Song:School's Out
Album:Mascara & Monsters: The Best Of Alice Cooper
School's Out was the biggest hit for the band Alice Cooper. Later on Cooper would have success as a solo artist. And I think the blurred lines were confusing to fans. But Alice Cooper lead singer Vince Furnier knew the difference. He was born Feb. 4, 1948 in Detroit. His family moved to Phoenix and he attended high school there. His father and grandfather were preachers. So Alice Cooper grew up in church. 16 year old Furnier formed The Spiders in 1964 with guitarist Glen Buxton and bassist Dennis Dunaway, both future Alice Cooper members. They released a couple of singles that went nowhere and then they moved to Los Angeles where drummer Neal Smith joined the band. They wanted to call themselves Nazz. But Todd Rundgren was using that name. So they needed to find a new name. Furnier wanted to do horror movie tricks on stage. And he thought that having an innocuous name like Alice Cooper would add to the shock value. The band bought into this. At first it wasn't successful until they auditioned for Frank Zappa and he signed them to his Straight label. One of Zappa's other bands, the all girl group The GTOs, helped with the Alice Cooper look. They got a rep for stage antics including the infamous chicken incident in Toronto in 1969. The publicity helped but the band's Straight albums didn't sell. So for the 1970 album Love It To Death, Alice Cooper worked with veteran producer Bob Ezrin. They finally scored a hit with I'm Eighteen and Warner Bros. bought Alice Cooper's contract from Straight. And that's when Alice Cooper really became successful. School's Out reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in n1972. And of course the song became a huge anthem with kids. And they were still doing the horror movie stuff on stage. Furnier officially changed his name to Alice Cooper and he released his first solo album Welcome To My Nighmare in 1975. The other band members formed Billion Dollar Babies which didn't really pan out. This budget comp covers Alice Cooper's entire career. Cooper is still around. He released a live CD last year and he still tours. But I'm sure long time fans remember a time in the 70s when Alice Cooper was notorious. Just remember it was all an act. Here's Alice Cooper performing School's Out on Top Of The Pops 1972.
There is a great gem of a song on that Album called "Clones (We'er all) that is one of my favorite Cooper songs. I just love that goofy song and still listen to now and then just give me a lift in spirits. I love some of the stuff he has done and the fact he works as a DJ for one of the radio stations here in Illinois, 103.9 The Fox. He is fun to listen to. I do not get to hear him much because of my work schedule sadly. I will be a fan of Al Cooper till the end.
ReplyDeleteYour right about it all being an act. One night on a late night Rock show i saw him singing with two dancers in whiskey bottles beside him. One guy dressed as Jack Daniels and another as a Tequila bottle. I laughed and had a lot of fun watching the show and Al Cooper that night back in the 70's.
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