Rare Early Album Releases...
The albums below are by no means the definitive list of rare albums. They are purely the first Alice Cooper album releases in their original packaging. I imagine they can still all be found in second hand/used record stores or record fairs and something well worth having in any record collection, whether you're an Alice Cooper Fan or not.
The album on the left is the original 1969 pressing of Pretties For You, released on Frank Zappa's Straight Label, it had the catalogue number STS 1051.
The album came in a gatefold sleeve, something which I believe was quite rare at the time, and had individual pictures of the group on the inner sleeve and a picture of the whole group on the back.
Another Straight release was Easy Action, released in 1970, with the catalogue number STS 1061.
The album again came in a gatefold sleeve and followed a similar pattern to PFY. That is to say that the inner sleeve contained individual pictures of the band, although there was several of Alice, and again a joint picture of the group on the back.
Love it to Death was released in 1971. The album on the left is the original Straight Release however, at the time of it's release, Warner Brothers took over the Straight Record Label and the album was quickly re-released on the Warner Brother/Straight Label. Therefore very few copies of the album were actually released on the original Straight Label which possibly makes this even rarer than Alice's first two albums.
The album again came as a gatefold sleeve but with the slight alteration that the album came from the centre fold of the inner sleeve and not from the side. The inner sleeve contained a large picture of Alice's eyes with the original 'spider' make-up and the pupils contained small distorted pictures of the band.
The rear of the album was a similar picture to the front sleeve but on a white background.
According to Dale Sherman's Book the original sleeve had a rather embarassing thumb position which was edited out of further pressings - to date I haven't saw such a cover.
HERE IT IS!!!
A special thanks to Graeme Cornish who has kindly donated the above scan!
All I can say is that if the thumb was mistaken for another part of Alice's anatomy - he must feel mighty proud!!! ;-)
Killer was also released in 1971, catalogue number K56005, and, although it had almost taken the form of a 'normal' sleeve, came complete with a 1972 calender featuring the legendary 'hanging' picture of Alice that would be used again and again.
The original pressing of School's Out, K56007, was and still is the best album cover of all time - in my humble opinion!
The album came in the guise of a desk with legs that folded out at the rear and the front of the album opened up like a desk lid. The 'inside' of the desk contained a picture of the normal contents of a school desk! The vinyl itself was wrapped in a pair of paper panties - later to be withdrawn owing to fire risk!
Produced by Davie Damnation
