Alice Cooper – No More Mr. Nice Guy

I grew up with this band as they were played on AM radio, and we had a few singles. What I just realized recently is how pop this all sounds. For all the guillotines, snakes, and fake blood of Cooper’s stage show, this song could have sat alongside power pop songs of the era. That is a compliment.

It took me a long time to figure out that Alice Cooper was a band, not the lead singer (well, until they broke up). The change from the band name to the singer’s name occurred in 1975 when the original band broke up, and the lead singer, Vincent Furnier, legally changed his name to Alice Cooper so he could continue with that name. The band, originally called The Earwigs and then The Spiders, decided to change their name to Alice Cooper in 1968. They wanted a name that was wholesome-sounding, a contrast to their horror-themed image. For publicity, the band said it came from an Ouija board and Alice was a witch from long ago. 

By 1973, Alice Cooper wasn’t just a band; they were a phenomenon. The name Alice had gone from a person to a brand, from a weird underground theater act to global headlines. I would say Alice Cooper and Ziggy Stardust were the big theater kind of acts until KISS came along later. 

Cooper wrote this song with Michael Bruce, who was a member of the original Alice Cooper. Bruce played guitar, keyboards, and contributed vocals as a band member. He was also the group’s chief songwriter and wrote or co-wrote many of their most-recognized songs, including School’s Out, Under My Wheels, I’m Eighteen, Ballad of Dwight Fry, Be My Lover, Desperado, and Billion Dollar Babies.

This song was an answer to nervous mothers and everyone else who was scared of his influence. He was basically saying he was going to keep doing what he was doing. Funny thing is, now Alice Cooper is one of the most grounded rock stars of them all. I saw him open up for the Rolling Stones in 2006, and he was great! With the little bit of makeup he was using, he looked like he walked out of 1973. 

This was the third single from Billion Dollar Babies, the sixth studio album by Alice Cooper. This was the band’s most commercially successful album. It topped the album charts in both the United States and the UK, and also made the Top 10 in Australia, Austria, and Canada. Bob Ezrin was the producer who produced many of Alice Cooper’s albums. Alice called Ezrin our George Martin. 

The song peaked at #15 on the Billboard 100 and #10 in the UK in 1973

No More Mr. Nice Guy

I used to be such a sweet, sweet thing
‘Til they got a hold of me.
I opened doors for little old ladies,
I helped the blind to see.
I got no friends ’cause they read the papers.
They can’t be seen with me and I’m gettin’ real shot down
And I’m feeling mean.

[Chorus]
No more Mister Nice Guy,
No more Mister Clean,
No more Mister Nice Guy,
They say he’s sick, he’s obscene.

I got no friends ’cause they read the papers.
They can’t be seen with me and I’m feelin’ real shot down
And I’m gettin’ mean.

No more Mister Nice Guy,
No more Mister Clean,
No more Mister Nice Guy,
They say he’s sick, he’s obscene.

My dog bit me on the leg today.
My cat clawed my eyes.
Ma’s been thrown out of the social circle,
And dad has to hide.
I went to church incognito.
When everybody rose, the Reverend Smith,
He recognized me,
And punched me in the nose, he said.

No more Mister Nice Guy,
No more Mister Clean,
No more Mister Nice Guy,
He said you’re sick, you’re obscene.

No more Mister Nice Guy,
No more Mister Clean,
No more Mister Nice Guy,
He said you’re sick, you’re obscene.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

40 thoughts on “Alice Cooper – No More Mr. Nice Guy”

  2. Pingback: Alice Cooper – No More Mr. Nice Guy – MobsterTiger

    1. Perfect age for great music…Oh when I saw him 2006…Jim, the Stones played at Church Hill Downs…it was not made for concerts. The Stones played great but their sound sucked…Alice sounded much better…I don’t know why he sounded so good but the Stones were garbled.

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  5. cool song I’ve not heard in quite awhile. You’re right that listening now he wasn’t so extreme or heavy as people thought back then. My brother was a big fan in that era, which of course scared and annoyed my mother

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      1. Generations come and go but the fact that you can get rich by appealing to teens by way of shocking their parents always stays the same. Malcolm Mclaren and his Sex Pistols , Kiss and Marilyn Manson all took notes from the Alice lesson

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  6. the Coop!…..that history, the connections to Frank Zappa, and Canada, Canadians Jack Richardson and Bob Ezrin and Nimbus 9 studios in Toronto…

    I remember various city councils here in Edmonton trying to ban him/the band….one show here he performed with I think a broken arm after a bad fall, but was worried if he cancelled or postponed they’d not get back in…..the one song that I always want to more about has to be You and Me…a great tune that showed his versatility

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    1. He is an interesting artist. You and Me and Only Women Bleed are the two very pop songs he hit huge with…after having all of those harder songs and then pop top 40 hits.
      He also seems like a great guy.

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  8. Alice had some good tunes. He came out when I was the right age to soak it up. My buddy had a great “Hi-Fi” system and we used to crank all those first records. I still belt out “I’m 18′ at random times and places. The guys with the butterfly nets start chasing me. Can you think of a worse name for a band than the “Earwigs”?

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  9. If the music is at a high level the theatrics help. Alice pulled it off pretty damned well- and still kicking. I just find it hard to believe ‘I’m off to play ’18” can now mean Vincent is going out to play 18 holes at Rolling Meadow.

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  10. Excellent tune! It’s one I used to sing as a mantra. Saw him once live in my little home town. I remember they dropped black balloons. He’s had a lot of good radio hits, and yes, they are great pop songs. He was the one parents were afraid of, and I think Ozzy came right him or they arose on the scene at the same time?

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    1. Ozzy was a tad earlier if I remember right. Nice that a band visited some of the smaller places. The bigger a band gets the more likely they are to play LA twice and forget about, say a gig in Chino?

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    2. Around the same time yes…and I’m not an expert on them but in America it was Alice more and Ozzy was still the lead singer of Black Sabbath so more in the UK….so I never thought about those two together…which is dumb on my part…yea they did rise around the same time.

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      2. Yes….and for some Lisa…The Beatles…at least one of my friend’s mom when I was a kid. She told my mom I was heading down the wrong path…my mom though told her Max knows right from wrong…he is fine lol. When I found that out…I was so proud of her.

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      3. so funny about your friend’s mom, Max. Heartwarming your mom believing in you. I remember my dad didn’t want my mom to watch Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show. The pelvis move was not to be tolerated, and especially with a guy’s wife observing it.

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  11. “No More Mr. Nice Guy” is a classic in my book. Alice Cooper (the band and solo) has had some decent songs. While one could consider his stage show gory, which in turn could lead you to believe there’s something weird about him, based on interviews I’ve seen, he comes across as a pretty regular and likeable dude.

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  12. good track this one, Alice at his peak, though sporadically good in various comebacks in the80’s and 90’s – I saw him in the early 90’s and the volume was set to 11. It was so painful I had to leave early and stick my fingers in my ears previous to leaving. My ears always used to ring after loud concerts until they got so damaged they stopped ringing, a bit deaf in one ear now tragically and annoyingly!

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    1. Oh wow…I saw him in 2006…he sounded clear and better than the Stones sound who he was opening for… You know who my loudest concert was? You WON’T believe it. The Monkees…yes…The Monkees. I was sitting in front of their sound system and it was louder than the hard rock bands I would watch.

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  13. My next oldest sister had quite a few of his singles, and the Killer and Billion Dollar Babies albums. It really seems to encapsulate a certain moment in time to me. I liked his pop hits, which were such a shock coming from him, especially “Only Women Bleed”.

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