WCSX Classic Cuts : I’m Eighteen

WCSX Classic Cuts

Alice Cooper: "I'm Eighteen"

The Hook: Sometimes it pays to be different.

Year Released: 1970

Album: Love It to Death

Writers: Alice Cooper, Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith

Stats: After two albums that barely sold, "I'm Eighteen" -- the first single off their third album -- was the launching pad for Alice Cooper to become one of the biggest rock stars of the first half of the 1970s. Although it didn't quite make the Top 20 (it peaked at number-21), it put Alice in the public eye for the first time. And once he had our attention...

The Background: Alice Cooper figured "I'm Eighteen" was a "pretty good rock'n'roll song" and "a bit of an anthem." but once radio stations started playing it, "It just jumped out as being so different from anything else...it was a breath of fresh air."

Alice Cooper on how "I'm Eighteen" came about. OC:...rock'n'roll song. :27

"It was just a jam we had done. We always warmed up with those chords and then we finally put words to them. And it was a good garage-rock song and we knew it was a bit of an anthem. As soon as it got on the radio, I mean, it just jumped out as being so different from anything else. It just jumped up the charts and just went crazy, because it was a breath of fresh air -- an angst-riddled anthem. And to us it was just a pretty good rock 'n' roll song."