After years of portraying a sinister persona, Alice Cooper shifted direction with
Lace and Whiskey, adopting the character of Maurice Escargot, a heavy-drinking comic
private investigator inspired by
Inspector Clouseau. Cooper appears as Escargot on the album's back cover. While still rooted in
rock, the record drew stylistic influence from his love for 1940s and 1950s films and music. The album peaked at No. 42 on the
US Billboard 200 and No. 33 on the
UK Albums Chart. The album's
lead single, "
You and Me", was an
easy listening ballad which provided Cooper with his last US top-ten single for twelve years. "(No More) Love at Your Convenience", a
disco-inspired pop song, was released as the second single — it did not chart in most countries.
Music videos were created for both songs, at a time well before the advent of
MTV. The song "King of the Silver Screen" features a quote of the main motif of the "
Battle Hymn of the Republic". Cooper's
King of the Silver Screen tour in support of this album featured a stage set designed as a giant
TV, with its slit screen allowing Cooper and his dancers to jump into and out of it along to filmed
choreographed sequences during songs, and had comedic mock
commercials screened in between some songs. The tour only ran in the US and Canada, throughout the summers of 1977 and 1978, and for 1978 would be renamed the ''School's Out for Summer
tour. Filmed highlights from the opening night of the 1977 tour, capturing a very inebriated Cooper, were featured in the Alice Cooper and Friends'' TV special. The tour's
Las Vegas concerts were recorded, resulting in the live album
The Alice Cooper Show (1977). With the exception of "It's Hot Tonight", which was a regular part of setlists on the following
Madhouse Rocks, the 2001
Brutal Planet and the 2008–2009
Psychodrama tours, and "Road Rats" which was a regular during the 1980
Flush the Fashion tour, nothing from
Lace and Whiskey has been performed since the close of the ''School's Out for Summer '78'' tour. "Damned If You Do", "
Ubangi Stomp", "(No More) Love at Your Convenience", "I Never Wrote Those Songs", and "My God" have never been played live by Cooper. It was after the completion of the 1977 tour, that Cooper checked into a
New York-based
sanitarium for his first treatment for
alcoholism. During the initial stage of this album's era, when it was clear that Cooper was not going to return from his new success, original
Alice Cooper group members
Dennis Dunaway,
Neal Smith, and
Michael Bruce formed a new band with Mike Marconi and Bob Dolin called "The Billion Dollar Babies". Michael Bruce sang their lead vocals.
Lace and Whiskey was digitally remastered and re-released on CD by
Metal Blade Records in 1990. The opening song "It's Hot Tonight" would be
sampled by the
rap rock group
Beastie Boys for the song "What Comes Around" on their second studio album ''
Paul's Boutique'' (1989). ==Critical reception==