Alice Cooper
Vincent Furnier took the name Alice Cooper first for his band and eventually for himself, building a horror-theater stage show of guillotines, boa constrictors, and mock executions around hard-rock anthems. Emerging from Phoenix and Los Angeles, the group scored with 'I'm Eighteen' (1970) and the teenage-rebellion anthem 'School's Out' (1972) before topping charts with 'Billion Dollar Babies' (1973). Widely regarded as a founding father of shock rock, Cooper welded vaudevillian theatrics to loud, hook-driven rock and set a template later artists like Marilyn Manson would extend.
Alice Cooper has called the Yardbirds his favorite band of all time, and their fingerprints are on his early garage-hard-rock sound — the fuzzed, riff-driven propulsion and the raw British-invasion snarl that shaped his first hits.
listen forPlay the Yardbirds' 'Shapes of Things' and then Cooper's 'I'm Eighteen' — listen for the same churning, distorted riff and driving, defiant momentum powering a tight rock single.
Cooper counts the Rolling Stones among the mid-sixties bands that shaped him most, and their raunchy, riff-first blues-rock swagger runs through his up-tempo rockers — snarling attitude and a lean, driving guitar hook over a hard backbeat.
listen forCue the Stones' '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' and then Cooper's 'Under My Wheels' — feel the same insistent, fuzz-toned riff and sneering rock-and-roll strut.
Alice Cooper's band began as teenage Beatles imitators — miming their songs at a talent show as the Earwigs — and the Beatles' knack for an indelible, singalong melody stayed with him; even his hardest anthems are built on bright, hook-first pop craft.
listen forPlay the Beatles' heavy, riff-charged 'Hey Bulldog' and then Cooper's 'School's Out' — both hang a snarling hard-rock groove on an irresistible, chant-ready chorus.