Lyrical Themes and Subjects
The album's title comes from the fact that Alice Cooper and the band were surprised about their success. Cooper related: "How could we, this band that two years ago was living in the Chambers Brothers' basement in Watts, be the Number one band in the world, with people throwing money at us." The title was also later used as the name of the group Neal Smith, Dennis Dunaway, and Michael Bruce formed after Alice Cooper band had split up. Cooper says "The whole idea behind the Billion Dollar Babies album was exploiting the idea that people do have sick perversions."
Alice Cooper, who wrote the majority of the album's lyrics, cited Chuck Berry as a key influence on his writing. "Hello Hooray", the album's opening track, was written by Canadian singer/songwriter Rolf Kempf and was previously recorded by Judy Collins. The band wanted their version of the song to sound like "Alice Cooper meets Cabaret." The album's third track, "Elected", is a rewrite of an earlier song by the band entitled "Reflected". "Raped and Freezin'" has been called a "hilarious and gorgeously catchy" take on the idea of sexual harassment by PopMatters's Jason Thompson "Unfinished Sweet" is about visiting a dentist. The title track was co-written by Reggie Vinson, who had played guitar on and performed vocals for School's Out. Donovan described the song as a "horror story song". The album's closing track, "I Love the Dead", is a tongue-in-cheek song about necrophilia.
Read more about this topic: Billion Dollar Babies
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