"Poison" is a song by American 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 ...
. Written by Cooper, producer
Desmond Child and guitarist
John McCurry
John McCurry (born June 24, 1957) is an American musician and composer, a guitarist, songwriter and singer based in New York City. He has worked with many well-known musical artists, including Chicago, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, David Bowie, Al ...
, the song was released as a single in July 1989 from Cooper's eighteenth album, ''
Trash
Trash may refer to:
Garbage
* Garbage, unwanted or undesired waste material
** Litter, material discarded in inappropriate places
** Municipal solid waste, unwanted or undesired waste material generated in a municipal environment
Arts, enter ...
''. It became one of Cooper's biggest hit singles in the United States, peaking at number seven on the ''Billboard''
Hot 100. The
power ballad
A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romance (love), romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn m ...
performed even better in the UK by peaking at number two on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
. "Poison" remains one of Alice Cooper's best known songs. It is ranked by ''Billboard'' as the "
91st top song of 1989", while Ultimate Classic Rock ranked it as the "7th best Alice Cooper song", commenting "Poison sounds like a typical '80s pop-metal number at times, but Cooper’s intensity brings it to a whole other level." The song's main riff was written by guitarist
John McCurry
John McCurry (born June 24, 1957) is an American musician and composer, a guitarist, songwriter and singer based in New York City. He has worked with many well-known musical artists, including Chicago, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, David Bowie, Al ...
, who two years earlier had used it for the
John Waite
John Charles Waite (born 4 July 1952) is an English musician. As a solo artist, he has released ten studio albums and is best known for the 1984 hit single " Missing You", which reached No. 1 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the top ten on ...
track "
Encircled".
Music video
There are two versions of the video to the song, one of which shows Alice Cooper being chained to a bizarre mechanism and singing while a ghostly woman looms over him. The original video had to be censored for showings during the day, due to shots of a topless model. Rana Kennedy plays the roles of both women in the video but the topless scene were shot with a body double. This is notably visible in the video. The studios in which the video was filmed in spring of 1989 have since been torn down and are now a parking lot in Los Angeles. The video is still often played on
MTV Classic MTV Classic may refer to:
*MTV Classic (American TV channel), a television channel that replaced VH1 Classic on August 1, 2016
*MTV Classic (Australian TV channel), a television channel previously named VH1 Australia until May 2010, and shut down i ...
's ''
Metal Mayhem
''Metal Mayhem'' (formerly ''Metal Mania'' or ''Headbangers'') is a block of classic heavy metal/hard rock music videos that first aired on VH1 Classic. The series originally featured music videos from 1970s to early 1990s, but since VH1 Classic ...
''.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Cover versions
*
The Vandals
The Vandals are an American punk rock band, established in 1980 in Orange County, California. They have released ten full-length studio albums, two live albums, and have toured the world extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped ...
, 1993
*
Groove Coverage
Groove Coverage is a German dance band which consists of Axel Konrad, DJ Novus, Melanie Munch, better known as Mell (lead singer), and Verena Rehm (former stage performer, backing singer, occasional lead singer). Producers of the band are Ole ...
, 2003
*
Husky Rescue
Husky Rescue is a Finnish electronic music band from Helsinki, formed in 2002. The group consists of Marko Nyberg, Johanna Kalén, and Antony Bentley.
History
2002–2010
Husky Rescue was formed by Marko Nyberg, who began composing under the n ...
, 2007
*
Baracuda, 2008
(sampled in "Where Is The Love", alongside Amaranth by Nightwish)
*
Alex Day
Alex Richard George Day (born 8 April 1989) is an English musician, vlogger and writer. Day has released seven studio albums, two EPs, and had three UK Top 40 hits.Holiday, RyanYouTube and Chart Sensation Alex Day the Future of Music? ''Forbes ...
, 2013
*
Powerwolf
Powerwolf, often stylized as POWERWOLF, is a German power metal band founded in 2003 in Saarbrücken by members of Red Aim. The band consists of vocalist Karsten Brill as "Attila Dorn", lead guitarist Benjamin Buss as "Matthew Greywolf", bassist/ ...
, 2023
Film & media usage
*
Tango & Cash
''Tango & Cash'' is a 1989 American buddy cop action comedy film starring Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Jack Palance and Teri Hatcher. Stallone and Russell star as Raymond Tango and Gabriel Cash respectively, two rival LAPD narcotics detect ...
, 1989
*
The Jackal, 1997
*
End of Days, 1999
*
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
, 2003
*
Mean Creek, 2004
*
Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express is a non-technical term for a meteorological phenomenon characterized by a strong and persistent large-scale flow of warm moist air, and the associated heavy precipitation both in the waters immediately northeast of the Hawaii ...
, 2008
* A modified version of the song was featured in a February 2011 television ad campaign for the
Volkswagen Passat
The Volkswagen Passat is a series of large family cars manufactured and marketed by the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen since 1973, and now in its eighth generation. It has been marketed variously as the Dasher, Santana, Quantum, Mag ...
.
*
Spartacus Vengeance, 2012
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poison (Alice Cooper song)
1989 singles
Songs written by Desmond Child
Songs written by Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper songs
Song recordings produced by Desmond Child
1989 songs
Epic Records singles
Songs about BDSM
Glam metal ballads
1980s ballads