Alice Cooper's final album - well, the final album with Cooper's original band of the same name - is getting a deluxe treatment this year.

Available on 2CD/Blu-ray and pink double vinyl exclusively at Rhino.com, 1973's Muscle of Love gets expanded with unreleased alternate versions of every track on the album and lengthy, track-by-track liner notes by writer Jaan Uhelszki, drawing from new interviews with Cooper and his surviving bandmates (rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, drummer Neal Smith and additional guitarist Mick Mashbir). The 2CD/Blu-ray additionally includes two single versions as bonus tracks, as well as a Blu-ray premiere of the album's original quadrophonic mix in 192 kHz/24-bit high-resolution audio. It's all packaged in a loving recreation of the original "cardboard box" package that enclosed the original pressings.

After six albums with his longtime backing band - four of which boasted polished production by Bob Ezrin - Alice Cooper was looking for a change. 1972's School's Out and follow-up Billion Dollar Babies, released only eight months before Muscle, were bona fide smashes, reaching Nos. 2 and 1 on the Billboard 200, respectively. But Cooper at the time dismissed them as "studio efforts." Speaking to journalist Cameron Crowe, he said, "It was just so clean that after a few times of hearing it myself, it had no mystery to it. I really wanted this one to have more guts to it. More balls." In stepped producers Jack Richardson (who'd collaborated with Ezrin on Cooper's 1971 release Love It to Death) and Jack Douglas (still a year off from a fruitful collaboration with Aerosmith).

Muscle of Love was characterized mostly by bawdy tracks like opening salvo "Big Apple Dreamin' (Hippo)," a reference to a club the group were frequenting at the time, the little-to-the-imagination title track and "Woman Machine," a road-tested number about a pleasure-inducing robot. Other standouts included lead single "Teenage Lament '74" and the theatrical "Man with the Golden Gun," written for the 1974 James Bond film of the same name and ultimately unused. (Looking for the perfect maximalist sound, Cooper recruited backing vocals from Ronnie Spector, Liza Minelli and The Pointer Sisters for the track.)

Though the album reached the Top 10 of the Billboard charts and shipped gold, critics and the band saw it as a bit of a letdown. Cooper would break up his band shortly thereafter, and would keep using the stage name for the rest of his career, starting with the acclaimed, ultra-theatrical Welcome to My Nightmare (1975). The band's original guitarist Glen Buxton (whose participation on the final album is still a matter of debate) died in 1997; since then, the surviving quartet of Cooper, Bruce, Dunaway and Smith have performed semi-regularly together, including at their 2011 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and on tracks from Cooper's albums Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011), Paranormal (2017) and Detroit Stories (2021).

The set's alternate version of "Teenage Lament '74" is now streaming, and the whole thing can be pre-ordered below from Rhino.com, with orders shipping November 20.

Muscle of Love (Deluxe Edition) (Warner/Rhino, 2024) (2CD/Blu-ray / 2LP)

CD/LP 1: Remastered album (released as Warner Bros. BS 2748, 1973)

1. Big Apple Dreamin' (Hippo)
2. Never Been Sold Before
3. Hard Hearted Alice
4. Crazy Little Child
5. Working Up a Sweat
6. Muscle of Love
7. Man with the Golden Gun
8. Teenage Lament '74
9. Woman Machine

CD/LP 2: Bonus material (previously unreleased except where noted. * exclusive to 2CD/Blu-ray version)

1. Big Apple Dreamin' (Hippo) (Early Version)
2. Never Been Sold Before (Early Version)
3. Hard Hearted Alice (Alternate Mix)
4. Crazy Little Child (Early Version)
5. Working Up a Sweat (Alternate Mix)
6. Muscle of Love (Alternate Mix)
7. Man with the Golden Gun (Early Version)
8. Teenage Lament '74 (Acoustic Diversion)
9. Woman Machine (Alternate Mix)
10. Teenage Lament '74 (Single Version) *
11. Muscle of Love (Single Version) *

Track 10 released on Warner Bros. single WB 7762, 1973. Track 11 released on Warner Bros. single WB 7783, 1973

Blu-ray Audio: Original quadrophonic mix (released as Warner Bros. BS4 2748, 1973 - same track list as Disc 1)