Showing posts with label Cheap Trick. Show all posts

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Greatest Snubs

image from earthsmightiest.com

With the announcement of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2015 nominees, it is time once again to commence with the whining, complaining, and Hall bashing. Blogs and social media everywhere will light up with people griping that the Hall is worthless because their favorite band has not been enshrined.

These are just personal opinions. Dave’s Music Database has consolidated more than 50 lists (see resources at bottom of page) to determine just who is getting overlooked most. Here are the results:

The Moody Blues
Cheap Trick
Deep Purple
Chicago
Journey
Electric Light Orchestra
Yes
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble *
The Cure
Iron Maiden
The Cars
T-Rex
Bon Jovi
Joy Divison
Def Leppard
Judas Priest
Depeche Mode
Motorhead
The Smiths *
The Doobie Brothers
Pat Benatar
Warren Zevon
Boston
Roxy Music
Jethro Tull
Joe Cocker
Dire Straits
Devo
Peter Frampton
Kraftwerk *
Todd Rundgren
Bad Company
Replacements
Thin Lizzy
Steve Miller Band
New York Dolls
The Zombies
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts *
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Duran Duran
The Guess Who
Gram Parsons
MC5
Foreigner
Chic *
King Crimson
The B-52’s
Styx
The Monkees
Steppenwolf
Big Star
Pixies
Scorpions
Motley Crue
Sonic Youth
Dick Dale
Black Flag
Kate Bush
Nick Drake
Barry White
New Order
Jimmy Buffett
Three Dog Night
Procol Harum
The Runaways
Tommy Janes & the Shondells
Afrika Bambaataa
Whitney Houston
Dead Kennedys
Love
Blue Oyster Cult
Slayer
Joan Baez
X
Los Lobos
War
INXS
Janet Jackson
Meat Loaf
Eurythmics
J. Geils Band
Television
Johnny Burnette & the Rock ‘N’ Roll Trio
Willie Nelson
Toto
Brian Eno
Weird Al Yankovic
Captain Beefheart
Ozzy Osbourne
Carole King
Soundgarden
Commodores
Little Feat
Carpenters
Harry Nilsson
The Jam
The Buzzcocks
The Spinners *
The Clovers
Grand Funk Railroad

* 2014 nominee

Resources and Related Links:

Saturday, April 21, 1979

Cheap Trick “I Want You to Want Me (live)” charted

I Want You to Want Me

Cheap Trick

Writer(s): Rick Nielsen (see lyrics here)

Released (studio version): September 1977

First Charted (live version): April 21, 1979

Peak (studio): 97 CN

Peak (live): 7 US, 3 CB, 4 HR, 11 RR, 1 CL, 29 UK, 2 CN, 43 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)

Sales (in millions, live version): 1.0 US

Airplay/Streaming (in millions – studio and live versions): -- radio, 19.18 video, 141.38 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Cheap Trick formed in 1973 in Rockford, Illinois. After their self-titled debut failed to chart, they quickly followed it up with In Color that same year. It reached #73 in the U.S. and featured the song “I Want You to Want Me.” However, that song nor any other from the album, hit the Billboard charts in America. It did reach a lowly #97 in Canada.

Japan, however, was a different story. “Just as their third album, the classic Heaven Tonight hit the streets, Cheap Trick found themselves being welcomed to Japan, Beatlemania-style. This led to a headlining tour, and the recording of a series of shows at the legendary Budokan arena.” ^UCR

In the fall of 1978, Cheap Trick released a live album, At Budokan, capturing the shows. It was originally intended to be released only in Japan, but it caught on in the U.S. and “reportedly became the biggest selling import album of the ‘70s.” ^UCR That led to an official American release by Epic Records in early 1979. The album reached #4 and sold three million copies.

Much of the success was due to the live version of “I Want You to Want Me.” The band’s Rick Nielsen, who wrote the song as “an overblown pop parody” ^{WK/sup> and Tom Petersson were critical of the “lightweight production” ^WK of the original studio version. In concert, however, they played it at a faster tempo, which “transformed into a rocked-up guitar raver in concert, and…helped catch the ear of listeners in the states.” ^UCR The song reached #1 in Japan, #2 in Canada, and was a top-10 hit in the United States. It made “Cheap Trick household names, and turned the masses on to what the band’s die hard fans already knew: This was a great band that needed to be heard.” ^UCR}

Resources:

DMDB encyclopedia entry for Cheap Trick
^UCR UltimateClassicRock.com (6/20/2013). “Top 100 Classic Rock Songs”
^WK Wikipedia

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