Alice Cooper, also known as the Alice Cooper Group or the Alice Cooper Band, is an American rock band formed in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1968. During their original run, the band consisted of lead singer Vincent Furnier (who adopted the stage name Alice Cooper), lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. The band was notorious for their elaborate, theatrical shock rock stage shows.
The Alice Cooper band was one of the few glam rock acts to achieve mainstream popularity in the United States, rising to fame in 1971 with the hit single "I'm Eighteen" from their third album, Love It to Death. Success continued with the US top 10 and UK No. 1 single "School's Out" from the album of the same name (1972). The band peaked in popularity in 1973 with their sixth album Billion Dollar Babies, which topped the charts in the US and UK and produced three UK top 10 singles. The supporting tour broke box-office records previously held by the Rolling Stones.
The band split up in 1974. Furnier legally changed his name to Alice Cooper and began a successful solo career. In 2011, the original Alice Cooper band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Between 1999 and 2021, there were occasional reunions of the band before reuniting in 2025 for their first studio album in 52 years, The Revenge of Alice Cooper.
History Formative years: The Spiders
In 1964, 16-year-old Furnier, then a student at Cortez High School, was eager to participate in the local annual Letterman's talent show, so he gathered four teammates from his high school's cross-country team to form a group for the show: Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, John Tatum and John Speer.Cooper describes in detail in his first autobiography, Me, Alice, how he was tasked with organizing an act for the show. They named themselves the Earwigs.Harkima, Reginald, Scott McFayden and Sam Dunn, dir. Super Duper Alice Cooper. Banger Films, 2014. DVD. They dressed up in costumes and wigs to resemble the Beatles, and performed several parodies of Beatles songs, with the lyrics modified to refer to the track team: in their rendition of "Please Please Me", for example, the line "Last night I said these words to my girl" was replaced with "Last night I ran four laps for my coach". Of the group, only Buxton and Tatum knew how to play an instrument—the guitar—so Buxton and Tatum played guitars while the rest mimed on their instruments. The group got an overwhelming response from the audience and won the talent show. As a result of their positive experience, the group decided to try to turn into a real band. They acquired musical instruments from a local pawn shop, and proceeded to learn how to play them, with Buxton doing most of the teaching, as well as much of the early songwriting. They soon renamed themselves the Spiders, featuring Furnier on vocals, Buxton on lead guitar, Tatum on rhythm guitar, Dunaway on bass guitar, and Speer on drums. Musically, the group was inspired by artists such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Doors, and the Yardbirds. For the next year the band performed regularly around the Phoenix area with a huge black spider's web as their backdrop, the group's first stage prop.
In 1965, the Spiders recorded their first single, "Why Don't You Love Me". The single's B-side track was the Marvin Gaye Tamla Records hit, "Hitch Hike". The single was released by local record label, Mascot Records, owned by Jack Curtis, a concert promoter who also owned the Stage 7 teen club which later became the VIP Club where the Spiders were the house band. At the VIP Club the band supported bands including the Lovin' Spoonful, the Yardbirds, Them, the Animals, the Kinks and the Byrds.Alice Cooper Golf Monster (2007) ISBN 978 1 84513 358 0 p36
In 1966, the Spiders graduated from high school and after North High School footballer Michael Bruce replaced John Tatum on rhythm guitar, the band released their second single, "Don't Blow Your Mind", an original composition which became a local number one hit, backed by "No Price Tag". The single was recorded at Copper State Recording Studio and issued by local micro-imprint, Santa Cruz Records.
