Alice Cooper's MOR ballads poll

Only Women Bleed?!

"'I Never Cry': An alcoholic confession. I had managed to drink away most of my emotions. Sitting there, I realized I couldn't remember the last time that I had cried."
-- Alice Cooper

"'Only Women Bleed': . . . one of the guys from the record company went around and played this song for people, asking them to guess who was singing. NO ONE guessed it was Alice Cooper, of all people. Some of them did think it was James Taylor, though . . . "

So, yeah, "Only Women Bleed."

The single label just reads "Only Women."

Sorry for comma splice in the poll text.

Hmmm, the two I would've chosen between aren't here: "Alma Mater" and "Desperado."

I was just going for post-Muscle of Love chart-fodder singles. But those are both great tracks.

Then there's "Sun Arise" (a Rolf Harris cover!) (and not really a ballad) and "Hello Hooray" (a Judy Collins cover).

alice was golfing w/ michael bolton @ the bob hope tourney yesterday & lookin pretty haggard

"You and Me."

always brings back ye old junior high school memories (1977).

also, "Mary Ann" from BDB, certainly a proto-MOR ballad...

"Only Women Bleed" gets it

"Mary Ann," hahahaha! Yay!

I consider these Alice's "Muppet Show ballads," and I love all of them. One is the clear winner, though.

"I Never Cry" is my favorite of these, it has the most AM-radio-ready bridge of all time

It won't win, but I chose "How You Gonna See Me Now" because I'm one of 17 people who think From The Inside is a great album.

"Only Women Bleed" is alright, but it's the weakest song on Nightmare

I wanna know more about that Sinatra quote to Alice!

Dylan also named him as one of the great song writers of the day back then, iirc.

^^^he mentions that in his "Golf Monster" book, along with Tiger Woods saying he wouldn't spot Alice X amount of strokes and expect to win, and Groucho Marx telling Alice that he (AC) is the only hope left for vaudeville...

weakest song on Nightmare

Hardly. That album was where Alice gave up on rocking hard and turned himself into a cornball self-parody for children who cared about "concept albums", and "Women" was the best thing on it.

???? before this gets crazy as usual, agree to disagree on rocking part, as I think Nightmare rocks a lot more than Muscle Of Love. (although that's an easy barrel of fish to shoot). I really really like Nightmare, so when I say "Only Women Bleed" is the weak spot, this means "I luv this song, but it's the least beast of the children that make up this awesome album"

Back to the topic, "How You Gonna See Me Now" bests "Only Women Bleed" for me by a little. I like the arrangements on the former a little more (/geir)

The only justification that Nightmare needs:

The pre-Nightmare Alice had a sense of humor about it all, but he never would've done that Donny Osmond joke on "Department of Youth."

Ned, re Sinatra quote, apparently Frank was doing "You and Me" in concert for a while; Alice was backstage one night, and . . .

^^^can totally hear that

Is Teenage Lament '74 not MOR enough?

post-Muscle of Love etc.

the seeds of MOR Alice can be seen in the "The Lady Is A Tramp" sequence at the beginning of Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper

"Only Women Bleed" is the obvious pick here.

man another thing for xhukx & me to disagree about! I have always loved Welcome to My Nightmare - the Vegas-y vibe of it really attracted me when I was a kid listening to it at the babysitter's house, rifling through her son's record collection. I guess this kind of proves the point - Alice started making records for children - though I'm less sure that's a demerit.

lolz, where's the Music Scholar?

"I saw the Alice Cooper Band.... before they *sucked*"

for children or not, Alice's late-70s album covers use to scare the bejusus outta me when i'd see them plastered all over record shop walls. never did work up the courage to buy Alic Cooper Goes to Hell back in the day.

"Mary Ann
I'm really crazy 'bout you..."

"Only Women Bleed"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"My heart's a virgin / it ain't never been tried."

I revived b/c I'm listening through the Cooper oeuvre today and remembered this thread...and "I Never Cry" is great.

Good grief there are 3 AC c/d threads.