ALICE COOPER

Billion Dollar Babies

(Warner Bros.)

Quite simply, Billion Dollar Babies is the Sgt. Pepper of punkdom. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof, which in the end is probably just as acceptable to the army of millions that will buy any Alice Cooper album the moment it's released but can only barely remember who Paul McCartney once was.

Just look what they’ve got to occupy themselves with: that slick and slimy imitation snakeskin cover, the oversized Alice Cooper dollar bill that’ll be on more teenage bedroom walls than Bobby Orr and Rod McKuen posters combined, and a whole section of wallet-size punch-out photos of the boys at play, which gives way to a handsome color portrait of our heroes surrounded by 500,000 authentic big ones b/w a lyric sheet and listing of the credits. Oh, and there’s also a record.