He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)

For the book titled Er ist wieder da ("He's Back") in German, see Look Who's Back.
"He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)"
Single cover
Single by Alice Cooper
from the album Constrictor
ReleasedAugust 1986[1]
Recorded1986
Genre
Length3:37
LabelMCA Records
Songwriter(s)Alice Cooper, Kane Roberts, Tom Kelly
Producer(s)Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper singles chronology
"I Love America"
(1983) 		"He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)"
(1986) 		"Teenage Frankenstein"
(1987)

"He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" is a song by American shock rock musician Alice Cooper. It was released as the lead single from his 1986 album Constrictor and was used as the theme song for the motion picture Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

The song features the famous "ki-ki-ki ma-ma-ma" (in its popular misheard version, "ch-ch-ch, ha-ha-ha") sound effect, a trademark of the Friday the 13th series.[5] The song has also been described as celebrating the return of series antagonist Jason Voorhees, after being killed off in the fourth film Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) and appearing only in flashbacks and hallucinations in the fifth installment Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985).

"He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" was a minor chart success, popular among fans of Cooper's later work and enthusiasts of slasher films. It has been said to "perfectly encapsulate the Friday the 13th films and the era in which they came to prominence."[6]

The 7" single featured a "live" version of "Billion Dollar Babies" as its B-side. The 12" single featured "Billion Dollar Babies (Recorded Live)" as well as a haunting "live" version of "I'm Eighteen". Both versions were in fact originally recorded in the studio for the Alice Cooper a Paris TV special in 1981 during the Special Forces era, which were remixed in 1986 with crowd noise to resemble "live" recordings.

  1. ^ Alice Cooper - He's Back single - Dutch Charts.
  2. ^ Hanke, Ken (2013). A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series. Routledge. p. 298. ISBN 978-0415726429.
  3. ^ Sasaguay, Chris (November 11, 2021). "11 Horror Movies That Rocked A Rock Anthem". Collider. Retrieved June 3, 2022.
  4. ^ "19 songs influenced by horror movies not written by the Misfits". Alternative Press Magazine. 31 July 2020. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
  5. ^ "Slasher Shopper". Slasherama.com. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
  6. ^ Alice Cooper: The Man Behind the Mask!" Archived 2012-12-08 at archive.today, an article at X-Entertainment.