"Department of Youth" is a song by rock musician

Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...

featured on his '' Welcome to My Nightmare'' album. The song peaked at No. 67 on The ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Reception

Creem ''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is a monthly American music magazine, based in Detroit, whose main print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential criti ...

'' 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." ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' agreed it was, " School's Out" all over again, complete with demented kiddie choir and watered-down Clockwork Orange braggadoccio." ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' wrote, "This is typical, a heavy metal

Marc Bolan Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan was posthumously inducted int ...

. 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."

Notable covers

Pretty Boy Floyd Charles Arthur Floyd (February 3, 1904 – October 22, 1934), nicknamed Pretty Boy Floyd, was an American bank robber. He operated in the West and Central states, and his criminal exploits gained widespread press coverage in the 1930s. He was s ...

covered the song on their album, ''

Porn Stars A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of dis ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Department of Youth (song) 1975 singles Songs written by Alice Cooper Songs written by Dick Wagner Songs written by Bob Ezrin Alice Cooper songs Song recordings produced by Bob Ezrin 1974 songs