Cheap Trick's Dark Days Illuminated By The Flame

In 1982 Cheap Trick nervously awaited the reception for their latest album ‘One On One’, aware that in the absence of a substantial hit the trick might be up. The lead out single was the aforementioned pop-rock gem ‘If You Want My Love’. The song didn’t exactly set the world on fire in the U.S. (#45) or Britain (#57), but Australia fell in love with the track and pushed it all the way to #2 during the second half of ‘82. Sales of ‘One On One’ down under reflected Cheap Trick’s popularity at the time (OZ#25) but again other markets were less receptive to the Cheap Trick brand (US#39/UK#95). The follow up single ‘She’s Tight’ flirted with the lower reaches of the U.S. Hot 100 (#65) in late ‘82, but it would represent the last charting single for Cheap Trick, Stateside, for almost three years.

The Todd Rundgren produced album ‘Next Position Please’ (US#61) hit the stores in September ‘83, but signalled the start of a tough period for the veteran rock quartet. It spawned just two singles in ‘Dancing The Night Away’ and ‘I Can’t Take It’, but neither found a position on the charts. The only release from Cheap Trick during 1984 was the single ‘Spring Break’, which was the title track from the motion picture release. The titles for Cheap Trick’s next two albums in some respects reflected the plight the band found themselves in during the mid 80s. 1985’s ‘Standing On The Edge’ performed reasonably well (US#35) and garnered favourable reviews, but still well short of the band’s heady ‘Budokan’ days, though it did yield the minor hit ‘Tonight It’s You’ (US#44). The prescription offered by their 1986 album ‘The Doctor’ didn’t provide the much needed cure for Cheap Trick, but rather signalled a bottoming out of sorts, both creatively and commercially. Though it didn’t crack the charts, or yield any hit singles, ‘The Doctor’ did reintroduce Tom Petersson to his old Cheap Trick cohorts, whilst they were mixing the album. It would lead to Petersson returning to the fold in place of Jon Brant, and possibly provided the missing piece of the puzzle for the band to recapture some lost form.

With waning album sales, the lads in Cheap Trick understandably felt a little nervous about their tenure at Epic, in fact they were even canvassing interest from other labels. The band’s fortune’s would soon be revived by a soft rock power ballad that, on the surface at least, was very un-Cheap Trick like. The song writing team of Nick Graham and Bob Mitchell had been based in the U.K. for several years, penning songs for the likes of Sinitta and Toyah Wilcox. They had been commissioned to write some songs for vocalist Elkie Brooks, and one of the compositions they offered up was a song called ‘The Flame’. Brooks duly rejected the song, but Graham and Mitchell felt it had potential, so slapped a makeshift vocal on it and sent out a demo hoping to snare some interest. One of the copies found its way to Don Grierson, a former Capitol Records suit who had assumed the position of senior vice president A&R for Epic. Grierson loved the song but wasn’t sure who within the Epic family was best suited to record it. He was perusing the label’s roster when he came upon Cheap Trick and felt they might just be the band to take the song to #1. Grierson approached producer Richie Zito to oversee production on a new Cheap Trick album, featuring ‘The Flame’. There was only one hitch - the band didn’t like the song, much less like the idea of Cheap Trick recording it. It ended up being the last song recorded during the album sessions, and Zito had to coax each member of the band to record their part one at a time. Robin Zander laid down his vocal track first with a guide track on keyboard. When Zander heard the playback his feelings began to change towards ‘The Flame’. By the time the track was finished, pretty much everyone from producer to record label to Cheap Trick themselves, knew they had a sure fire hit record.

