BILLION DOLLAR BABIES (Alice Cooper Band) – Battle Axe [HNE 3xCD Complete Edition Remastered] (2020)

Hear No Evil / Cherry Red are releasing tomorrow the most complete BILLION DOLLAR BABIES‘ album “Battle Axe” ever; fully remastered and with 2 extra discs.
Following Muscle Of Love in 1974, the original ALICE COOPER BAND took a break to consider solo projects outside of the band. The plan had been for the original Alice Cooper band to regroup and record in 1977, but by this time the name of the band had become very much synonymous with it’s lead singer – Vincent Furnier – who now had very much morphed into Alice as far as the public were concerned. The “solo” Alice record Welcome to My Nightmare had firmly separated Alice Cooper the singer from Alice Cooper the band.
Rather than abandon the intended album, drummer Neal Smith, guitarist Michael Bruce and bassist Dennis Dunaway joined forces with lead guitarist Mike Marconi and Alice Cooper keyboard player Bob Dolin, and signing to Polydor records, fashioned the abandoned Alice Cooper band album into ”Battle Axe”, calling themselves BILLION DOLLAR BABIES, a very deliberate nod to their previous incarnation.
The original album has now been augmented with a whole disc of pre-production demos, including non-album tracks ‘I Don’t Know Babe’, ‘Wallow Through This Madness’, ‘Only One Will Walk Away’ and ‘High Heels Hollywood’. The Billion Dollar Babies only played four live shows before disbanding, but thankfully someone was around to record the very first of these shows, in Flint, Michigan on 6th July 1977, put on CD3.

The Battle Axe LP was a creditable collection of a dozen original, commercial rock songs that would easily have served as a new Alice LP. The album unfortunately struggled to find an audience upon release, and the Billion Dollar Babies project was short lived.
This is pure classic rock from a bunch of talented musicians, and with this bright remastering job ”Battle Axe” never sounded better
Highly Recommended

CD1
01 – Too Young
02 – Shine Your Love
03 – I Miss You
04 – Wasn’t I The One
05 – Love Is Rather Blind
06 – Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio
07 – Dance With Me
08 – Rock Me Slowly
09 – Ego Mania
10 – Battle Axe
11 – (Sudden Death)
12 – Winner

CD 2
01 – Shine Your Love (Demo)
02 – Miss You (Demo)
03 – Wasn’t I The One (Demo)
04 – Dance With Me (Demo)
05 – Want To Go Home (Demo)
06 – Love Is Rather Blind (Demo)
07 – Rock Me Slowly (Demo)
08 – Battle Axe-Sudden Death-Winner (Demo)
09 – Rock ‘n’ Roll Prison (Demo)
10 – Runaway Inst. (Demo)
11 – I Don’t Know Babe (Demo Mono)
12 – Wallow Through This Madness (Demo Mono)
13 – Only One Will Walk Away (Demo Mono)
14 – High Heels Hollywood (Demo Mono)

CD 3
01 – I Miss You (Live)
02 – Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio (Live)
03 – Love Is Rather Blind (Live)
04 – Rock Me Slowly (Live)
05 – Alice Cooper Medley: No More Mr. Nice Guy / Elected / School’s Out
06 – Battle Axe Suite: Ego Mania (Live)
07 – Battle Axe (Live)
08 – Nights In Cracked Leather / Sudden Death (Live)
09 – Too Young (Live)
10 – Billion Dollar Babies (Live)

Neal Smith – Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Dennis Dunaway – Bass, Vocals
Michael Bruce – Lead Vocals, Guitar
Bob Dolin – Keyboards, Synths, Vocals
Mike Marconi – Guitar, Vocals

PRE Order:
www.amazon.com/Battle-Axe-BILLION-DOLLAR-BABIES/dp/B08JDXBRVF
www.cherryred.co.uk/product/billion-dollar-babies-battle-axe-complete-edition-3cd/