"No More Mr. Nice Guy" is a song by American rock band Alice Cooper, released in 1973 as the third single off their sixth album Billion Dollar Babies. It reached No. 25 on the US charts and No. 10 on the UK charts, and helped its album reach No. 1 in both the UK and the US.
Contents
Composition
Cooper wrote the song lyrics about the reactions of his mother's church group to his stage performances, saying that there were worse things that he could do with his life and that the "gloves were off now".
Legacy
The song was re-recorded and featured in the video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, The Simpsons episode "Love Is a Many Strangled Thing", and the Family Guy episode "Mom's the Word". The song was also used in the TV show Ash vs Evil Dead and in the film Dazed and Confused. The scene featuring the song in the latter film was later parodied on Family Guy in the episode "Jungle Love". Cooper made a cameo appearance while performing the song in the film adaptation of the TV series Dark Shadows.
It remains one of the band's most popular songs, both as a live and classic rock radio staple.
Album appearances
Billion Dollar Babies - 1973
Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits - 1974
The Beast of Alice Cooper - 1989
Classicks - 1995
A Fistful of Alice - 1997
The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper - 1999
Alice Cooper: Brutally Live - 2000
The Definitive Alice Cooper - 2001
Mascara and Monsters: The Best of Alice Cooper - 2001
The Essentials: Alice Cooper - 2002
School's Out and Other Hits - 2004
Live at Montreux - 2006
Personnel
Alice Cooper - vocals
Glen Buxton - lead guitar
Michael Bruce - rhythm guitar
Dennis Dunaway - bass
Neal Smith - drums
Megadeth version
American thrash metal band Megadeth covered the song in 1989 for the horror film Shocker. The cover was released as a single in January 1990, charting in both Ireland and the U.K.
The cover was later featured on the band's 1995 B-sides compilation, Hidden Treasures, and the 2007 box set Warchest.
The song was the only recorded material by the band as a trio, with newcomer Nick Menza on drums.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes.
Megadeth
Dave Mustaine – guitars, lead vocals
David Ellefson – bass, backing vocals
Nick Menza – drums
Production
Production: Desmond Child and Dave Mustaine
Other cover versions
Pat Boone performed it on the cover album In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy.
Roger Daltrey, Slash, Bob Kulick, Mike Inez, Carmine Appice and David Glen Eisley covered it on the 1999 tribute album Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper.
In 2013, popular YouTuber Dane Boedigheimer created a parody of the song titled "No More Mr. Knife Guy" for her web-series, Annoying Orange.
For his 2024 album Solid Rock Revival, Cooper changed the lyrics for a kid-friendly song "Now, I'm Mr. Nice Guy".
Uses in popular culture
In 1976, professional wrestler Chris Colt used the song as his entrance theme for his short-lived character The Chris Colt Experience, which was one of the first uses of rock music for a wrestler's theme song. Professional wrestling manager Jim Cornette used the song as the intro and outro for his two podcasts (The Jim Cornette Experience and Drive Thru) until late 2019.
The song appears in the Family Guy episode Jungle Love, during a scene where Chris gets paddled by Mayor Adam West as part of the "freshman hunt". The scene itself parodies another scene from the 1993 film Dazed and Confused, in which Ben Affleck's character paddles a freshman, which also features the song.
On the fourth episode of the seventh season of the television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. named "Out of the Past", the song's chorus is played as the characters try to figure out what year they traveled to.