Michael Gallucci at UCR: It took Alice Cooper two uninspired albums and a move to Detroit for the band to finally get it right.

Nobody bought the first or second albums made by the quintet, which was still called Alice Cooper at the time (before its singer claimed the name for himself as a solo artist). Pretties for You and Easy Action -- released in 1969 and 1970, respectively -- were sludgy, messy and mired in period psychedelia.

But on their third album, Love It to Death (which was released in March 1971), the group – inspired by the noisy rock bands they were encountering in their new home in Detroit, where the members had moved the previous year – turned up the volume, fine-tuned the songs and relaunched Alice Cooper as a tough rock 'n' roll band.

Love It to Death sounded little like the Alice Cooper heard on the two earlier albums, and the LP transformed them into one of Detroit's premier bands. In almost no time, they went from mostly obscure Los Angeles (via Phoenix) rockers with an occasional headline-grabbing stage show to one of the architects of Detroit's hard-rock renaissance spearheaded by radical groups like the MC5 and the Stooges.

And they had support in the form of a young producer from Canada named Bob Ezrin, who was given Love It to Death as his first-ever project. Along with some assistance from Guess Who producer Jack Richardson, he helped shape the sound of the record, working closely with the band as they sharpened their songwriting and locked into a proto-metal groove. In December 1970, Ezrin took Alice Cooper into a Chicago recording studio and helped change their, and his, future.