November 2, 1978: Alice Cooper & The Muppets – Welcome To My Nightmare

November 2, 2023 34

Alice Cooper appears on The Muppet Show, where he performs “Welcome to My Nightmare” and “School’s Out.” He also offers to give the Muppets fame and riches if they’ll sign their souls over to him. Kermit is horrified. Gonzo spends the entire episode looking for a pen.
The Muppets Show - Alice Cooper

Cooper’s appearance in Episode 307 of The Muppet Show, which aired Nov. 2, 1978, has become legendary. Appearing as himself, Cooper was introduced by Kermit the Frog as “one of the world’s most talented and frightening performers.” He performed “Welcome to My Nightmare” and also acted as an agent of the devil, promising the Muppets “fabulous riches and worldwide fame” in exchange for their souls. He also performed a duet with Miss Piggy on “You and Me,” the Top 10 single from his 1977 album, Lace and Whiskey.

Alice Cooper & The Muppets - Welcome To My Nightmare

Welcome To My Nightmare

This was the centerpiece to Cooper’s 1975 tour, which opened with this song and set the stage for the macabre scenes that followed. Cooper approached the song as a production number, and that’s how he performed it. For the tour, the musicians were hidden in the back of the stage while Alice performed with various dancers and props. He would emerge in a haze of smoke, singing this song on a bed; the rest of the show was based on the idea that we were seeing his nightmares brought to life.

Any meaning in the song is up to the listener, as Alice explained, “I project images to the audience and they make up their own story to fit it. I have no message at all. I never did.”
In 1975, Cooper turned the stage show built around this song into a concert movie called Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare, and a TV movie called The Nightmare. The famous horror movie actor Vincent Price played “The Spirit of the Nightmare,” narrating the show. The movie was a precursor to long-form music videos, as it was a theatrical production set to music. The most famous long-form video arrived in 1984 with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” also featuring narration from Vincent Price.