Alice Cooper: Top 10 Songs

Alice Cooper all but created the shock rock that spawned Kiss and eventually Marilyn Mason and Rob Zombie. Beginning as Vincent Furnier and becoming the lead "persona" for the band that had changed it's name to Alice Cooper, he eventually accepted the moniker as his own and began a solo career.

The story goes that Alice Cooper, a 17^th century witch, had been reincarnated as the man who eventually took the name after communicating with her via Ouija board. The story has changed at various times throughout the course of his career, but it is by far the most interesting story of the bunch.

He found himself in treatment for drugs and alcohol, eventually cleaning himself out and acting as a positive influence to others in his situation and has apparently remained clean and sober.

This column breaks down the author's Top 10 Alice Cooper songs. A career that has spanned through five decades - the 1960's, 70's, 80's, 90's and the millennium - has produced something to the order of 28 studio albums.

From those albums spring my Top 10 Alice Cooper songs of all time.

10. "Poison" from Trash

Produced by the man who helped resurrect Kiss' career, Desmond Child, the album Trash helped resurrect Alice's career by producing this hard rock hit. There's nothing truly about this song that makes it a great record, I have just always found it to be a fun song. It's the only representative of Alice's mid- to late-1980's and later work. For me, it's one of those dusty songs from young adulthood that still has that element about it that makes it a great song while in the car.

9. "Remarkably Insincere" from Zipper Catches Skin

Zipper Catches Skin was released when Alice was going through some pretty dark days personally and it would seem the production of this record reflects it. It does have it's redeeming qualities. While many an Alice fan would be turned off by this album, one of my favorite songs comes from it. "Remarkably Insincere" is the basic story of a liar, but I could never really be sure if it was a Machiavellian tale or if this was someone thinking of all the things he'd like to say to someone.

8. "School's Out" from School's Out