Cheap Trick

I love The Beatles, and most of the first records I bought were either Beatles albums, or Beatle solo albums. Only around 1976-1977 did I really consider that any other artist existed (well...at least existed to the point where I would buy a current, newly released album). For me, the first of these bands was Cheap Trick. Other than The Beatles (or Wings), Cheap Trick was my group of that era.

I had seen reviews for Cheap Trick albums in Rolling Stone (RS was once cool), but it was the review for "Heaven Tonight" that first spurred me to action. I convinced my buddy Gary to buy it...while I bought "Powerage" by AC/DC. Though I still like Bon Scott era AC/DC, Gary got the best end of the deal. We listened to that album for what seemed like months. We liked it so much that we went to the local record store to try to get the first two albums ("Cheap Trick" and "In Color")...they didn't have it...in fact we had to hit record stores in a 50 mile radius before we finally found it. "In Color" remains my fav CT album...great from beginning to end.

I ended up getting "Cheap Trick at Budokan" on import about 6 months before they finally released it in the US. It cost $15.00...no small sum in 1978.

Cheap Trick carries on. They never put together an album as solid as any of the first three, but each album since then has had a worthy track.

The first video is a promo for CT's first single, "Oh Candy". Video number 2 is from the Budokan shows, "Look Out". The bottom vid is from 1983...CT doing "I Can't Take It" live on the Alan Thicke Show...Jon Brant had replaced the departed Tom Petersson on bass (Petersson would return in 1987).