News

Time to collectively shout out a hale and hearty “Hello Hooray” for Alice Cooper’s seminal March 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies, which is officially slated to be feted by what’s being dubbed as the 180g 3LP ”Trillion Dollar” Deluxe Edition via Warner/Rhino on March 8.

According to Rhino, “Alice Cooper’s delightfully subversive sixth album returns in all its snakeskin glory for an extended 50th anniversary celebration.” Technically speaking, it’s a 51st anniversary celebration — but, hey, considering all the supply chain-related delays in recent years, we’re essentially okay with that golden-specific designation.

The 180g 3LP 1973 Billion Dollar Babies deluxe set carries an SRP of $69.99, similar to the going rate for the pair of expanded 3LP editions Rhino issued last year for two other of-era classic Cooper albums — namely, November 1971’s Killer and June 1972’s School’s Out. You can read our combo review of both of those fine 3LP collections right here.

The “Trillion Dollar” Deluxe Edition will feature a newly remastered version of the original Billion Dolar Babies album on LP One along with all the bonus material on LPs Two and Three that includes studio outtakes, single mixes, and an “electrifying” (their word) 1973 concert recording. In this new deluxe edition, the gatefold cover faithfully replicates the original BDB LP’s textured snakeskin wallet design, and it comes complete with a $1 billion dollar bill tucked inside.

According to a confirmation email the Rhino PR team supplied directly to AP, the original Billion Dollar Babies album repressing was mastered from the original analog tapes by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. The live material, singles, and outtakes were cut from digital files, and we believe the LPs themselves are being pressed in the Czech Republic (likely at GZ).

In a separate press statement, Rhino characterizes BDB (which hit No. 1 in both the U.S. and the UK) as “an instant smash when it was released in March 1973,” delivering “a theatrical mix of hard rock and glam laced with macabre lyrics that explored wealth, decadence, and fame’s darker side.” (They are indeed spot-on about all that, to be honest.)

Besides featuring the original LP’s hits like “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “Elected,” the ”Trillion Dollar” edition also features outtakes like “Coal Black Model T” — a rockabilly-tinged track that is a personal favorite of mine — single mixes like the one for “Mary Ann,” and “Slick Black Limousine,” the latter of which originally came out on a flexi-disc contained within an issue of the British rock paper New Musical Express, a.k.a., the NME.

The “Trillion Dollar” Deluxe Edition 3LP set also features a live show recorded in Texas in April 1973 during the “Billion Dollar Babies” tour. That performance includes live versions of many of the core album’s tracks including “Elected” and “Hello Hooray,” along with several of the band’s earlier hits like “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out.”

Also included here is an oral history of the album and the bonus tracks courtesy the surviving band members — Alice Cooper, Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce, and Neal Smith — and Bob Ezrin, who produced the album. (Sadly, guitarist Glen Buxton passed away in 1997.)

In the liner notes, Cooper recalls the writing process for “I Love the Dead” and “Sick Things” by observing, “We were writing those songs looking at each other, and every time we’d write a line I’d say, ‘Oh, this is gonna kill them. Oh, they’re gonna hate us on this one.’ But at the same time, it was almost like an Edgar Allan Poe short story when you listen to ‘I Love the Dead.’ I tried to write that the way Vincent Price would sing it.” (And, I might add, you can totally hear it that way every time you spin it.)

ALICE COOPER
BILLION DOLLAR BABIES
“TRILLION DOLLAR” DELUXE EDITION
180g 3LP (Warner/Rhino)

LP One

Side One
1. Hello Hooray
2. Raped And Freezin’
3. Elected
4. Billion Dollar Babies
5. Unfinished Sweet

Side Two
1. No More Mr. Nice Guy
2. Generation Landslide
3. Sick Things
4. Mary Ann
5. I Love The Dead

LP Two

Side One
1. Hello Hooray – Live 1973
2. Billion Dollar Babies – Live 1973
3. Elected – Live 1973
4. I’m Eighteen – Live 1973
5. Raped And Freezin’ – Live 1973
6. No More Mr. Nice Guy – Live 1973

Side Two
1. My Stars – Live 1973
2. Unfinished Sweet – Live 1973
3. Sick Things – Live 1973
4. Dead Babies – Live 1973
5. I Love The Dead – Live 1973

LP Three

Side One
1. School’s Out – Live 1973
2. Under My Wheels – Live 1973
3. Coal Black Model T – Outtake
4. Son Of Billion Dollar Babies (Generation Landslide) – Outtake

Side Two
1. Hello Hooray – Single Version
2. Billion Dollar Babies – Single Version
3. Elected – Single Version
4. Mary Ann – Single Version
5. Slick Black Limousine