Mercury Records

Alice Cooper co-founder and Hall Of Fame inductee Dennis Dunaway answers your questions!

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livinluvin72
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Mercury Records

Post by livinluvin72 » Wed Apr 28, 2021 2:26 am

Was it true that Mercury Records wanted to give you guys a recording contract but they wanted you to dump the singer?
Was this before Frank Zappa?

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Dreary
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Re: Mercury Records

Post by Dreary » Wed Apr 28, 2021 4:24 am

livinluvin72 wrote:
Wed Apr 28, 2021 2:26 am
Was it true that Mercury Records wanted to give you guys a recording contract but they wanted you to dump the singer?
Was this before Frank Zappa?
Yes, it was before Zappa. It was even before Neal Smith, therefore before Alice Cooper.
We were on our way to Top Taco, which was across the street from the Capitol Records building in L.A., and as we were walking past Mercury Records, we decided to pop in to see if we could audition. Two guys were there and they said, sure, the studio is set up so let's hear it. So, on the spot, we played "Talk Talk" which we covered as the Spiders, and a few originals. The guys called Michael into the control room and gave him their offer, which was to hire us to be the new Music Machine band backing Sean Bonniwell. Michael told us that they wanted us without Vince and we declined because we were a band. Ironically, years later, Alice would record "Talk Talk" with guys that he had hired to replace us.

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