‘The Flame’ was released April ‘88 and debuted on the U.S. Hot 100 soon after. It was a slow but steady burn all the way to #1 in July (for two weeks). ‘The Flame’ scorched up the Australian charts more swiftly and hit the #1 position in May ‘88 (spending three weeks at the summit). ‘The Flame’ was Cheap Trick’s first American top 10 hit in almost a decade and signalled a resurgence in the band’s career. The source album ‘Lap Of Luxury’ restored their place inside the top 20 (US#16/OZ#18) and provided the platform Cheap Trick sorely needed to reclaim their status as a first class live attraction, with all the bells and whistles of eccentricity still present on stage. And as bassist Tom Petersson told Music Express at the time - “It reaffirmed our faith in ourselves”. In a daring move the follow up single saw Cheap Trick covering an Elvis classic with ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. The gamble paid off with a piece of contemporary pop brilliance, and Zander’s vocals were a perfect fit. ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ soared up the charts in both the U.S. (#4) and Australia (#5), followed by the minor hits ‘Let Go’ (OZ#75 - a much underrated song), ‘Ghost Town’ (US#33/OZ#67) and ‘Never Had A Lot To Lose’ (US#75), rounding out a banner twelve months for Cheap Trick. In February ‘89 Robin Zander combined vocal talents with Heart’s Ann Wilson on the US#6 hit ‘Surrender To Me’ (the love theme from the film ‘Tequila Sunrise’).

With an all new ‘adult oriented rock’ audience in tow, Cheap Trick then faced the challenge of maintaining their collective lap of luxury by building on the momentum kick started by their previous album. ‘Busted’ (OZ#37/US#48) was released in September 1990, and had been preceded by the solid pop-rock number ‘Can’t Stop Fallin’ Into Love’ (US#12/OZ#24), which was on its chart ascent around the time I saw Cheap Trick play. The album featured backing vocals from Chrissie Hynde (Pretenders) and Russell Mael (Sparks - see future post) on a couple of tracks. ‘Busted’ spawned one more hit single with ‘Wherever Would I Be’ (US#50), which would prove to be Cheap Trick’s last U.S. hit single to date. They released a greatest hits compilation in late ‘91, that I recall purchasing at the time, and I played Cheap Trick’s version of ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ relentlessly for a while - it is a seriously good version.

After an association spanning almost twenty years Cheap Trick finally parted company with Epic and released their next album on Warner Bros. 1994’s ‘Woke Up With A Monster’ (US#123) hit the stores in March but hit the bargain bins soon after. Despite an attempt by Cheap Trick to recapture their high energy rock sound of the late 70s, the album couldn’t find an audience in the mid 90s, and the band parted ways with Warner soon after. Ironically that same late 70s high energy sound was revisited by the band’s old Epic label on a sequel to ‘Live At Budokan’, titled appropriately enough ‘Budokan II’, and compiled from live cuts previously unreleased. Following a brief stint with the cult-indie label Sub Pop (with the single ‘Baby Talk’ released), Cheap Trick hooked up with the Red Ant-Alliance label and released their second eponymous album in June 1997 - roughly twenty years since their first was released. ‘Cheap Trick’ (1997) scraped into the U.S. top 100 at #99 and yielded the US#16 Mainstream Rock Hit ‘Say Goodbye’, but Cheap Trick’s days of magic were seemingly behind them. During 1998 Cheap Trick played a series of shows in Chicago with each night’s concert devoted to one of their first four albums. The best of the show’s performances were captured on the band’s self released 1999 album ‘Music For Hangovers’. 2001’s ‘Silver (live)’ (US#45 Independent) and 2003’s ‘Special One’ (US#6 Independent) catered to the needs of long term Cheap Trick fans, and showed the band had lost none of its vibrancy and verve.

But the Cheap Trick legend lives on to a legion of loyal fans. The band released their latest album ‘Rockford’ (US#101) in 2006, and it was hailed as their best album in 20 years - see comments for this post for more info. Cheap Trick has recently toured Australia again, this time in support of fellow rock luminaries Def Leppard. A 30th anniversary DVD of ‘Live At Budokan’ has just been released at the time of this post.

