ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 141 CHEAP TRICK - HEAVEN TONIGHT (1978)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Artist: Cheap Trick

Genre: Rock

Country Of Origin: USA

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member: No

Album: Heaven Tonight

Released: May 1978

Producer: Tom Werman

Song Of The Week: Surrender

This week I'm putting up some Cheap Trick for your enjoyment.  In another thread, it was revealed by Scott that Dream Police was the extent of his early CT exposure, so that needs to be taken care of.  So let's discuss Heaven Tonight.

• This is Cheap Trick's 3rd studio album.
• It rose to number 48 on the U.S. album chart and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA (Wikipdia).
• This is the first album ever recorded with the 12-string electric bass (Wikipedia).
• The song California Man is a cover, originally done by The Move and written by Roy Wood (Wikipedia).
• Surrender, though perhaps a bit overplayed, is one of the greatest rock songs ever written, in my opinion of course.
• This is the remaster, which contains two bonus tracks, but they add nothing to the album, so I have not included them here.
• I have made the official decision that Bun E. Carlos is the greatest snare man ever.  Just listen to his snare work, you'll see what I mean.

1. Surrender

2. On Top Of The World

3. California Man

4. High Roller

5. Auf Wiedersehen

6. Takin' Me Back

7. On The Radio

8. Heaven Tonight

9. Stiff Competition

10. How Are You?

11. Oh Claire

[Scott]

So I listened to In Color this morning and it really was awesome.  So I checked on Amazon and found Cheap Trick, In Color, Heaven Tonight and Dream Police on sale for 4.99 and they were all AutoRip deals, so long story short, 20 dollars later will be receiving all 4 remastered in the next 3-5 days.  The new Auto Rip feature on Amazon means I have all of these on my Computer and sync'd to my Zune right now!  What a deal!

 

Now for this album, your gonna kill me, but I own this on Vinyl and some 30+ years later its still brand new, I don't think side 2 was ever played so its in pristine shrink-wrapped shape.  What a shame!  This is friggin really cool!  I can't find anything wrong with any song on this one...  I'm gonna be stuck listening to these guys for the next little while

 

What a great re-discovery!!!  Thanks!

[RJhog (Admin)]

Welcome!

[Jon]

But don't worry...I'll soon shatter your newfound Cheap Trick love!

[Scott]

Sweet!

[Niels (Mod)]

"Takin' Me Back" is perhaps the best CT-track ever, in my book anyway.

The first 3 CT-albums are as good as anybody's best albums!

[Jon]

Awesome album! Awesome. AWESOME!

Tee hee..he said "snare". Twice. Time for snipe hunting!

[Gordon Williams]

I believe this may be the first time I've ever heard this all the way through. Decent, but not as good as "In Color"" for me. I honestly don't think these guys are all that good. Very average to me...every album they do seems to have a few solid tracks, but as a whole, it's just not that good to me.

It may just be a "mental block" for me and this band. I'll say this one more time... I saw Cheap Trick open for so many bands in the 70's, that I think I just got a negative mental picture of them...unable to headline their own tour, so always hooking up with other bands as the opening act.

And their image...singer and bass player have the rocker look/image, while Rick and Bun have that whole nerdy/geek look. To me, these guys are the epitome of mediocrity. "Surrender" is one of the first songs I ever learned on guitar...it was simple to play even way back then as a beginner.

But, no disrespect meant to you guys who really like them.If you do like them, then it's just more music to enrich your life with. I will say I have always loved Rick's huge guitar collection. A lot of players, even at the professional level, stick with one guitar brand/model/type. But Rick, at least back then, was always changing guitars every song or two. That's cool!

[RJhog (Admin)]

I will agree with you Gordon that In Color is better.