Live At Budokan

by

Cheap Trick

Edit

Cheap Trick at Budokan is a live album recorded by Cheap Trick in 1978. It is number 430 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time"

Cheap Trick found early success in Japan, and capitalized on this popularity by recording Cheap Trick at Budokan in Japan on April 28 and 30, 1978 with hordes of screaming Japanese girls nearly drowning out the band at times. This album (which appeared in Japan several months before being issued in the U.S. where it had sold briskly as an import) broke the band into global pop stardom. The album went platinum in three months and reached #4 on the Billboard 200. It also ranked #13 on Billboard's Top Pop Albums of 1979 year end chart. The single "I Want You to Want Me" reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and became the group's biggest selling single. The second single, a cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" also charted, reaching number 35. The album also introduced two previously unreleased original songs, "Lookout" and "Need Your Love".

A sequel, Budokan II, consisting of the remaining tracks from the concert not included on the original album, was released in 1993. An expanded version of the album was released in 1998 as At Budokan: The Complete Concert, remastered and fully restored to include all the concert tracks left off the original album. While it's missing "Stiff Competition", "On Top of the World", and "How Are You?", that were recorded at Budokan and released on Budokan II (1993), these songs were recorded in 1979 during their follow-up tour.

A 30th Anniversary Edition, Budokan! was released on November 11, 2008, as a four-disc set. In addition to the two-disc "Complete Concert", it includes a DVD and CD version of the concert from April 30, 1978. The filmed concert had originally been shown on Japanese TV, and was not previously commercially available. The original vinyl album is also to be reissued in conjunction with the 30th anniversary.