Cheap Trick's Dream Police Take Custody Of A Hit

One fine Spring afternoon in 1982 I found myself walking across the school playground (or quadrangle as we used to call it) in the middle of a class period. I don’t recall how I had escaped the confines of the classroom, or indeed if I was a messenger boy for some lazy teacher, but there I was with a few minutes of precious freedom. Of course I had enjoyed other moments of freedom during those heady high school days, but what made this sliver of personal sovereignty so memorable was the soundtrack accompaniment to my purposeful crossing of school grounds. From the art department building, just a stones throw away, came the raucous vocal chorus of an 8th grade class, accompanying the song ‘If You Want Me Love’ by Cheap Trick. The song was at its peak on the national charts at the time, and similarly ranked high on my personal hit parade. I stopped halfway across the playground and stood mesmerised, listening intently, soaking up every moment, carefully framing the experience in a place of honour for my future museum of recollections. At the end of every chorus, each and every kid in that classroom sang at the top of their lungs the high pitched ‘ooooooooooooooooh’, and I could feel that uplifting energy surging through the air. I’ve thought about that moment a number of times over the ensuing 25+ years, and at times I’ve wondered why it resonates so strongly (and wondered why my art class experiences weren’t as much fun). I think like most things we associate with our youth it represents a moment of pure exuberance, and those moments become all too rare with the onset of adulthood. In that fragment of memory remains a connection with something extraordinary and elusive, a treasure untarnished by the accumulated layers of life’s worries and responsibilities. Over the years I’ve tapped into that magical memory sparingly though, aware that its enchantment might be lost if it’s not given time to recharge between uses.

In about 1990 I recall buying a ticket to see Cheap Trick in concert, actually it was a double bill with the Australian band the Angels. The Angels had experienced a huge revival at the time and were the headline act, but it was Cheap Trick I was more interested in seeing - well it was really that one song that I wanted to hear live - ‘If You Want My Love’. They did play it, and played it quite well, but sadly the magic wasn’t replicated by the crowd, many of whom were more interested in the Angels (and some of whom were off their collective faces). So in that makeshift circus tent on the cities foreshore, I realised something very important that night. Those memories that are forged early, and shine the brightest, are impossible to replicate later on - all the more reason to treasure them for what they are. My God that sounds so freaking ‘Wonder Years’ - bleeegghhh! I promise I’m not the spirit of Kevin Arnold reincarnated, or even that voice over guy Daniel Stern, so before you switch over off the nostalgia network to escape this incessant reminiscing, here’s a bit more about the band behind the song - Cheap Trick. Cheap Trick formed during 1972 in the city of Rockford, Illinois, though their earliest origins can be traced back to the early 60s during which time guitarist/songwriter Rick Nielsen played with a number of bands including the Phaetons, the Grim Reapers and a band called Fuse, which also featured bass player Tom Petersson. They released a self titled album in 1969 on the Epic label which sank without a trace. Over the next year or two Nielsen and Petersson joined up with ex-Nazz members Robert ‘Stewkey’ Antoni (vocals) and Thom Mooney (drums - future Paris - see recent Bob Welch post).

By 1972 they had taken on the moniker of Sick Man Of Europe and relocated to Philadelphia. Drummer Brad Carlson (soon to be known as Bun E. Carlos) joined the line-up and a vocalist by the name of Randy ‘Xeno’ Hogan fronted the act for a time. Not surprisingly Sick Man Of Europe failed to crack it, and the members returned to Rockford to rethink their strategy. They added singer/guitarist (and former folkie) Robin Zander to the mix and hey presto Cheap Trick was born. Under the guidance of new manager Ken Adamany, the pop-rock quartet of Robin Zander (vocals/guitar), Tom Petersson (bass), Bun E. Carlos (drums), and the wacky guitar wizard/chief song writer Rick Nielsen (who reputedly already owned a growing collection of guitars that numbered in the dozens) started doing the hard yards playing the bar and club circuits - for the next five years. They finally landed a record deal with Epic, after being discovered by Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas. They’d also built up quite a reputation for zany, bordering on cartoonish stage antics, and persona to match, with rock geek extraordinaire Rick Nielson the natural focal point (along with his collection of baseball caps). In early ‘77 Cheap Trick released their eponymous debut album (produced by Jack Douglas), which contained all the best elements of their live work, with crunching, melodic and slightly off-beat rock, laced with oft times quirky, bordering on irreverent lyrics.

