I Want You To Want Me-

Goodnight Now-

Alright it’s been way too long since I posted a live album (since the first LP!). So here’s a good one…

Cheap Trick at Budokan (1978), by Cheap Trick. Wow! Talk about a live album! The album based on Cheap Trick’s performance at the Nippon Budokan during their sold out Japan tour.

Starting out as a small little band from Illinois, Cheap Trick was initially meet with some decent critic reviews, but hardly any success when it came to sales numbers or hits. Well, that is no success in their home country. Europe seemed to like them pretty well, and in Japan…well…let’s just say they were labeled the “American Beatles” by the Japanese press! All three of their albums had gone Gold in sales numbers and Japan’s youth were obsessed with the band members in the same way American girls had gone crazy for those Liverpool lads the previous decade.

Cheap Trick at Budokan was the result of their highly successful tour in 1978. After not getting anywhere back in the states, they were suggested to go play in Japan. They knew their records had sold fairly well there, but they were completely caught off guard when they were greeted with the same ear-piercing screams the Beatles had experienced. Just listening to this record is proof enough! After this album’s immediate financial success upon release, Epic records quickly put together an imported release for the US in 1979.

“I Want You To Want Me” is definitely one of their more recognizable tunes with this particular live version garnering the most airplay on radios. A fairly simple late 70s and 80s love song, but still an extremely catchy song in its own right. “Goodnight Now” is their closing tune for their concert (followed, of course, by an encore song). You might recognize their opening song “Hello There,” which is an excellent song to pump things up for the beginning of a performance. “Goodnight Now” is merely the same song with a few lyrical changes to more appropriately relate to finishing a show (plus a huge ending for kicks).

Overall it does everything I like about live albums. It captures the excitement of the crowd, the fun enjoyment of the band, and some stellar performances of the songs themselves. It may not feature some of the more excited improves from live albums by bands like Led Zeppelin or The Band, but the emotion between the band and crowd is executed flawlessly with this record. I’d really suggest giving the whole performance a listen through ^^