Teenage Frankenstein

Zoo Freaks, get ready for some electrifying trivia about Alice Cooper's "Teenage Frankenstein" from the 1986 album Constrictor, now spinning on THE ZOO! This track, a pure '80s metal anthem, was crafted for the horror flick Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, alongside Cooper's "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" and "Hard Rock Summer." While it didn't chart in the US, it helped Constrictor become Cooper's highest-charting album since 1980, peaking at number 59, and the single hit number 80 on the UK Singles Chart in 1987. Fun fact: the song's spoken intro features none other than Robert Englund, the iconic Freddy Krueger, as noted by a fan on Bloody Popcorn. The 7" and 12" singles included "live" versions of "School's Out" and "Only Women Bleed," but here's the twist—they were studio recordings from the 1982 Alice Cooper a Paris TV special, remixed with crowd noise in 1987 to sound live.

Dive deeper into the song's vibe with its lyrics, which scream teenage alienation through lines like "I'm the kid on the block / With my head made of rock" and "I ain't one of the crowd." Fridays With Alice calls it a story of an outcast, resonating with the heavy metal crowd who felt misunderstood in the '80s. Cooper himself has referenced the song's enduring legacy, with a remastered HD video shared on X in October 2022, captioned, "Teenage Frankenstein remastered in HD. Stay in the shadows, sick things." The track made a comeback in live sets, popping up on the 2001 "Descent into Dragontown" tour and the 2019 "Ol' Black Eyes Is Back" tour, thanks to fan demand and guitarist Nita Strauss, a self-proclaimed metalhead who loves Constrictor, as mentioned on SickthingsUK.

Now, let’s rewind to how Alice Cooper, born Vincent Damon Furnier on February 4, 1948, kicked off his legendary career. Hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, Cooper started as the frontman of the Alice Cooper band in the mid-1960s, originally called The Spiders. Inspired by horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock, they morphed into a theatrical shock rock act. A pivotal moment came when they were signed by Frank Zappa’s Straight Records after a chaotic 1968 gig in Los Angeles, as Cooper shared in a 2018 Loudwire interview posted on X. Their 1971 album Killer and the hit "School’s Out" in 1972 catapulted them to fame. By 1973, Furnier legally became Alice Cooper, fully embodying the character he described as a creation separate from himself in a 2023 Paste Magazine interview. Known as the "Godfather of Shock Rock," his macabre stage shows with guillotines, fake blood, and snakes drew from Bette Davis’ gothic makeup in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Anita Pallenberg’s edgy look in Barbarella.

Stay connected with the Coop! Check out his official website at alicecooper.com for tour dates and merch. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and X for the latest updates, like his April 2025 X post about spinning tracks on his radio show, Alice’s Attic. Zoo Freaks can also join fan communities at SickthingsUK for deep dives into Cooper’s career or explore fan discussions on the Alice Cooper Fans Facebook group. Keep rocking with THE ZOO, and let’s keep the freak flag flying!