Welcome to My Nightmare is the debut solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released on March 10, 1975, by Atlantic Records. A concept album, its songs played in sequence form a journey through the nightmares of a child named Steven. The album inspired the Alice Cooper: The Nightmare TV special, a worldwide concert tour, and his Welcome to My Nightmare concert film (1976). The tour was one of the most over-the-top excursions of that era. Most of Lou Reed's band joined Cooper for this record. Internationally, Welcome to My Nightmare was released by the ABC subsidiary Anchor Records. It is Cooper's only album under Atlantic Records and Anchor Records.

The cover artwork was created by Drew Struzan for Pacific Eye & Ear. Rolling Stone would later rank it ninetieth on the list of the "Top 100 Album Covers of All Time". Famed horror film star Vincent Price provided a monologue in the song "Devil's Food", which was used as a segue into the next song, "The Black Widow". The song "Escape" was a rewrite of a song by the Hollywood Stars from their shelved album Shine Like a Radio – The Great Lost 1974 Album, which was finally released in 2013. The ballad "Only Women Bleed", released as a single, is a song originally composed by guitarist Dick Wagner for his late-1960s band the Frost, with a new title provided by Cooper and revised lyrics written by Wagner and Cooper. The remastered CD version adds three alternate version bonus tracks.

A sequel concept album, Welcome 2 My Nightmare, was released in 2011.

Background

The Alice Cooper band broke up by spring of 1974, with Cooper beginning work on his first solo project.

Concept

In 2020, while being interviewed on the Bob Lefsetz podcast, Ezrin recalled that Alice Cooper's manager Shep Gordon had a clause that allowed the Alice Cooper band members to make a soundtrack album for another label. As a result, the album needed to have a storyline to become a soundtrack, that would subsequently be adapted into a film or television show. Ezrin and Cooper came up with a story concept for the album, with Cooper telling the story of the nightmares of the character Steven.

| rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide

| rev2Score = B−

| rev3 = Rolling Stone

| rev3score = (mixed)

| rev4 = Classic Rock

| rev4score =

Welcome to My Nightmare received generally mixed reviews upon release. Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone called the album "a TV soundtrack that sounds like one", finding it gimmicky and lamenting the absence of the original Alice Cooper band's sound.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

  • Alice Cooper – lead vocals
  • Dick Wagner – electric and acoustic guitar, vocals
  • Steve "Deacon" Hunter – electric and acoustic guitar
  • Prakash John – bass
  • Pentti "Whitey" Glan – drums

Additional personnel

  • Bob Ezrin – synthesizer, keyboards, vocals, producer
  • Jozef Chirowski – keyboards, clavinet, vocals, Fender Rhodes
  • Tony Levin – bass on "Welcome to My Nightmare" and "Escape"
  • Johnny "Bee" Badanjek – drums on "Welcome to My Nightmare" and "Escape"
  • Vincent Price – The Curator
  • Trish McKinnon – "Mom"
  • David Ezrin, Gerry Lyons, Michael Sherman, the Summerhill Children's Choir – vocals
  • Bob Ezrin, Allan Macmillan – arrangements

Technical

  • Jeffrey Morgan – liner notes <small>(reissue)</small>
  • Michael Sherman – production assistant
  • Phil Ramone – engineer on "Only Women Bleed", recording at A&R Studios
  • Corky Stasiak, Dave Palmer, Ed Sprigg, Rod O'Brien – recording at Record Plant East and Electric Lady Studios
  • Dave Palmer, Jim Frank – recording at Soundstage
  • Drew Struzan – artwork

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

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! Chart (1975)

! Peak<br/>position

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

| 5

|-

|-

! scope="row" | Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)

| 23

|-

|-

|-

|}

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

! scope="col"| Chart (2021)

! scope="col"| Peak<br>position

|-

|-

|}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|-

! Chart (1975)

! Peak<br/>position

|-

!scope="row"|Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

|23

|}

Certifications

Stage adaptation

Cooper talked with Rolling Stone over the theatrical adaptation of his album, although there has been little traction on this since 2010.

Cover versions

The 1999 tribute album Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper includes covers of "Cold Ethyl" by Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Mike Inez, Billy Sheehan and Simon Phillips and "The Black Widow" by Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith, Tony Franklin, Tommy Aldridge and David Glen Eisley. The album also includes covers of the title track and "Only Women Bleed". All four tracks also feature the album's producer, Bob Ezrin.

References

  • Alice Cooper Welcome to My Nightmare Tour Program
  • Alice Cooper Welcome to My Nightmare on Original Album Cover Art