Cheap
Trick’s roots can be traced back to the late 1960s,
when guitarist Rick Neilsen and bassist Tom Petersson founded
a band called Fuse. The Rockford, Illinois, band released
an unsuccessful album on Epic Records in 1969, but its members
were far from giving up. Instead, they changed the name
of the band to Sick Man of Europe and moved to Philadelphia.
After a failed European tour in 1972, the band returned
to Illinois in 1973 and became Cheap Trick, adding frontman
Randy Hogan and drummer Bun E. Carlos. After only a year,
Hogan was fired and replaced with Robin Zander.
Over
the next three years, Cheap Trick got fans the old-fashioned
way: with constant touring. The band played more than 200
shows a year, opening for AC/DC, Kiss and Queen, among others.
While fine-tuning their live performance, they began to
stockpile the original song library which would eventually
become their first three releases. In 1976, during this
relentless touring phase, Cheap Trick signed with Epic Records,
and in 1977, the band’s self-titled debut was released.
It sold well in the United States but still failed to hit
the charts; however, Cheap Trick became hugely successful
in Japan, with the release reaching gold status.
Later
the same year, “In Color,” was released, and
the more melodic effort went to number 73 on the U.S. charts,
once again going gold in Japan. The band toured Japan in
1978, and Cheap Trick concert tickets began selling out
within hours. In 1978, back in the U.S., Cheap Trick released
“Heaven Tonight,” which contained the Top 100
single “Surrender.” The band followed that with
a live recording of their shows at Japan’s Budokan
Arena, and the 1979 release “At Budokan” proved
to be the U.S. breakthrough for which Cheap Trick had been
searching. The album went to number four and eventually
reached triple platinum. “I Want You to Want Me”
was the band’s first Top Ten hit in the States. “Dream
Police” was another hit album.
Petersson
left the band in 1980, and though Cheap Trick’s next
two albums did well, the band began a commercial slump and
a period of label uncertainty. Petersson’s return
in 1988 didn’t give the band the boost it needed,
but Cheap Trick hung tough, opening for some popular, young
bands of the mid-1990s and continuing to tour constantly.
Fans have remained loyal, and the band was slated to release
a new album on its own label in 2006.
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