Oooooh, Cheap Trick! This is a band that I especially loved during the 70's, but they endured well through the 80's and even experienced a resurgence. The height of my Cheap Trick fandom was when I was in 6th and 7th grade. I bought their At Budokan, Dream Police, and All Shook Up albums, and learned that my older brother had their first three albums Cheap Trick, In Color, and Heaven Tonight all along in the room he had made for himself in he basement (kind of the opposite of Greg Brady's attic room on The Brady Bunch). Well you know that I made sure to erm...borrow those albums for awhile!
I used to keep a scrapbook that I'd fill with photographs and magazine stories...anything I could find about Cheap Trick. I was especially fond of the lead singer, Robin Zander, which is odd for me, because I'm usually not into blonds, but to me he has brown eyes and features that a brown haired person would have. Whatever.... Robin Zander not only had perfect pitch, he was usually known to rock out in a really nice suits and ties and he just looked debonair and dreamy! He was the best dressed rocker around! He's not rocking this look in this particular video because it was 1981 and Cheap Trick was probably trying to be a little more new wave, thus the black sleeveless t-shirt and leather pants he's rocking.
In 7th grade industrial arts we had a graphics class in which we could screen print whatever we wanted onto a t-shirt. I was soooo excited. There was no question what I wanted to put on my t-shirt. I knew right away I wanted to put the Cheap Trick logo on my shirt and wear it everywhere. I remember I got really, really angry at my mother because she put the kibosh on that whole idea. She forbid me from putting the Cheap Trick band logo on my shirt because she said that she did not "someone to get the wrong idea and think I was a cheap trick". Wha??? I was 12!!!! Parents just don't get it sometimes! Impossible! I don't even remember what stupid thing I ended up putting on my t-shirt, but I remember this incident clearly.
Well, later in life (1991) I had this dream-come-true moment:
So, today's video is Cheap Trick performing the song "Baby Loves to Rock" on Saturday Night Live in 1980. When I first heard this song I was wowed. I always really loved it, and never understood why this album didn't do much better and why most people seem to forget all about this song. This is another song to file in the "sexy songs" file. It doesn't get much better to a teen aged girl than Robin Zander screaming "more and more I'm thinking about sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. The more I think the better it gets!!!"
Cheap Trick is a Rockford, Illinois band consisting of Robin Zander (lead singer), Rick Nielsen (guitars), Bun E. Carlos (drums) and Tom Petersson (bass). The genesis of the band starts way back in 1961 when Rick Nielson was playing around in several local Rockford bands, at the same time drummer Brad Carlson (later to become known as Bun E. Carlos) was playing in a rival bands. Carlos and Zander met playing in bands together, while Nielsen and Petersson met while playing together in a band called Fuse. They moved to Philadelphia with Fuse, changed the band name to Sick Man of Europe and went on a European tour in 1973. Upon returning to Rockford after this tour Nielsen and Petersson finally team up with Carlos and started Cheap Trick. There was one short-lived lead singer before Robin Zander came into the fold. The band name was inspired by a comment Petersson made after the band attended a Slade concert and Petersson exclaimed that the band "used every cheap trick in the book" as part of their show. There image of the band had a divide where Zander and Petersson were the good looking, well-dressed cool guys, and Nielsen and Carlos while top-notch musicians, dressed more like nerds.
Cheap Trick recorded a demo in 1975 and played all around the Midwest where they were spotted and signed to Epic Records. The band released their self-titled debut album in 1977. The critics loved the album, but the sales were not stellar and the single they released, "Oh Candy" did not chart. They loved Cheap Trick in Japan though! From the very start the band were adored in that country.
Their second album, In Color, was released that same year, and had some great songs like "Southern Girls" that failed to chart in the U.S.; however "I Want You to Want Me" and "Clock Strikes Ten" became hit singles in Japan. Their third album Heaven Tonight (1978) brought us the single "Surrender". Many critics consider this Cheap Trick's best album. It was the album that made them superstars in Japan.
Because of the great following they had in there, Cheap Trick went on tour of Japan in April 1978. The excitement they created there was akin to Beatlemania. During the tour they recorded two of their live concerts at the Nippon Budokan. Ten tracks from both of the shows were released as a live album in 1979 called Cheap Trick at Budokan. Originally this album was intended to be released only to their loyal fans in Japan, but demand for the import album grew, and it finally became the album that made them big in the United State and internationally. The live version of "I Want You To Want Me" from this album was their biggest selling single.
1979's Dream Police followed which biggest hit was the title track. There is also an excellent song that I love called "Way of the World" on this album. In August 1980, just before the release of Cheap Trick's next album, Tom Petersson left the band to pursue a solo career. Their next Cheap Trick album was 1980's All Shook Up. It was produced by The Beatles former producer George Martin and was more stylistically experimental than some of their other more straight-ahead rock albums. The association with Martin led to Nielsen and Carlos participating in sessions for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album Double Fantasy which was released just prior to Lennon's murder on December 8, 1980 by crazed fan Mark David Chapman. During the tour for this album Pete Comita replaced Petersson on bass. With Comita the band recorded some songs for the movie soundtrack "Rock and Rule". The movie was never released and the 3 songs "I'm the Man", "Born to Raise Hell", and "Ohm Sweet Ohm" were not released until 1996 on the Cheap Trick box set, Sex, America, Cheap Trick. The song "I Must Be Dreamin'" appeared on the soundtrack for the animated rock film "Heavy Metal". One other single from All Shook Up called "Everything Works Out if You Let It" was also included on the soundtrack of the movie "Roadie". After the tour Jon Brant replaced Comita on bass.
