Billion Dollar Babies is widely considered the peak achievement of the original Alice Cooper band. Building on the success of School’s Out, the album combined hard rock, glam rock, dark humor, and theatrical storytelling into a blockbuster release that topped the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It became the best-selling album of Alice Cooper’s career and remains one of the defining rock albums of the 1970s.

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Jeff:  Billion Dollar Babies is one of the most important albums in my life. Without this album, I’m not writing this column. I’m not hanging out with Kip and Mark talking music. I don’t own thousands of records and CDs, because this was the ignition switch that started my lifelong fascination with music. It opened my ears and mind to not only great songs, but also to production techniques, lyrics, musicianship, and the way records were put together. I became obsessed with understanding why certain albums connected with me and why others didn’t, and it all started here.

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   I’ve listened to this album literally hundreds of times. It’s probably the second most-played album of my life behind Meet the Beatles. Because of that, I know every note, every lyric, and every nuance. I can still remember hearing it for the first time and being completely captivated. Bob Ezrin’s production was unlike anything I had heard before. The album felt theatrical, cinematic, and larger than life while still delivering some of the most creative rock music Alice Cooper ever recorded.

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   The songs themselves are a huge reason why this album has endured for me. “Hello Hooray” opens the record like a grand curtain rising before a major event. “Raped and Freezin’” mixes humor and swagger with a surprisingly infectious groove. “Elected” remains one of the greatest satirical rock songs ever written, sounding just as relevant today as it did in 1973. The title track, “Billion Dollar Babies,” with its complex drumming by Neal Smith and the sinister chemistry between Alice and guest vocalist Donovan, is one of the most unique songs in the Cooper catalog. Then there’s “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” arguably the band’s signature song, combining a catchy melody with lyrics that perfectly capture their public image at the time. “Unfinished Sweet” is one of Alice Cooper’s most creative deep cuts, turning a routine trip to the dentist into a bizarre, funny, and surprisingly musical nightmare filled with sound effects, mood changes, and some excellent guitar work. “Generation Landslide” delivers a sharp, cynical look at America through Alice Cooper’s darkly humorous lens, combining a memorable groove with some of the album’s slickest Cooper lyrics ever written. For me, the emotional centerpiece of the album has always been “I Love the Dead.” It’s dark, theatrical, unsettling, and completely unforgettable, everything that made Alice Cooper different from everyone else. The band and friends also deserve enormous credit. Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Glen Buxton and Neal Smith along with Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter were far more than backing musicians; they were an essential part of the sound, bringing personality and musicianship that often gets overlooked when people focus solely on Alice.

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   Listening again with Kip and Mark, was a real treat. I’ve lived with this album for so long that it feels like hanging with an old friend. That said, I still don’t think it’s perfect. “Mary Ann” and “Sick Things” have never quite worked for me the way the rest of the album does. Bob Ezrin and Alice Cooper clearly believed in those tracks, and I intellectually understand these two songs being put on the album, but they’ve always been the two songs I’m most likely to skip.

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   So, is Billion Dollar Babies Alice Cooper’s best album? Some days I’d say yes. Other days I might choose Love It to Death, Killer, School’s Out, or Welcome to My Nightmare. The competition is that close. I love all of those records, but if I’m handing out report cards, Billion Dollar Babies earns a solid A-. It falls just short of perfection for me, yet it remains one of the albums that shaped my musical life more than any other, and that alone makes it a very special record.

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A-

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Kip:   I was in the unique position today of being the student in our group today. Mark and Jeff have infinitely more knowledge and experience with Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies than do I. Almost all of my knowledge of the band was culled from the pages of Circus and Hit Parader magazines. Apart from “Elected” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” I have heard none of the other songs on the album. Because of my Kiss fandom, I knew the importance of Bob Ezrin on a portion of the band's rise to prominence, so I was intrigued to hear his impact on the album. Because of the shock-rock reputation of Alice himself, and the provocative lyrics and song titles I had read about, I was somewhat surprised by the relatively “light” nature of the songs, musically, if not lyrically. With songs titles such as “Raped and Freezin', “Sick Things” and “I Love the Dead,” I was expecting to hear big, distorted power chords and screaming leads, but neither of those really materialize. Because of the magazines, I was aware of the big visual production of their live shows, and some of the tunes are much closer to theater rock than heavy metal. Ezrin's impact manifests itself in touches such as doubling guitar chords with piano (which he later did on Kiss' “Detroit Rock City”) and adding odd instruments for subtle touches throughout numerous songs. His piano accompaniments are oftentimes beautiful. I was definitely reminded of just how good a song is “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and I will definitely revisit “Generation Landslide” as that was a bit of a revelation. Definitely the highlight of the session was listening to Jeff and his incredible background knowledge of the band and this album. Was a high-level learning experience today.

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B

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Mark:   The Alice Cooper bands’ 1973 release initially knocked both my socks off back when I was young. And it is still a sock knocker offer to this day. As we do, the boys and I listened to each track and shared our thoughts, impressions and insights.  Memories are dusted off and given back to the living. Good times are shared and stories are offered to willing ears. Not to my surprise Jeff has many cool factual nuggets that he laid on Kip and myself. So, my appreciation for this album is now founded on a deeper insight.

 

By paying attention to who wrote what, I come now with a wonderful admiration for the song writing of Michael Bruce. And the big question “What if” what if Michael was given more license in the song selection or the production process. How would this album sound if he was calling the shots. Would “Hello Hurray” even make it? Would “Sick Things be jettisoned for a better tune that Bruce had written that would later come out on Muscle of Love? Maybe he would have made Billion Dollars Babies a more a bare bones rocker? Or something in between. A Bruce, Ezrin production. Hmmm… The big answer “I don’t know” but I’d be willing to listen.

 

Oh, on a side note Dennis Dunaway is a badass bassist!

 

Album score as is  A-

Album score with Bruce/Ezrin production? We’ll never know…

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