Pretties for You

Pretties for You
Studio album by
Alice Cooper
ReleasedJune 25, 1969[1]
RecordedNovember 1968
StudioWhitney Studios, Los Angeles[2]
Genre
Length38:10
LabelStraight
Producer
Alice Cooper chronology
Pretties for You
(1969) 		Easy Action
(1970)
Singles from Pretties for You
  1. "Reflected"
    Released: May 19, 1969

Pretties for You is the debut studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on June 25, 1969, by Straight Records. "Alice Cooper" referred to the band and not its lead singer Vincent Furnier. The album has a psychedelic style to it and the group had yet to develop the more concise hard rock sound that they would become famous for.

Most of the tracks feature unusual time signatures and arrangements, jarring syncopation, expressive dynamics, sound effects, and an eclectic range of music influences. A few songs, such as "Levity Ball", show the influence of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, with whom the band hung out during the British group's U.S. tour.[9] Alice Cooper guitarist Glen Buxton stated he could listen to Barrett's guitar playing for hours on end.[10]

The artwork for this album is a painting by Edward Beardsley.[11] It was originally hanging on the wall of the living room in Frank Zappa's house,[12] and his wife Gail Zappa stated that it was later stolen from them.[13]

Pretties for You was a critical and commercial failure, briefly appearing on the Billboard Top 200, and none of its songs have ever been played live by Cooper since the release of the band's breakthrough album Love It to Death.[14] The song "Reflected", Alice Cooper's first single, was later rewritten as "Elected", which features on their 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.

  1. ^ Alice Cooper Box Set
  2. ^ "Hot Rats: Notes & Comments". globalia.net. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Doyle Greene (17 February 2016). Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966-1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era. McFarland. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-4766-2403-7.
  4. ^ a b Love It to Death at AllMusic. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  5. ^ Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. p. 224. ISBN 9781843531050.
  6. ^ Pearson, Paul (August 8, 2007). "Alice Cooper, Love It to Death". PopMatters. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
  7. ^ Cope, Julian (2012). Copendium: An Expedition into the Rock 'n' Roll Underworld. London: Fsber & Faber. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0-571 27034-7. As a rock'n'roll group, Alice Cooper were always so much more than those first two horrible/brilliant LPs – and even they were genuine experimental rock of the Frankenstein kind. That is, they fell on their face at least seventy percent of the time, but struggled ever upward towards some Doorsian light at the end of the tunnel.
  8. ^ "Pretties For You". alicecooper.com. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
  9. ^ Liner notes to The Life and Death of Alice Cooper box set, p. 62.
  10. ^ Palmerston, Sean (August 10, 2011). "Alice Cooper – Old School 1964-1974". Hellbound.ca. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  11. ^ "Pretties For You". Sickthingsuk.co.uk. Archived from the original on February 19, 2012. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  12. ^ "LIFE: Musician Frank Zappa (R) w. parents (L–R... - Hosted by Google". Images.google.com. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  13. ^ "Re: Questions about Alice Master Tapes". Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
  14. ^ Alice Cooper Tour Archive