"Department of Youth" | ||||
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Single by Alice Cooper | ||||
from the album Welcome to My Nightmare | ||||
B-side | "Cold Ethyl" (UK) "Some Folks" (US) | |||
Released | February 1975 (UK)
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Genre | Hard rock | |||
Length | 2:50 | |||
Label | Atlantic Records 3280 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Alice Cooper, Dick Wagner, Bob Ezrin | |||
Producer(s) | Bob Ezrin | |||
Alice Cooper singles chronology | ||||
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"Department of Youth" is a song by rock musician Alice Cooper featured on his Welcome to My Nightmare album.[2] The song peaked at No. 67 on The Billboard Hot 100.
Creem said the song, "is a second cousin to "School's Out" with a chorus of child-things sounding like Cooper's dead babies resurrected to sing back-up vocals."[3] NME agreed it was, "School's Out" all over again, complete with demented kiddie choir and watered-down Clockwork Orange braggadoccio."[4]
Melody Maker wrote, "This is typical, a heavy metal Marc Bolan. It's gritty and gruesome, but underneath the yells and screaming arrangement, it's really just a simple, catchy pop song. Don't analyse it, just bop as Alice screeches his way up the chart."[5]
Record World said that "the supreme spokesman for angry young men everywhere is even more vital and exciting here."[6]
Chart (1975) | Peak position |
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Australia (Kent Music Report)[7] | 7 |
U.S. (Billboard 100) | 67 |
Chart (1975) | Peak position |
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Australia (Kent Music Report)[7] | 35 |
Pretty Boy Floyd covered the song on their album, Porn Stars.[8]