Project 1001: Billion Dollar Babies by Alice Cooper (2024)

“They are the worst band ever. But they have a sense of humor. They know how to entertain…”

—Frank Sinatra commenting on The Alice Cooper Band, 1967.1

“The whole idea behind the Billion Dollar Babies album was exploiting the idea that people do have sick perversions."

—Alice Cooper, 1973 2

“Groucho Marx once said that Alice was the last great hope for vaudeville,” says Cooper. “And that’s what we were – rock and roll burlesque, or rock and roll vaudeville. At the same time, we were certainly sort of the dark side of that, but that was always our intention, to be pure entertainers. Our targets were always sex, death, and money, but there was never any agenda. We were just trying to sell ourselves as a fun show.” 3

That’s quite a collection of quotes. I confess that I hadn’t really listened to much Alice Cooper. Sure, I’m familiar with all the hits that AOR stations have played into the ground. But I was totally inoculated from any of the albums. And I found the whole weird stage show milieu of Alice Cooper to be unattractive. That’s been my loss over the decades because this album is extremely strong. And I plan to spin it regularly in the future. My Rating:

Although often dismissed as a cartoon figure, Alice Cooper has received a measure of recognition as a pioneer of theatrical rock and as the inventor of shock rock.4

Russell Hall writing in 2010 for gibson.com:

It’s impossible to overstate how popular the original Alice Cooper (the name Alice Cooper referred to the band) had become by the time their sixth album, Billion Dollar Babies, was released in February of 1973. In the span of two short years, beginning with their breakthrough Love it to Death album in 1971, the band had grown into a juggernaut that dominated American rock and roll. Billion Dollar Babies was at once the apex of the ascendance and an ironic jab at a culture that had made the legendary rockers -- which featured Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton on guitars, Dennis Dunaway on bass, Neal Smith on drums, and, of course, Alice Cooper on vocals -- the most successful rock band, to that point, ever to be loathed by American parents.

Despite the party atmosphere, what emerged from the sessions was a collection of tight, concise songs that tempered the Alice Cooper group’s reputation for the macabre with generous slabs of humor. Smith credits Michael Bruce as the band’s main composer, while he, Dunaway, and Ezrin worked to refine the arrangements into shiny gems of economy and structure. Cooper himself penned the majority of the lyrics, and, with Billion Dollar Babies, his wit reached a new plateau.

Notwithstanding the sometimes grotesque subject matter, Cooper says one of his main inspirations was Chuck Berry.

“[Berry] was my favorite lyricist,” says Cooper. “When I first heard something like ‘Nadine,’ or ‘Maybelline,’ I understood those songs told a story. As the lyrics went along, you really got a picture of what was going on. He took the girl out; he couldn’t get his seat belt off -- things like that. I always wanted to write three-minute stories that were funny, or maybe not just funny, but also dramatic. The idea was to compact everything into three minutes, which is really hard to do.”5

Robert Christgau’s review was lukewarm:

The title's as perfect as the band's latest symbol--a $, its "S" transformed into a two-headed snake. No outrage Alice has concocted equals the frank, sweaty greed of his current success. Oddly, though, this blatant profit mechanism is his most consistent album--even the song about (mercy me) necrophilia is tolerable, just like the song about tooth decay. But without a "School's Out" or an "I'm Eighteen"--neither "No More Mr. Nice Guy" nor "Elected" quite makes the grade--there's nothing to tempt anyone back to the new improved filler. 6

In reviewing the deluxe edition released in 2024, Hal Horowitz asserts:

There aren’t many rock bands from any decade who have strung together quite as extraordinary an album run as Alice Cooper did from 1971-1973.

In those four years, the once scrappy garage/psychedelic rockers created five classic albums that not only defined the era, but have influenced dozens of other acts and, better still, remain as fresh, vibrant and darkly humorous today as when they were first unleashed to an unsuspecting public. 7

Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!

Prime Playlist:173. Billion Dollar Babies by Alice Cooper

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For details about this project, read this: Project 1001 Albums

See Also

30 best Alice Cooper songs by the original lineup

In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Lino Portela Gutiérrez wrote:

(Billion Dollar Babies is the Alice Cooper Band’s) most powerful album…The album also marked the commercial explosion of the Alice Cooper phenomenon, and the accompanying tour was to prove one of the biggest money -spinners in rock history.8

Charts

• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #1 9
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart:
>“No More Mr. Nice Guy”, #25
>”Hello Hurray” #35
>”Billion Dollar Babies” #5710
• RIAA certification:Platinum|October 13, 1986 11

Released on February 25, 1973. Here’s what else was happening:

Pop Culture

• Number one song: “Killing Me Softly with His Song” by Roberta Flack 12
• Number one album: The World is a Ghetto by War 13
• Number one movie: The Poseidon Adventure by Ronald Neame 14
• Most watched TV programs: All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Highlights of Ringling/Barnum Circus, Country Music Hit Parade, Television Comedy Years, Barnaby Jones, The Flip Wilson Show, NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, The ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week, Marcus Welby, M.D. 15
• NYT bestseller, fiction: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach 16
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction:Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution by Dr. Robert Atkins 17

Some other albums released that month

• Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite by Elvis Presley
• Raw Power by The Stooges
• Cameo by Dusty Springfield
• Masterpiece by The Temptations
• Blueprint by Rory Gallagher
• Tyranny and Mutation by Blue Öyster Cult
• In the Right Place by Dr. John
• Back Up Against the Wall by Atlanta Rhythm Section
• The Best of Mountain by Mountain
• Black Caesar by James Brown
• David Ruffin by David Ruffin
• Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory by Traffic18

Sport

• Feb 18 15th Daytona 500: Richard Petty wins his 4th Great American Race by more than 2 laps from Bobby Isaac.
• Feb 21 Chicago Black Hawks, record 262nd NHL game without being shut out.
• Feb 27 White Sox slugger Dick Allen signs 3 year $750,000 contract. 19

Notable Births

• Feb 23 Lars-Olof Johansson, Swedish musician (The Cardigans), born in Huskvarna, Sweden.
• Feb 26 Marshall Faulk, American Hall of Fame NFL running back (Indianapolis Colts), born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
•Feb 26 Jenny Thompson, American 400m freestyle swimmer (Olympic gold 1992, 96), born in Danvers, Massachusetts. 20

Historical Events

• Feb 26 8th Academy of Country Music Awards: Merle Haggard and Donna Fargo win.
• Feb 26 Triple Crown horse Secretariat bought for a record $5.7m.
•Feb 27 American Indian Movement occupy Wounded Knee in South Dakota. 21

Notable Deaths

• Feb 18 Frank Costello, Italian-American gangster (The Prime Minister of the Underworld), dies of a heart attack at 82.
• Feb 22 Hope Landin, American actress (I Remember Mama; Sugarfoot), dies at 79.
•Feb 23 Dickinson W. Richards, American physician (Nobel 1956 - development of cardiac catheterization and the characterization of a number of cardiac diseases), dies at 77. 22