In Heavy Rotation on FM-104, 35 years ago. Cheap Trick - Live at Budokan - released February 1979. The road to this monster hit was a really stupid accident. Live at Budokan was originally only released in Japan in the spring of 1978. Cheap Trick had an immense following there and the Japanese press referred to them as the American Beatles. Epic Records had released the third Cheap Trick studio album, Heaven Tonight, here in the US in May 1978. Epic had expected the song, Surrender, from that album to become a huge hit. I remember finding copies of that single in the promo box that had sleeves that said radio programmer, please reconsider this single for airplay. They had reserviced copies to the station at least a half-dozen times. As new as I was to radio, this looked like a real desperate measure. The single never got past #62 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the meantime, import copies of the Budokan album were streaming into the US. It racked up sales of around 30,000 imported copies before Epic gave it an official US release in February 1979. The first big hit, of course, was I Want You To Want Me. If you compare the live version to the studio version, the difference is so apparent its kind of ridiculous. The live version is so rocked out and the studio version is a light, poppy ditty with a piano rhythm track and some Motown finger snapping. Its the same song, but the studio version is completely neutered. Budokan showcases Cheap Trick in their natural state, rocking an arena. Im adding both versions below if you care to compare. John Paul Edward Cliff
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 04:20:43 +0000
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