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Cheap Trick is a band that rose to prominence in the mid-1070s, though the earliest version of the band started in 1967 with everybody but Robin Zander(called something else of course). They never reached the same heights as some bands of the period, but i thought they were better than most of them. Never saw these boys live, but a friend told me about a great show I missed. In a nearby city, where I saw most of my live shows, Cheap Trick and AC/DC co-headlined a concert(and this was before either band received any kind of notoriety.

Their uniqueness, I guess you might say, was the contrast of members of the band: geek versus rocker. Guitarist Rick Neilson, who I always thought looked like Huntz Hall of Bowery Boys and Dead End Kids fame(the young whippersnappers out there may not get that reference. Even down to the flipped up baseball cap. It had to be deliberate) and drummer Bun E. Carlos were the self-styled geeks and were usually regulated to the back cover in the days of vinyl. Vocalist Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson(who gets generally gets credit for the idea of a twelve string bass) were always front and center as the rockers.

Theirs was a blend of metal and pop music that was the perfect sop for us that hated pop music in general. It gave us an excuse, me anyway, for listening to certain radio stations back then. They’re still around these days, though you don’t hear as much. A recent show(July 18th) at the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest nearly bought disater when the stage collapsed while they were playing. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Heaven Tonight is considered by many their best album and contained maybe their best song, Surrender. But they had a lot of good ones. below are some of my favorites.