When first approached about contributing a cover to "The Art of Paul McCartney," a tribute to the former Beatle set to be released in mid-November, Alice Cooper naturally assumed they'd want to hear him taking on "I'm Down" or one of the rockers.
Not "Eleanor Rigby."
"It was so weird," Cooper says. But he agreed
"I went, 'OK, I'll go for that,' " he says. "But, you know, it's a challenge because nobody sings it better than McCartney."
Cooper laughs, then adds, "I think there's just a little something different in my voice on it. I kind of give it a creepy edge, maybe. I think it'll be a big surprise for everybody. They're not gonna be expecting Alice Cooper to tackle that song. But it sounds really pretty."
And not only pretty but shockingly faithful, his tender approach underscoring the bittersweet pathos of the lyrics. with Beatles-esque backing by the members of McCartney's touring band, which Cooper says is probably the best touring band in the world.
As Cooper says, "When you're playing with those guys, they make you sound really good."
In many ways, covering "Eleanor Rigby" plays to Cooper's strengths as a sensitive ballad guy, which led to four big singles in the '70s — "Only Women Bleed," "I Never Cry," "You and Me" and "How You Gonna See Me Now."
It was during that string of hits that Cooper first took on a Beatles ballad — the "Abbey Road" classic "Because," with backing vocals by the Bee Gees. Recorded for the soundtrack to a movie based on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," it had the singer playing up his sneer, "Black Widow"-style, as though he'd been instructed: "Make it sound like Alice Cooper covering the Beatles."
As it turns out, that's exactly what he'd been instructed. By none other than George Martin, the Beatles' own producer.
"The funny thing," Cooper says, "is I did it like John. I could do a pretty good John Lennon impersonation. It sounded pretty much like the Beatles version. And George Martin says, 'Well, Alice, that's good, but how would Alice do it?' And I said, 'OK, let's make it really creepy then.' I did that version and he was on the floor laughing. He called up John Lennon and told him, 'John, you've gotta hear this. The prettiest song you ever wrote, Alice just turned into a horror.' "
The only reason he agreed to do that movie in the first place, Cooper says, was to work with George Martin.
"I said, 'I've got to be able to say I did a track with George Martin,' " Cooper says. And after all, he's been a Beatlemaniac since 1964.
"I was 15 years old, painting the house, and I had the radio on," Cooper says. "And all of the sudden I heard (singing), 'She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.' And I went, 'What was that?' I was used to the Four Seasons and the Beach Boys. And 10 minutes later, I heard (singing), 'Please please me, oh yeah, like I please you.' And I was immediately a Beatles fan."
His first live performance, in fact, was spoofing the Beatles as part of a talent show in 1964 in the Cortez High School "cafetorium," where a small group of friends from the track team shook the wigs they'd bought at Woolworth's.
Those friends included future bandmates Dennis Dunaway and Glen Buxton.
"We were way influenced by the Beatles music, by the great songwriting of Lennon and McCartney," Cooper says. "If you ask Ozzy and Steven Tyler the same thing, you'll find that there's a lot of melody in what we all do. We're always going to be a little more horse-powered than the Beatles were, but we always referred back to those melody lines."
And they're not alone in that, he says.
"Everybody in the music business has been influenced by the Beatles," Cooper says. "I don't care if you're Cradle of Filth or Tony Bennett. You've been influenced by the Beatles."
"The Art of Paul McCartney," a tribute album due Tuesday, Nov. 18, also features covers of McCartney songs by artists including Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Billy Joel, the Cure, Roger Daltrey, Smokey Robinson, Brian Wilson, Def Leppard, Dr. John, Yusuf (formerly Cat Stevens, Barry Gibb, KISS, Chrissie Hynde and Jeff Lynne. Cooper also cut a second cover for the album — "Smile Away" from the McCartney solo album, "Ram."
