Billion Dollar Babies
by Alice Cooper

First Released: 27th February 1973

Warner Bros.

Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies Album Cover

Review

Like many my age, my first real exposure to Alice Cooper was through his appearance in Wayne’s World. What’s slightly confusing is that this record is actually the 6th album by Alice Cooper the band, of which vocalist Vincent Furnier was a member. When the band broke up, Vincent legally changed his name to Alice Cooper and continued to perform under that name, despite the actual Alice Cooper band being over. Which is a fairly odd turn of events. Alice Cooper the band began as a psychedelic rock band before transitioning into a more glam and shock-rock group as time went by. This is their second to last album as a group, until 2025, so one would assume that they had more or less stabilised their sound by this point, but to be honest, I found this to be an incredibly scattergun effort. The record opens with something that feels like it could have been pinched from a quirky rock musical from broadway, before moving on to a fairly straight rock and roll number. As it progresses, they touch on various styles from glam rock to country, even landing on an almost music-hall sounding moment with Mary Ann. It’s a fairly bizarre collection that doesn’t seem to have too much of a musical thread to it, even if lyrically, the themes of horror, necrophilia and, um… the fear of dentists are something of a unifier. While I get that this is a record from 1973, it feels like there’s a fairly significant disconnect between the music and the developing Alice Cooper theme. Tracks like Sick Things and No More Mr. Nice Guy do lean into it to various degrees, but as a whole, it’s a bit inconsistent and lightweight when you consider the nature of the live shows, which included the ripping apart of baby dolls and mannequins and Alice himself being decapitated by guillotine. That all sounds pretty dark and exciting, and perfect for the kind of thing that Black Sabbath had being doing for 4 years at this point, not to mention bands like Coven and Budgie. Regardless, there’s some decent stuff on the record and the band do a decent job of dragging out the heavier elements of the work when they introduce them. The drums and guitar work are very strong in places, and when Alice properly gets into character on songs like No More Mr Nice Guy, things really start to kick. I do appreciate a band that’s willing to experiment and be brave with production and the blending of styles, but for a band on their 6th record, I just don’t feel that there’s a consistent enough level of quality or identity, even allowing for the freedom of expression and experimentation that I’ll always make allowances for. Perhaps I’m missing something, as this was a number one album in both the US and UK, but it kind of feels like the music is somewhat secondary to the presentation, so despite getting some enjoyment from the record, it ends up falling down on that most vital of aspects.

Track by Track

Hello Hooray

This is quite an odd start. Firstly, it’s a cover. Secondly, it’s very, very musical theatre. It’s quite slow and dramatic, but not in the heavy way I was hoping for. There’s a bit of weight from the guitars, but it’s fairly thematically unfocused and feels like a setup song for a stage musical, rather than a rock song. Not for me.

Raped And Freezin'

This is a bit better. It’s a rock and roll effort, with a cool bit of swagger and some nice punchy rhythms. The slightly grubby and glam coded edges are poking in around the edges, but probably not enough for this to stand out as anything more than a fairly middle of the road Rolling Stones-esque bluesy rock and roll number. It’s not bad, just a bit unremarkable.

Elected

This is a bit more like it. Alice starts giving things a bit more grit and dramatic flair and the more bombastic, theatrical elements blend a bit better thematically with the rest of the track. There are some good moments in here and some interesting, if not incredibly hooky riffs and sequences. But I appreciate what they’re trying to do, even if it doesn’t completely connect for me.

Billion Dollar Babies

Again, we’re moving in a stronger direction and I can feel a direct line from this to stuff like Kiss, Rob Zombie and even Ghost. There are some solid riffs in here, and there’s much more weight and edge to the delivery from vocals and instrumental performances here. There’s some cool shredding too, and it feels like the record has actually started to deliver the kind of thing I was expecting.

Unfinished Sweet

This swings back towards the glam sound now, so why not on a song about being afraid of the dentist. There are some nice little bits of instrumental work, particularly from the guitarists. Then we get a weird break into a surf rock take on the James Bond theme tune and the musical theatre style starts to swarm back over the production. It then descends into some sparse sound design sections before a build back to the song proper. It’s pretty weird stuff and, while I’m not in love with it, I certainly appreciate the experimentation and willingness to toy with production and structure in such a way.

No More Mr. Nice Guy

Now we’re cooking. This is hooky, has a slightly gritty edge, but still plays beautifully with that glam rock take on rock and roll. The chorus is excellent, and the performances and production are both punchy and engaging. It doesn’t need to do a great deal, because everything it does is right on the money, and it’s in and out in three minutes. Great.

Generation Landslide

The rolling drum beat here is pretty good and the Southern drawl of the vocal is an interesting change up of style. There’s some cool bass playing in here, and it’s good a groove to it. But it never really connects into anything particularly hooky, and ends up messing around in an almost country blues section that’s just a bit jarring with the rest of the album.

Sick Things

This is much better. It’s atmospheric, weighty, has some cool sound design and a dark and menacing approach to vocals. It’s fairly slow and considered, but they work dramatic edges into it very well and I can imagine something like this would be fantastic as part of the band’s stage show. The guitar solo rocks too

Mary Ann

Another weird diversion, this time into lightweight music hall ballad territory. It’s well executed, but I don’t really understand what it’s doing here. Good piano playing though, I suppose.

I Love The Dead

From that last song to a song about necrophilia? Why not? It’s theatrical and dramatic, but within the glam rock, slightly proto-metal edge of that type of music. It’s fairly considered and has some good grooves and guitar soloing work. The lo-lo-lo-lo,de-de-de-de stuff doesn’t really do it for me though, and while I think the production and drama take this in an interesting direction, it could have been a touch darker and grittier and would have been more effective. I know this was released in 1973, so it’s early for this type of music, but Sabbath had had 4 records out by this point, so I can’t excuse the lighter tone of this too easily.

Billion Dollar Babies by Alice Cooper