Reception and Influence
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| PopMatters | (Favorable) |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Robert Christgau | (B+) |
Billion Dollar Babies was commercially more successful than Cooper's previous albums; it went to No. 1 in both the United Kingdom and United States. The album's singles "Elected", "Hello Hooray", "Billion Dollar Babies", and "No More Mr. Nice Guy", all became hits on the Billboard Hot 100. In March 1973 the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and in 1986, it went platinum.
Allmusic's Greg Prato awarded the album four and a half out of five stars and called it "one of Cooper's very best; it remains one of rock's all-time, quintessential classics." Jason Thompson of popmatters praised the album, saying it was "arguably the original Alice Cooper Group's best album." Rolling Stone, however, was less positive about the album, awarding it two and a half stars and criticizing songs like "I Love the Dead" for being "predictable". Robert Christgau awarded a B+ grade and called it Cooper's most consistent work. Daniel Bukszpan, the author of The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal, called it a "classic" and "arguably the original band's finest offering."
Chris Cornell of Soundgarden stated that it was one of his favorite records. In an interview with SPIN Magazine in 1989, he commented that: “When I was in junior high, every Friday the teachers would let the kids play their favorite records. I brought in Billion Dollar Babies and they wouldn’t let me play it. They never vetoed anyone’s choice before. It was then I knew that rock’n’roll could scare the fuck out of certain people.” The Norwegian group Turbonegro made a song called "Zillion Dollar Sadist" as a tribute to Billion Dollar Babies. David Byrne of the Talking Heads has said that the album inspired him to write the song, "Psycho Killer".
Swiss industrial black metal group Samael did a cover of the song on their Rebellion EP.
Read more about this topic: Billion Dollar Babies
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