Poison (Alice Cooper song)


"Poison" is a song by American rock musician Alice Cooper. Written by Cooper, producer Desmond Child and guitarist John McCurry, the song was released worldwide as a single in late-1989 from Cooper's eighteenth album, Trash. It became one of Cooper's biggest hit singles in the United States, peaking at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It performed even better in the UK by peaking at number 2 in the UK Singles Chart. "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 is available as downloadable content for use in the music video game Rock Band, and a re-recorded version is also available as downloadable content for .

Music video

There are three 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. A final third cut utilizes alternate takes of Cooper during the final refrain of the song, leading to the end. The aesthetic of the video borrowed heavily from the Hellraiser movies, which were popular at the time. 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's Metal Mayhem.

Cover versions

Weekly Charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

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