Cheap Trick

When Robin Zander addressed the screaming crowd at the Budokan Theatre in Nippon, Japan saying "I want you to want me…", he may have meant it for the thousands of screaming fans directly in front of him but the message was received worldwide. When Live at Budokan was released in 1979, Cheap Trick was vaulted from just another American power pop/rock and roll act into global superstars. And in keeping with the mercurial nature of the rock and roll business, the band proved that the road to the top is long and difficult and yet the trip down the other side is much, much faster.

Formed in Rockford, Illlinois, Cheap Trick came together from similar musical paths. Guitarist Rick Nielsen began his career playing in local rock acts in and around the Rockford area, forming up with groups like The Pagans, The Grim Reapers and The Boyz. In 1967, Nielsen formed the group The Fuse bringing along bassist Tom Petersson from another local act, The Bo Weevils. Fuse released one album for Epic in 1967 but the disc was essentially ignored by critics and the music buying public alike. Nielsen and Petersson had, by then, added drummer Bun E. Carlos (Brad Carlson) who had also played briefly with The Fuse, and opted to leave Rockford for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band changed their name to Sick Man of Europe and began gigging in and around the Philadelphia area.

Following a European tour in 1972-1973, the band returned to Rockford where they regrouped as Cheap Trick and added vocalist Randy 'Xeno' Hogan. Hogan left the band shortly after it was formed and was replaced by local folk singer Robin Zander.

With their solid Midwestern work ethic and a true love of live shows, Cheap Trick played an astonishing amount of live shows, crossing and criss-crossing the Midwest several times throughout the mid-seventies, building a legion of fans as they went. At the urging of their manager, Ken Adamany (a member of Steve Millers high school band) the band began to pay closer attention to their stage show prompting Nielsen to begin incorporating his now show standard of switching between his impressive collection of rare and vintage guitars between songs.

The band itself showed off a diversity in style; Zander and Petersson with their teen idol good looks, the painfully thin, guitar wielding Nielsen was hero-geek and the chain smoking, thick set, Carlos, looking as if he had taken a wrong turn on his way to take the stand at a local jazz club.

During their early years, the band took to the road as an opening act for bands like Kiss, Santana, The Kinks and Boston, logging as many as 250 live shows per year. During their journeyman phase of their career, the band set about carving a niche as an act that crafted clever pop songs and combined it with a powerful rock sound that resounded well with their young fans.

Cheap Trick's first album, released in 1977, although critically praised, fared poorly in the American marketplace selling only 150,000 copies. However the album did much better in Europe and especially well in Japan, going gold, hitting the shores at a time when Western music was very popular in the East.

The second release, In Color, again failed to make much of a splash in America but again, the band struck gold in Japan. During the supporting tour of Japan in 1978, the band was greeted with the near hysteria of the Beatles arrival in America prompting many music writers and critics to dub the tour 'Trick-mania'.

The band released a second album in 1978, Heaven Tonight, which did bring them their first album to break the Top 100 chart in the U.S., reaching #48. The album went platinum in Japan.

While in Japan, the band recorded a live show for their adoring fans at the Nippon Budokan and the album was released with intent for delivery in Japan only. But the album became a very popular import into the United States and requests for the album so great that Epic relented and released the disc in America.

Live at the Budokan took the band into international stardom and made them legitimate rock stars in their home country when the disc went triple platinum. The live version of "I want you to want me", previously released as a studio single off of In Color made it to #7 on the Billboard Hot #100, became the bands biggest single. Another single from Budokan "Ain't that a shame?" peaked at #35.

Their follow up effort, The Dream Police, was released in 1979 and although greeted warmly by some fans, failed to live up to the incredible success of the its predecessor. The album did contain a few strong singles, including the title track and the live show staple "Gonna Raise Hell", critics began harping that the band was losing their direction and that the material was notably weaker. Apparently the fans did not agree as the band continued to headline around the world.

The band released All Shook Up in 1980 which had been produced by notable Beatles producer George Martin. All Shook Up went gold and reached #24 on the charts. However the album was a sign post that the band was starting to slip. Critics and fans began to complain rather loudly that the band was becoming 'too experimental' and moving away from their solid, rock and roll roots.

Prior to the release of All Shook Up, Petersson left the band to strike out on his own. The band recruited Pete Comita to fill in for Petersson. Comita did the All Shook Up tour and recorded several songs with the band for much of their movie soundtrack work but ended up leaving the band several months after joining being replaced by Jon Brant. It was becoming apparent that the members of the band were beginning to move in different directions. There is a steady rumor that both Nielsen and Carlos worked on John Lennon's Double Fantasy disc during this period although neither was credited on the disc itself.

Legal problems with their label, CBS, held the band out of the studio for two years but by 1982 they recorded the album One on One which found the band again trying to return to their roots. The disc failed to gain any real footing with their audience but it did spawn two singles in "If You Want My Love" and "She's Tight" and the videos were catching steady rotation on the then nascent MTV.

With the exception of 1987's Lap Of Luxury, most of Cheap Trick's offerings throughout the 80's were disappointments. Luxury went platinum and gave the band a hit with "The Flame". Interestingly, as the story goes, Nielsen so hated the track when he first heard it played back in the studio, he yanked it from the tape player and ground it beneath his boot heel. The album also produced another solid hit with their reworking of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" (the first cover an Elvis hit to make the top ten since Presley's death). Most agree that there may have been something to the fact that Petersson had rejoined the band for Lap Of Luxury that brought the sound of the band back together.

At the time of the release of Lap Of Luxury, the band had been opening for Robert Palmer but the album was strong enough the band began headlining a massive tour of their own. The tour took them to all 50 states and to 22 countries. The band did return to the scene of perhaps their greatest achievement, Japan, and recorded Live At The Budokan 2.

The 1990 release Busted made it to #48 on the Top 100 and between tours, band found themselves working steadily in the studio recording tracks for movie sound tracks including Top Gun, Encino Man, Heavy Metal, Spring Break, Gladiator and several others.

They continue to tour with their original lineup and as time has moved on, the band has returned to their original, foot stomping, rock anthem style of music that has made them a steady concert draw the world over.

There are a number of critics who choose to either ignore Cheap Trick completely or chide them as a novelty pop-rock act but there is no denying that in their hey-day, Cheap Trick was an exceptionally popular, powerful act that served as one of several bridges between 70's arena rock to the New Wave and Punk movements that were stirring on the horizon. Love them or hate them, there is no denying their place in rock and roll history.