"He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" is a song by American shock 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 ...

. It was released as the lead single from his 1986 album '' Constrictor.'' The song features the famous "ki-ki-ki ma-ma-ma" (in its popular misheard version, "ch-ch-ch, ha-ha-ha") sound effect, a trademark of the '' Friday the 13th'' series. "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" was a minor chart success, popular among fans of Cooper's later work and enthusiasts of slasher films. It has been called "strangely new wave-ish" ''Prince of Darkness''at

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

. and said to "perfectly encapsulate the ''Friday the 13th'' films and the era in which they came to prominence."Alice Cooper: The Man Behind the Mask!"
, an article at X-Entertainment. The 7" single featured a "live" version of "

Billion Dollar Babies ''Billion Dollar Babies'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on February 25, 1973, by Warner Bros. Records. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on t ...

" as its B-side. The 12" single featured "Billion Dollar Babies (Recorded Live)" as well as a haunting "live" version of "

I'm Eighteen "I'm Eighteen" is a song by rock band Alice Cooper, first released as a single in November 1970 backed with "Is It My Body". It was the band's first top-forty success—peaking at number 21—and convinced Warner Bros. that Alice Cooper had the ...

". Both versions were in fact originally recorded in the studio for the ''

Alice Cooper a Paris ''Alice Cooper a Paris'' (more commonly known as ''Alice in Paris'') is a French television special starring shock-rocker Alice Cooper. A series of music videos of songs from his then-current album '' Special Forces'' with a few songs from '' Flu ...

'' TV special in 1982 during the '' Special Forces'' era, which were remixed in 1986 with crowd noise to resemble "live" recordings.

Other versions

A demo version of the song, with a slightly rockier and much more upbeat feel, as well as the final release version, were featured in the four-disc retrospective boxed set ''

The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper ''The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper'' (1999) is a 4-CD box set by Alice Cooper. It includes select tracks from every studio album released until then, plus many B-sides, unreleased songs, and other rarities. It also includes Alice Cooper's auth ...

'', which chronicles Cooper's career. The song was also available on a compilation album of songs from his two late-1980s MCA albums, ''Constrictor'' and ''

Raise Your Fist and Yell ''Raise Your Fist and Yell'' is the tenth solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released on September 5, 1987, by MCA Records. It features the track “Prince of Darkness”, which is featured very briefly in the John Carpen ...

'', entitled '' Prince of Darkness''. The unused demo version instead became the song ''Trick Bag'', also on the Constrictor album.

Music video

The song is well known for its

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

, which combines clips from ''Jason Lives'' with original footage featuring Cooper performing the song and

Jason Voorhees Jason Voorhees () is a character from the ''Friday the 13th'' series. He first appeared in '' Friday the 13th'' (1980) as the young son of camp-cook-turned-killer Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Mi ...

played, as he is in the film, by

C. J. Graham C. J. Graham is an American actor who became known for playing Jason Voorhees in the sixth installment of the ''Friday the 13th'' film series, '' Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives''. Career A 6'3" former nightclub owner, he was spotted as a ...

menacing teenagers at a midnight showing of ''Jason Lives''. It was directed by Jeffrey Abelson from a concept by Keith Williams. Some of the film footage features the Paintball scene where Jason was played by Dan Bradley, which was filmed before he was replaced by Graham. This video was not present on any home media release until 2020 when Shout Factory's line Scream Factory released it as a bonus feature on their ''Friday the 13th'' deluxe box set.

Track listing

;7" single ;12" single

Charts

Cover versions

The song has been covered by some other artists.

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

band

Children of Bodom Children of Bodom was a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line-up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of Alexi Laiho (lead guitar, lead vocals), Jaska Raatikainen (drums), Henkka Sepp ...

recorded a version in 2002, but was never released, and "He's Back" has been performed live by another Finnish metal band,

Lordi Lordi () is a Finnish hard rock/ heavy metal band, formed in 1992 by the band's lead singer, songwriter and costume maker, Mr Lordi (Tomi Petteri Putaansuu). In addition to their melodic metal music, Lordi are also known for wearing monster ma ...

. In addition, the song was covered by One Man Army and the Undead Quartet, which was released on the Swedish death metal group's 2007 album '' Error in Evolution''. Synthpop artist Digital Love released a version for Halloween 2022.

References

External links

* ''Constrictor''at

{{DEFAULTSORT:He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) 1986 singles Songs written by Tom Kelly (musician) Songs written by Alice Cooper Alice Cooper songs Friday the 13th (franchise) music Songs written for films American new wave songs Songs written by Kane Roberts MCA Records singles