School's Out (album)
Occupation
- Alice Cooper
- Glen Buxton
- Michael Bruce
- Dennis Dunaway
- Neal Smith
School's Out is the fifth studio album by Alice Cooper and was the breakthrough for the band, which was hitherto only represented in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada in the charts.
Title list
Success
School's Out was the first album Alice Cooper, which also managed to enter the German and Austrian charts. In Germany it peaked at # 3 and stayed 12 weeks in the top 10, while it was in Austria at # 8 and is held 12 weeks in the charts. In the UK and the U.S. also the first top- 10 ranking could be achieved. In Canada, the album debuted on July 15, 1972 at number 45 and reached within a month the top position.
So far, the album sold more than a million copies and reached on September 19, 1990 platinum status.
Reception
Greg Prato of Allmusic awarded 4.5 / 5 stars. He attributes the success primarily on the eponymous theme song back, which he regarded as a timeless classic. Compared to the previous albums Love It To Death and Killer, where some hard- rock classics were to be found, School's Out appears as a concept album. Songs like Gutter Cat vs. the Jets, Street Fight, My Stars and Grand Finals are arranged as small epics, although Alice Cooper manage to maintain their rough and unpolished style.
Ben Gerson by Rolling Stone also makes a comparison with the previous albums, and comes to the conclusion that not all the songs on School's Out can be described as rock music. Much is music as it would be played in Broadway plays or used for movie soundtracks. Nevertheless, it is a challenging album.