hello hurray

[patrick]

Hi Dennis
been looking at your recent interview on youtube and a question came to my mind about Hello Hurray
B$B was my first ACG lp and it was until much later I learned that Hello Hurray was actually a cover , amongst others sung by Judy Collins ( listened to that rendition too, quite different , also in the lyrics)
the ACG turned it into a perfect song, but wasn't it a strange idea to open your newest album with a cover, that must have been quite familiar to listeners at the time, since it was written only 5 years before ? The credits go to the original composer only, but the lyrics were made by all of you, I suppose ? Or was it all Bob Ezrins idea ?
thx for "being " here !

[Dreary]

We had most of the album recorded but we wanted a great opening song for the record and for the show. So, Bob brought in a demo. It was just an acoustic guitar and singer, probably the writer Rolf Kempf. I didn't know Judy Collins had covered it, and hadn't herd that until years later. We liked the idea of covering it, providing we could give it a major overhaul, which we did.

[patrick]

thanks for your reply, Dennis.
( remarkably enough, this item was also brought in the interesting interview with all four of you of the ACG , dealing with the release of the B$B reissue.)
Strangely enough, no clear answer came on the question if there would be a new ACG album "soon"...
As you certainly know there have been so many speculations already ( certainly on this site :-) )
Wouldn't it have been a great opportunity to realtisticly "feed" these expectations or is it all whisfull thinking ?
Perhaps or maybe things are not far enough yet, although I (we ) know from your side there would be no objection to this project.

[Dreary]

"Strangely enough, no clear answer came on the question if there would be a new ACG album "soon"..."

I think the old saying "Once bitten, twice shy" applies here. Over the decades, there have been several occasions when rumors have circulated about another original Alice Cooper album. And there have even been times when the band, including Alice, seemed optimistic about it actually happening. But then it didn't, and that's why there is no clear answer.

Like many of you, I've been suffering from wishful thinking since the day the band returned from Rio in 1974.
But I will say that, once again, my hopes are up.

[revinkevin]

My hopes are up. Way up. There was magic in those ACG albums. With the bar being set so high with those original albums, does it create any pressures to recreate that type of legacy or does it add excitement to seek new possibilities ? I would think there would be no pressure to make a hit single since the music business is so different today. I’m thinking it’s more a labor of love, doing what you want and showing appreciation to all the fans over all those years. Fingers crossed on my end.

[Marcelocooper]

Getting on board on the B$B questions… At the time you recorded those amazing songs, did any of you thought that after 50 years you would still be honoring this album and young people would still be discovering it and you would be getting new generations of fans?

[Dreary]

Getting on board on the B$B questions… At the time you recorded those amazing songs, did any of you thought that after 50 years you would still be honoring this album and young people would still be discovering it and you would be getting new generations of fans?

At the time, my thoughts were always in the future, however, it was always the near future concerning our next album and next show. We didn't have time to think 50 years ahead.

It is amazing to me that people still listen to our music. There were several young enthusiasts at the Billion Dollar Babies Release Party in Dallas last Thursday March 7th. They all knew the band's history well enough to know that it was most appropriate to wear an original band t-shirt.

Personally, I have the extra bonus of hearing people say that I'm the reason they became musicians, which is something I never imagined happening.