The sovereign professional walks a solitary path. Sometimes you need a lift, something big and empowering and energising.

This has been the opening song on my daily soundtrack for the last few months.

“God, I feel so strong!”

The following comes from a TV show and looks fairly contemporaneous with the original release…

And, if you have Alice Cooper‘s Billion Dollar Babies album, check out Generation Landslide and Elected.

Cooper, always much more than a shock-pop-rocker, has written some great songs over the years, but he didn’t write this. Hello, Hooray was written by Canadian songwriter Rolf Kempf.

Over on Steve Hoffman Music Forums, I learnt that the song was originally recorded by Judy Collins. Hoffman’s post includes both versions along with a 1990s recording by Kempf himself. I have to say that Collins’ version doesn’t really work for me – but then I’ve grown up with the Alice recording.

Kempf tells the story of the song on his blog, here.

Let the show begin, I’ve been ready.

Image credit: alicecooper.com