Keno's Classic Rock n Roll Web Site

ALBUM REVIEW

ALICE COOPER

Billion Dollar Babies

Released - 1973, Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Bob Ezrin

Alice Cooper - Lead and Backing Vocals; Harmonica
Michael Bruce - Lead and Rhythm Guitars; Keyboards
Glen Buxton - Guitar Riffs
Dennis Dunaway - Bass Guitar
Neal Smith - Drums

Additional Personnel - Donovan - Vocal Harmony on "Billion Dollar Babies"; Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner and Mick Mashbir - additional Guitar Licks.

All songs written by members of Alice Cooper (see below) except "Hello Hooray" written by Rolf Kempf.

REVIEW

Another high energy album put out by the band with outstanding guitar riffs, this one made it to #1 in both the US and UK. The LP starts off with its only cover, "Hello, Hooray", with Alice Cooper's lead vocals on here as strong as he has ever sang. 

Contains two classic hard rock songs in "Elected" (great lyrics!) and the title cut, "Billion Dollar Babies". "B$B" features a great vocal duo with Alice & sixties icon Donovan Leitch, plus an even greater lead guitar played by Michael Bruce. The band's normal lead guitar man, Glen Buxton, was having major health and drug problems when the sessions for B$B were taking place and he missed out on most of the recordings. Additional guitar licks were added to the LP by Mick Mashbir, Steve Hunter, and Dick Wagner, to help fill-in for Buxton.

Another classic song on Billion Dollar Babies is "No More Mr Nice Guy", yet I think I've heard this one played over the radio a little to much. "Generation Landslide" is another fun number, talk about a generation gap! It starts out with the Baby Boomer's generation taking over their parents, then fast forwards to the Boomer's kids overtaking them (or something like that!). Cooper adds in a excellent harp to the end of this song which fits in great. Also, when this album was released, a song that was the cause of great discussion was "I Love The Dead". Dealing with necrophilia, it was one of the early Goth Rock songs.

Some claimed the band sold out with this album, sorry but I don't see that anywhere. This is a true Alice Cooper album and one of their best.

-- Keno 2000

To listen to some soundclips from Billion Dollar Babies or to purchase it click on:  Billion Dollar Babies