Special Forces (Alice Cooper album)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Special Forces" Alice Cooper album – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Special Forces
Studio album by Alice Cooper
Released	September 1, 1981 (1981-09-01)[1]
Studio	American Recording Co., Studio City, California
Genre	Hard rock punk rock new wave
Length	34:51
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Richard Podolor
Alice Cooper chronology
Flush the Fashion (1980) Special Forces (1981) Zipper Catches Skin (1982)
Singles from Special Forces
"You Want It, You Got It" Released: July 1981[2] "Seven and Seven Is" Released: October 1981[3]

Special Forces is the sixth solo studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released in September 1981 by Warner Bros. Records.^[4] It was produced by Richard Podolor, best known for his work with Three Dog Night.

Special Forces is the first of three studio albums which Cooper refers to as his "blackout" albums, followed by Zipper Catches Skin (1982), and DaDa (1983), as he has no recollection of recording them, due to substance abuse. Cooper stated "I wrote them, recorded them and toured them and I don't remember much of any of that",^[5] though in fact he toured only Special Forces.^[6]

The Special Forces tour started on June 20, 1981 in Concord, California, well before the album was eventually released. On October 9, Alice Cooper was interviewed on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder, looking very gaunt in full military-drag make-up, after which he gave live performances of "Who Do You Think We Are" and his cover version of Love's "Seven and Seven Is", both from the album. Cooper toured Special Forces through the United States, Canada, France, Spain and the United Kingdom, but other than the aforementioned songs he played no further Special Forces songs live, except for snippets of "Vicious Rumours" at a few shows in the U.S. and Scotland.^[7] With the exception of "Who Do You Think We Are", which was a regular part of setlists during the Eyes of Alice Cooper tour in 2004,^[8] none of the songs from Special Forces has been performed live since 1982.^[6]

French television special Alice Cooper a Paris was recorded in December 1981 and aired on January 14, before the start of the Special Forces European tour – Cooper's first tour of Europe since 1975. The tour was a major success.

The Special Forces tour, ending in February 1982, would be Cooper's last for over four years, as he succumbed to the abuse of freebase cocaine and a subsequent relapse of alcoholism, until his return to the road in October 1986 with The Nightmare Returns tour.