Alice Cooper developed their classic heavy metal crunch on 1971’s Love It to Death, which featured the number 21 hit single ‘Eighteen’; the album peaked at number 35 and went gold. Killer, released late in 1971, was another gold album. Released in the summer of 1972, School’s Out was Alice Cooper’s breakthrough record, peaking at number two and selling over a million copies. The title song became a Top Ten hit in the U.S. and a number one single in the U.K. Billion Dollar Babies, released the following year, was the group’s biggest hit, reaching number one in both America and Britain; the album’s first single, ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy,’ became a Top Ten hit in Britain, peaking at number 25 in the U.S. Muscle of Love appeared late in 1973. After Muscle of Love, Furnier and the rest of Alice Cooper parted ways to pursue other projects. Having officially changed his name to Alice Cooper, Furnier embarked on a similarly theatrical solo career. In the fall of 1974, a compilation of Alice Cooper’s five Warner albums, entitled Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits, became a Top Ten hit.
Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper’s first solo album, was released in the spring of 1975. The record wasn’t a great departure from his previous work, and it became a Top Ten hit in America, launching the hit acoustic ballad ‘Only Women Bleed’. Its follow-up, 1976’s Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, was another hit, going gold in the U.S. Cooper entered rehabilitation in 1978, writing an album about his treatment called From the Inside (1978) with Bernie Taupin, Elton John’s lyricist. During the early ’80s, Cooper continued to release albums and tour. Cooper made a successful comeback in the late ’80s, sparked by his appearances in horror films and a series of pop-metal bands that paid musical homage to his classic early records and concerts. Constrictor, released in 1986, began his comeback, but it was 1989’s Trash that returned Cooper to the spotlight. ‘Poison,’ a midtempo rocker featured on the album, became Cooper’s first Top Ten single since 1977. After the release of Trash, he continued to star in the occasional film, tour, and record, although he wasn’t able to retain the audience recaptured with Trash. Still, 1991’s Hey Stoopid and 1994’s The Last Temptation were generally solid, professional efforts that helped Cooper settle into a comfortable cult status without damaging the critical goodwill surrounding his ’70s output. After a live album, 1997’s Fistful of Alice, Cooper returned on the smaller Spitfire label in 2000 with Brutal Planet and Dragontown a year later. The Eyes of Alice Cooper appeared in 2003. Dirty Diamonds from 2005 was nearly as raw and hit the streets around the same time Alice premiered his syndicated radio show, Nights with Alice Cooper. Three years later he returned with Along Came a Spider. In 2010 he released the live album Theatre of Death along with a download-only EP of redone Cooper classics titled Alice Does Alice.
