It’s a good week for Alice Cooper. The veteran shock rocker’s newest album — Detroit Stories, released late last month — has debuted in the No. 1 position on Billboard‘s Top Album Sales chart.
That means Detroit Stories, which features the singer’s original band members from his 1970s heyday, sold 13,000 copies in the first seven days it was out, as Billboard reported. That’s for sales across all its available formats — CD, vinyl LP and digital download. The figures emerged for the week ending March 13, where Cooper’s joined on the Top Album chart by some equally classic acts.
Behind Detroit Stories on the week’s ranking are Willie Nelson (No. 2 with That’s Life at 12,000 sold) and Bob Dylan with The Beatles‘ George Harrison (No. 4 with 11,000 sold of Dylan’s new 1970 box set). Plus, Neil Young with Crazy Horse (No. 5 for Way Down in the Rust Bucket‘s 9,000 copies) and NOFX (with 7,000 units moved of their latest studio offering, Single Album).
Of Detroit Stories‘ 13,000 sold in its first week, 9,500 accounted for CD copies and 2,000 were vinyl LP; 1,500 were digital downloads. The album also came in at No. 47 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart.
Envisioned as a musical tribute to the city of his youth, Detroit Stories is Cooper’s first studio set since 2017’s Paranormal. He’s joined on the album by fellow Motor City icon and MC5 leader Wayne Kramer, Detroit Wheels drummer Johnny “Bee” Badanjek and bass player Paul Randolph, among others.
“Los Angeles had its sound with The Doors, Love and Buffalo Springfield,” Copper said in a press release for Detroit Stories. “San Francisco had the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. New York had The Rascals and the Velvet Underground, but Detroit was the epicenter for angry hard rock.”
How’s that for rock music being dead?
