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1973 produced some truly great albums - cop a load of this lot for starters - "Aladdin Sane"; Roxy Music's "For Your Pleasure" and "Stranded"; "Mott"; Cockney Rebel's "The Human Menagerie"; "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"; Nazareth's "Razamanaz" and Lou Reed's "Transformer". Pretty impressive. Add to that, however, the strangely overlooked "Billion Dollar Babies".

Part commercial metal, part glam, part power pop this is a wonderful cornucopia of early 70s kitsch, immaculately played by one hell of a tight band. Alice Cooper and his band were a kind of music hall Rolling Stones, often descendingly into intentional self-parody. Nowhere is this better illustrated to on this album, their own Sgt Pepper". The opening numbers are so appealing - the vaudeville first track "Hello Hooray"; the disturbingly titled but catchy "Raped And Freezin'"; the barnstorming, magnificent "Elected" and the slightly menacing title track. On listening to these cuts you find yourself thinking "My God this was a great album", much to your surprise. The quality is continued through "Unfinished Sweet" with its obvious James Bond theme plagiarism; and the amusing and comercially rocking "No More Mr Nice Guy" with Cooper's tongue firmly in cheek. "Generation Landslide" is intoxicating despite it's similarities in its fade out to "Sympathy For The Devil". The album drifts away a bit after that as Alice has to play up the old gruesome bit with "Sick Things" and "I Love The Dead". Nevertheless "Billion Dollar Babies" should be deservedly up there as an iconic, zeitgiest-defining album.

Great stuff.

Rating: 4 out of 5

I originally bought this classic album from the coop way back in 1973 at the age of 12! And now today,31 years on the album still stands up as a piece of rock history.This was the first alice album I'd bought on release having bought the single of schools out,because i'd seen all the clips in the papers about banning the 'sick pop star'.What publicity to a teenager,and the album when put on the turntable,matched that hype!(i got all the previous soon after).It opens with 'hello hooray',an obvious opener for all the gigs at the time too(and in fact the bare bones tour)brilliant anthemic rock ballad type of song.Next a bit of controversy, 'raped and freezin' ,an upbeat rocker brilliant solos in the middle by bruce and buxton! 'elected' follows,we all know this!!!then the title track,dueting with such an unlikely;Donovan!!!great song and great drums from smith. 'unfinished sweet' follows with its scary dentist theme with the extraction in the middle,dreamin of beinng 007 james bond under the gas,great rock song theatre.Then comes 'no more mr nice guy' another classic hit from the album. 'generation landslide' is next,another classic with brilliant solos at he end and harmonica solo from the man himself. 'sick things' follows,spooky,dont turn the lights out! which runs into 'mary ann' a piano ballad and sadly not one of the best that the coop has done. finally 'i love the dead' fantastic bit of the macabre,still used today when the guillotine comes down.All in all probably the best from the rest and definatley the album you should buy first if your new to alice and want to see what the coop was/is all about.

Rating: 5 out of 5

A must-have for all true Alice Cooper fans. When I first saw this available, I thought to myself, disc two will put all those bootleg recordings of this notorious 1973 tour to pure shame. First you get the 'original' shock rock ground-breaking album with the original artwork. Then, on disc two, you get a nearly complete live recording of an actual 'Billion Dollar Babies' concert. Obviously, a soundboard source. Loved hearing the glam rock opener "Hello Hooray", "Elected", "Raped & Freezin' ", "My Stars", "Sick Things" and the guillotine song {tee-hee} "I Love The Dead". Then there are a couple of tough-to-find songs such as Alice's flexi-disc available-only rarity "Slick Black Limousine" {wish he'd play this song on tour sometime}. Put this on the top of your 'want list' if you don't already have it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

This is the only Alice Cooper album I've heard, courtesy of a friend who owned a copy in the 1970s. Musically, it's easy to place in the right era, similar in style to what the likes of Bowie, The Stones and Mott were doing at the time. Cooper has a great band and adds a few touches aside, such as the horns on 'Elected.' The difficulty is pulling off a great rock album that goes all theatrical. There are moments when I think Cooper goes too much for the latter, but they are few.
Lyrically, of course, he's way ahead of everyone. What seemed, and probably was, shock for effect at the time, now seems prophetic. The hitch-hiker of 'Raped And Freezin'' meets his match at the hands of the opposite sex, an unlikely story at the time, but not so now. 'I Love The Dead' doesn't feel like such a rare tale these days either. We were more cosseted from the truth then; these days the media bring us weirder news.
As for personal favourites, 'Unfinished Sweet' is macabre and hilarious, especially the tooth-pulling in the middle. 'Elected' is gloriously riotous. 'No More Mr Nice Guy' is obvious hit material. The first two tracks are great rockers. The last few tracks tend more toward Cooper's penchant for the dramatic, but you can't help but grin awkwardly at them. For all Cooper's shock tactics, this is a great rock album.

Rating: 5 out of 5

On the whole this is a pretty good album with few weak moments. However, if you're thinking of buying, spend a bit more and get the remastered and expanded version - that's exceptional !

Rating: 4 out of 5