This news, of course, is a bit late. It was announced last week that Marshall Blonstein’s premier reissue label, Audio Fidelity, would remaster Alice Cooper‘s best-selling, hit-filled title, Billion Dollar Babies on SACD. This is great news for Alice Cooper fans even if the other grand Warner titles might not see the benefits of the upgrade.
Billion Dollar Babies, released after the whirlwind releases of Love It To Death (1971), Killer (1971), and School’s Out (1972). all issued mere months after each other. And that’s not even including the first two, Pretties For You (1969), and Easy Action, released a year from each other. Still, just when Easy Action was put on shelves, they put Love it To Death in the same place just six months later. So, Alice Cooper was a hard working band, recording, touring, and trying to have an existence, all at the same time.
Everyone that’s an Alice Cooper fan has an opinion of what the band’s best representative output was. Most people will agree that it was Billion Dollar Babies. It often gets the most attention.
It was hinted, then let loose that Hoffman would remaster the respected album. The label confirmed this last week with a Facebook post stating that the album would arrive in January of 2014. That will officially be January 21. The set will feature a replica bill inside the package.
Regardless, Billion Dollar Babies will be welcomed with open arms by SACD aficionados that are Alice Cooper fans.
You might want to also mention that Scorpions “Blackout” is also coming on SACD on the same date. It is available for pre-order alongside the Cooper’s “Babies.” Both of these are extremely fine albums.
Yippee!!!
Keep them coming boys!!! Loud and proud.
If only some of these were being remixed in 5.1…..
Well, Cooper’s “Babies” already has a decent 5.1 (sadly out of print, but sitting on my shelf) that should have been ported over (rights issues or not).
The entire field of Hi-Res music field has become so fragmented (SACD, DVD Audio and now Blu-Ray) and they seem to visit the same titles over and over again without adding much to the entire “conversation.” It is getting kind of tiresome trying to sort out what you might or might not get with each re-issue or even if they are worth the coin that they are demanding now-a-days. Sadly, the original CD issue, usually from somewhere back in the 80’s – when music mattered, stands as the benchmark for mastering and sound quality.