By 1967, the band had begun to make regular road trips to Los Angeles to play shows. They soon renamed themselves Nazz and released the single "Wonder Who's Lovin' Her Now", backed with future Alice Cooper track "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye". Around this time, drummer John Speer was replaced by Neal Smith. By the end of the year, the band had relocated to Los Angeles.Alice Cooper Golf Monster (2007) ISBN 978 1 84513 358 0 p59 In Los Angeles, the band's lifestyle involved regular car trips into the desert. Activities included shooting rabbits with a 0.22 rifle. In 1967, Neal Smith moved into the range of Furnier's rifle as the latter was about to fire. Smith was hit in the ankle. He has the fragment in his ankle to this day.Alice Cooper Golf Monster (2007) p39-41 Around this time, the band and three others were driving in Los Angeles in a van. An incident on the road caused the driver to lose control of the van and it went off the road rolling over four times. The van was destroyed, but all band members and the three other passengers survived without serious injury.Alice Cooper Golf Monster (2007) p55-56
New band name: Alice Cooper In 1968, the band learned that Todd Rundgren also had a band called the Nazz, and found themselves in need of another stage name. Furnier also believed that the group needed a gimmick to succeed, and that other bands were not exploiting the showmanship potential of the stage. The legend is that the name "Alice Cooper" came from a session with a Ouija board, largely chosen because it sounded innocuous and wholesome, in humorous contrast to the band's image and music. However, in an interview with Mark Radcliffe on the Radcliffe and Maconie show on BBC Radio 2 on November 30, 2009, Vince Furnier described the incident with the ouija board as an urban legend. He said "We literally got that whole story about the witch thing the way you guys got it. It was like just pure urban legend. I heard about the witch thing probably the same day you did, but it was a great story.""The Radcliffe and Maconie Show." Guest Alice Cooper. BBC Radio 2. Episode 30 November 2009. Eventually Furnier adopted this stage name as his own from 1969 onwards, being referred to as Alice Cooper on the cover of the band's debut album. He recalled:
The singer considers the name change one of his most important and successful career moves.
The classic Alice Cooper group line-up consisted of Furnier, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith – all former members of the Spiders. This lineup stayed intact through 1974.
The band's first gig that used the name Alice Cooper was on March 16, 1968, at Earl Warren Fairgrounds in Santa Barbara. The posters still showed the band as the Nazz.Alice Cooper Golf Monster (2007) p57 After a 1968 gig at the Cheetah club in Venice, California, where most of the club's patrons left after hearing the band play just ten minutes, they were approached by music manager Shep Gordon, who saw the band's negative impact that night as a force that could be turned in a more productive direction.Super Duper Alice Cooper. Dir. Reginald Harkima, Scott McFayden, and Sam Dunn. Banger Films in association with Eagle Rock Entertainment, the Movie Network, and Movie Central. 2014 – documentary Shep arranged an audition for the band with renowned musical artist and record producer Frank Zappa, who was looking to sign bizarre music acts to his new record label, Straight Records. Zappa told them to come to his house "at 7 o'clock" for an audition. The band mistakenly assumed he meant 7 o'clock in the morning. Being woken up by a band willing to play that particular brand of music at seven in the morning impressed Zappa enough for him to sign them to a three-album deal. "Frank was the only one who stuck out his neck for us, for me," recalled Furnier himself. "He was the one who said, 'Here's a band that everybody in the business is laughing at – I like 'em.' ... He was the outcast in L.A. and so were we." The first three Alice Cooper albums were released on Zappa's Straight label.
Another Zappa-signed act, the all-female GTOs, were encouraged to dress up the Alice Cooper band members in women's clothing and heavy makeup, and played a major role in developing the band's early onstage look.
In June 1969, Alice Cooper released its first album, Pretties for You, which barely cracked the Billboard Top 200 albums chart at No. 193. The band was the subject of media criticism after Furnier threw a live chicken into the audience during the 1969 Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival Festival. The audience ripped the chicken, whose name was Dutchess, to shreds.Howell, Peter. "Toronto 'chicken incident' sparked rage". Toronto Star, April 24, 2014.
In March 1970, the band released the album Easy Action, which did not chart. Also in 1970, the band had two songs ("Titanic Overture" and "Refrigerator Heaven") that appeared on a Warner Bros sampler album, Zapped, featuring acts produced by Zappa.
Finding success
Slow sales of the band's first two albums, as well as Californians' indifference to their act, led the band to relocate again in 1970, this time to Pontiac, Michigan near Furnier's original home town of Detroit. Here, their bizarre stage act was much better received by Midwestern crowds accustomed to the proto punk styles of local bands such as the Stooges and the MC5. "L.A. just didn't get it," Furnier stated. "They were all on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were basically drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else."
Hooking up with young producer Bob Ezrin, Alice Cooper released the single "I'm Eighteen" in November 1970, and it became a surprise Top 40 hit by early 1971. The single's success convinced Warner Bros that the band could be a viable commercial act, leading to much stronger investment in the third Alice Cooper album, Love It to Death. The album was initially released on Straight Records, but was reissued on the Warner label following its buyout of the imprint from Zappa, giving Alice Cooper even greater exposure. Under Ezrin's direction, the band's sound moved from psychedelic rock to a tighter, guitar-driven hard rock sound, even as much of the lyrical content continued to explore "decadence, perversion and psychosis."