The band's 1982 album One on One spawned two hits, "If You Want My Love" and "She's Tight". By now MTV had been created, and videos for these songs were in heavy rotation. Todd Rundgren produced Cheap Trick's next album, Next Position Please. It was more pop-ish. It was not well received and did not sell as well as past albums. The band continued contributing songs to movie soundtracks including the title track for the 1983 movie "Spring Break", and the title track for the 1984 comedy movie starring Tim Matheson, "Up the Creek".
The band had a hit in "Tonight It's You" off their 1985 album Standing on the Edge, but their 1986 album The Doctor was considered to be the band's worst album, which may have been largely due to the fact that their record label did do much to promote the album. The video for their song "It's Only Love" from this album holds the distinction of being the first music video to prominently use American Sign Language.
By this time, Tom Petersson expressed an interest in rejoining the band. He was back in the fold to record 1988's Lap of Luxury album. Although this album is considered to be Cheap Trick's comeback album, their label Epic Records, was having financial hard times and forced the band to collaborate with songwriters for this album. The result was the cookie-cutter ballad, "The Flame" which oddly enough became the bands first #1 single in the U.S. They also released a cover of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" which made it into the top 10.
Into the 1990's Cheap Trick released more albums and a Greatest Hits compilation. They left Epic Records and signed with Warner Brothers. Along the way they contributed a cover of John Lennon's song "Cold Turkey" for the Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon album.
Eventually the band left Warner Brothers and decided to concentrate on their live shows and tour extensively. They began releasing songs on smaller independent labels rather than the major record companies. Some of these efforts include a 7-inch single on Seattle's Sub Pop label called Baby Talk/Brontosaurus and another self-titled album on indie label Red Ant Records, which went bankrupt shortly thereafter. In 1998 Cheap Trick established their own record company, Cheap Trick Unlimited, and basically released their music on their own website, Amazon.com and other internet sites now.
In 1999 they recorded a cover of Big Star's song "In the Street" which became used as the theme song for the popular television comedy show, "That 70's Show". Their songs appear on various Guitar Hero video games.
In 2007 the Illinois Senate passed a resolution which designates April 1st of every year as "Cheap Trick Day" in the State of Illinois.
On April 24, 2008 Cheap Trick played again at the Nippon Budokan for the 30th anniversary of the 1978 Live at Budokan album.
In 2009 the band contributed the theme song for the movie "Transformers Revenge of the Fallen" Bun E. Carlos started a side project called Tinted Windows with members of The Smashing Pumpkins, Fountains of Wayne, and Hanson which received some airplay on syndicated FM radio stations.
The band experienced a close-call on July 17, 2011 at a Bluesfest show in Ottawa, Canada. Twenty-minutes into their set a violent thunderstorm blew over the festival. The band and crew were on stage when the wind caused a 40-ton roof to fall. The roof fell away from where the audience was and landed on the band's truck which was parked behind the stage. The truck broke the roof's fall and gave the band and crew about 30 seconds to escape. It was a miracle that no one was killed.
Cheap Trick has been touring for nearly 4 decades now, and tons of bands and musicians frequently list them as influences including: Gene Simmons (KISS), Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Angus Young (AC/DC), Motley Crue, Ratt, Guns N' Roses, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Gin Blossoms, Urge Overkill, Weezer, Everclear, Extreme, Enuff Z'Nuff, Slipknot, Green Day, American Hi-Fi, Fountains of Wayne, OK Go, Husker Du, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers,Kings of Leon and Foo Fighters, Impressive!
Lyrics:
More and more I been thinkin' 'bout love
Love ain't all I been thinkin' of
Some people do and some people don't
Some people will and say they won't
But my baby loves to rock
And my baby loves to roll
My baby loves to all night long
My baby loves to rock
More and more I'm thinkin' 'bout s-s-sex
The more I think the better it gets
More and more I'm thinkin' bout s-s-sex
The more I think the worse it gets
But my baby loves to rock
And my baby loves to roll
My baby loves to all night long
My baby loves to rock
She loves to rock
She loves to rock
She loves to rock
But my baby loves to rock
And my baby loves to roll
My baby loves to all night long
My baby loves to rock
She loves to rock
She loves to rock
She loves to rock
In the morning, in the evening
In the summer, in the winter
In my car, in the night, in an airplane
Not in russia!
She loves to rock, she loves to rock
She loves to rock, she loves to rock
She loves to rock
More and more I been thinkin' 'bout love
Love ain't all I been thinkin' of
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