| "Department of Youth" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SinglebyAlice Cooper | ||||
| from the album Welcome to My Nightmare | ||||
| B-side | "Cold Ethyl" (UK) "Some Folks" (US) | |||
| Released | February 1975 (UK)
| |||
| 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 | ||||
| ||||
"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 |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[7] | 7 |
| U.S. (Billboard 100) | 67 |
| Chart (1975) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[7] | 35 |
Pretty Boy Floyd covered the song on their album, Porn Stars.[8]
