Hello Hooray : Alice Cooper versus Judy Collins

Hello Hooray became an anthem for The Alice Cooper Band. But years before they recorded their version, Judy Collins recorded and released the first version:

Judy Collins:

 

Alice Cooper:

 

The song's composer (Rolf Kemp) doing his version in the '90s:

 

I chose Alice! The others just do not grab my attention.

Hello Hooray (Alice's version) could be the greatest opening song of any album ever (IMHO)!

It sets the tone for something great to follow! The dark sounding chords with Alice's glorious vocal and snarl work perfectly.

Loved it when it was released and I love it now!

 

I think Rolf Kemp's version is pretty good, too. But, of course, this is the version he recorded years AFTER Alice Cooper / Bob Ezrin worked their magic on the arrangement. So who knows what it sounded like when the band first heard it.

 

I agree. Talk about taking a song and making it your own. Alice owns this.

The other two 2 sound like some bizarre music they should have been playing during the execution scenes at the lives shows. That would have been pretty twisted.

 

It is great that Rolf loves Alice's version:

From Rolf Kempf's website:

From 'The Independant" - www.independent.co.uk
Writer - Rober Webb
"HELLO, HURRAY" JUDY COLLINS / ALICE COOPER Alice Cooper's third Top Ten, a hit in 1973, is as strong as a python and as camp as smudged mascara. "Hello, Hurray" was written on a borrowed guitar beside a swimming pool in a house in Laurel Canyon, LA, in 1968. Its composer, Ontario folk singer Rolf Kempf, recalls: "I was there for the lack of anywhere else to go, since my band had broken up and gone back to Canada, and all my belongings had been stolen, including my guitar." Fellow folkie Judy Collins came around, seeking material for her next album. "She really liked 'Hello, Hurray', although it seemed out of character at the time. But she recorded it and did a great job".
It's the life-affirming introduction to her celebrated folk-rock set Who Knows Where The Time Goes?, produced by David Anderle and featuring guest artists James Burton, Stephen Stills and Van Dyke Parks. Collins warbles like a whitethroat through lines later dropped by Cooper: "Hello, hurray, let the lights grow dim, I've been ready/Ready as the rain to fall, just to fall again/Ready as a man to be born, only to be born again".
The song has a spiritual purpose, as Kempf explains: "My inspiration was the concept of self-renewal and re-invention to help me through a frustrating period of my life. And it has helped in more ways than one." Detroit's ophiophilic shock-rocker first heard "Hello, Hurray" through his producer, Bob Ezrin, who met Kempf at a Toronto party. Released as a single, it reached Number Six in the UK and became the opener to Cooper's extravagant stage show. It's the least depraved track on Cooper's glam-dram classic, Billion Dollar Babies. "Roll out, roll out with your American dream and its recruits, I've been ready" taunts a goulish Cooper. "The whole idea behind the album," said Alice at the time, "is to exploit the idea that everyone has sick perversions. But they've got to be American perversions; we're very nationalistic, you know."
Kempf was delighted with Cooper's definitive rendition. "He got the emotional essence of the tune right, and added a tag to bring it home." Kempf included a puissant version of his most famous song, with string arrangement, on his 2002 album Daydreamer.
Robert Webb

 

Having been with Cooper since Love It To Death, I had no idea "Hello Hurray" was a cover, or if I did, it was long forgotten. Cooper's version must rank as one of the best covers in the history of pop and rock music.

This thread is a fine example of an internet forum having capabilities greater or certainly different than a magazine, with accessible YouTube links for immediate comparisons. The thread title initially struck me as one of the too-frequent "versus" threads that leave me scratching my head, but host kwadguy is a respectable name hereabouts. Until reading the op, I actually thought Judy Collins had recorded an Alice Cooper song, surely a strange turn of events.

That said, Cooper should win the poll by a large margin.

 

thanks for putting this thread up. I didn't even know that Judy Collins started it first. As for the choice...Alice!

 

Strangely enough...it's the 2nd time in less than a year that this question/poll has come up.

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/hello-hurraybest-version.318221/

 

Alice all the way, although I quite like Judy Collins' version as well.

 

Yeah, thanks for this thread. Good stuff. I just love when Alice sings the "I feel so strong" section at the end of the song.

 

Me too...very powerful!

 

Vince Furnier all the way. Judy's version put me to sleep......

 

same as above!

 

Judy's version sounds quite "Fairport-y", which really works on that album...

 

I actually saw Rolf Kemp perform back in the early 197os.

 

That part causes goosebumps!!!

 

This is my favorite part of this...my favorite Coop song.
I was shocked to hear it trimmed on the MASCARA Collection.