Happy Birthday, Alice Cooper!

Alice Cooper in concert
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Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Today we're wishing a hell of a good time to the “Godfather of Shock Rock,” Alice Cooper!

Born Vincent Damon Furnier in Detroit, Feb. 4, 1948, his parents moved their family to Arizona, where he excelled in athletics as well as music, having formed a popular local band, the Spiders, with several of his track and field teammates. By 1968, the group had relocated to Los Angeles and changed their name to Alice Cooper, recording two albums before hitting the big time on their third – 1971’s Love It to Death – with its defiant single “I’m Eighteen.”

Later, that year, Killer confirmed Alice Cooper (the band) was for real, yielding the classics “Under My Wheels,” “Halo of Flies,” and “Dead Babies.” Everything came together, though, on 1972’s School’s Out, which hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart and spawned a Top 10 hit with the title track, the all-time great summer vacation anthem.

The band maintained its momentum with 1973’s Billion Dollar Babies, their only No. 1 album. The tour that followed was an extravaganza of doll decapitations, mannequin abuse and, at its apex, the beheading of Alice Cooper (the singer), a cartoonish horror show that made Alice Cooper (the band) one of the biggest live acts in the country.

Read More: February 1973: Alice Cooper Releases 'Billion Dollar Babies'

Following up such success was problematic, and though the band’s next album, Muscle of Love, was strong, it was also a commercial disappointment. Still, rockers like the title cut and "Teenage Lament '74" still sounded great coming out of cars in high school parking lots or out of home decks during weekend keggers.

Unfortunately, tensions in the band were untenable, and Alice Cooper (the group) split up, leaving Alice Cooper (the guy) to go solo. Fortunately, he got the guillotine in the divorce, and he set about extending his brand on a theatrical tour behind 1975’s Welcome to My Nightmare.

Read More: Alice Cooper's Pandemic Playlist

Long a heavy drinker, Cooper binged his way through a few more albums before landing in an asylum to finally confront his drinking. After emerging, he wrote a concept album about the experience, 1978’s From the Inside. It was his last album of the 1970s, a decade he all but owned, and the record’s songs – most notably, the ballad “How You Gonna See Me Now” – showed new maturity, more contemplation and less fake blood.

Cooper would spin down another drink-fueled spiral before re-emerging in the late 1980s, embracing sobriety and rocking fiercely, while enjoying a creative and career resurgence whose end is nowhere in sight, even decades later.

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