatment with Bernie Taupin, Elton John's lyricist. During the early '80s, Cooper continued to release albums and tour, yet he
was no longer as popular as he was during his early-'70s heyday.
Cooper made a successful comeback in the late '80s,
sparked by his appearances in horror films and a series of pop-metal bands that
paid musical homage to his classic early records and concerts. Constrictor, released in 1986, began his
comeback, but it was 1989's Trash that returned Cooper to the spotlight. Produced by the proven
hitmaker Desmond Child, Trash featured guest appearances by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and most of Aerosmith; the record became a Top Ten hit in
Britain and peaked at number 20 in the U.S., going platinum.
"Poison," a midtempo rocker featured on the album, became Cooper's first Top Ten single since 1977. Since the
release of Trash, he has continued to star in the occasional
film, tour, and record, although he wasn't able to retain the audience
recaptured with Trash. Still, 1991's Hey Stoopid and 1994's The
Last Temptation were generally solid, professional efforts which helped Cooper settle into a comfortable cult status without
damaging the critical goodwill surrounding his '70s output. After a live album,
1997's Fistful of Alice, Cooper returned on the smaller Spitfire label in 2000
with Brutal Planet.