Their sophomore album ‘In Color’ (OZ#93/US#73) hit the shelves in the U.S. in August ‘77 and proved the breakthrough set for the Illinois rockers. It took their first attempt at pristine power-pop and refined it to a near flawless formula. Irresistible hooks bubbled to the surface on tracks like ‘Clock Strikes Ten’ and ‘I Want You To Want Me’ (which missed first time around as a single release). Comparisons were drawn to the melodic genius of The Beatles, though in fairness to Cheap Trick they were quickly establishing a solid repertoire of material in their own right, brim full of cheeky attitude, piercing power chords, and finely crafted pop. The band kept up a relentless touring schedule around the world during this period, and played on average 300 gigs a year, including opening for rock giants KISS, Santana and Queen. They found time to record a third album during the first half of ‘78 titled ‘Heaven Tonight’ (OZ#84/US#48) which spawned Cheap Trick’s first chart hit with ‘Surrender’ (US#62/ OZ#32), followed by ‘California Man’ (OZ#91) in early ‘79. In contrast to modest sales at home, Cheap Trick’s first three albums had all achieved gold certification in Japan, prompting the band to tour their extensively. In late ‘78 the band recorded a live performance at the famous Budokan Arena venue in Tokyo and released it as a live album, titled funnily enough ‘Live At Budokan’. Initially the album was only intended for release in Japan, but such was the demand for the title on import that it received a worldwide release soon after. Given the band’s strong reputation as a class act on stage, it was appropriate that their first major hit single was a ‘live’ recording. ‘I Want You To Want Me’ was reworked from its original ‘In Color’ album version, and took on a whole new high energy dynamic, capturing the rampant kinetic force that was Cheap Trick live. It rocketed to #7 on the U.S. charts in mid ‘79 and performed well in Britain (#29) and Australia (#43), raising the band’s global profile immeasurably. ‘Live At Budokan’ also took the band’s album sales to new levels (UK#29/OZ#32/US#4) going triple platinum, and yielded another U.S. top 40 hit with the single ‘Ain’t That A Shame’ (US#35), Cheap Trick’s take on the old Fats Domino classic. Needless to say Cheap Trick also became one of the most popular international acts to visit Japanese shores. They’d risen to be the headline act at arenas and stadiums, but the one thing still missing from the Cheap Trick profile was an arresting studio hit.

They pulled a rabbit out of the hat with 1979’s ‘Dream Police’. The rollicking rock refrain rocketed up the charts here in Australia to peak at #10 late in ‘79. It also consolidated Cheap Trick’s rock appeal Stateside, where it climbed to #26. The album of the same name further established the band’s growing reputation across the world (OZ#7/UK#41/US#6), and realised another two hits, with ‘Voices’ (US#32) and ‘Way Of The World’ (UK#73). Cheap Trick provided the song ‘Everything Works If You Let It’ (US#44) for the motion picture ‘Roadie’ (starring Meat Loaf), then set about work on their next album ‘All Shook Up’ (OZ#68/US#24). The album (produced by George Martin) appeared to have been somewhat of a miscalculation for the self-confessed Beatles’ devotees, who set aside their proven melodic-rock formula in pursuit of a more ornate, Beatlesque sound. The album yielded only one minor hit with ‘Stop This Game’ (US#48/OZ#97), and it appeared that the runaway train that was Cheap Trick had come to grinding halt. As a small footnote to the George Martin/‘All Shook Up’ album experience, it was rumoured that Zander, Nielsen and Carlos contributed to the recording sessions for the John Lennon/Yoko Ono album ‘Double Fantasy’ during 1980. Though none are credited, it’s not clear if any of the tracks they contributed to wound up on the final cut, but given ‘Double Fantasy’s producer was Jack Douglas, the guy who played a key role in getting Cheap Trick signed with Epic, it’s a reasonable bet there is some truth in that rumour. Soon after the release of ‘All Shook Up’, bassist Tom Petersson took his leave of the band to form another group with his wife Dagmar, and was replaced initially by Pete Comita, then in turn by Jon Brant. The band were then hit by the ignominy of having an entire album of recorded material rejected by their label Epic (who were extremely gun shy following the debacle of ‘All Shook Up’), which led to a flurry of legal action. It seemed that Cheap Trick had hit a low point in their ten year career. It would take something special to revive the group’s flagging fortunes.