Sex, America, Cheap Trick

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Cheap Trick

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This set is an important testament to the diversity of Cheap Tricks musical past. Its all here, including B-sides, live cuts, out-takes, and under-appreciated album tracks that deserve to be heard. Included for good measure are big hits from albums like Dream Police and Budokan, but the real excitement here stems from the fine taste shown in track selection. The scrap-book style interior is loaded with pix and is fun to to look at. The extensive liner notes are a crash course in CT History 101, and the track listing inside has artists comments on many of the songs. This a quality set that shows time and a lot of care in its creation, and is a steal for the price!

Back in those ancient, pre-MP3 days, I was looking for an anthology that had my a couple of my favorite Cheap Trick songs, "If You Want My Love" and "World's Greatest Lover". At that time, this was the only one that included both of these, so I went for it. It was a bit pricey.

I enjoy the band's music, but, personally, in the end, I feel that the band didn't have quite enough diversity in its sound over the years. So, it feels like overkill for someone who might like the music, but isn't a hardcore fan. There are lots of outtakes, B-sides, obscure soundtrack numbers, and demos. However, almost of the band's most popular singles and best album tracks are here, too. Just some random thoughts on a few:

An interesting find is the very earliest version of "I Want You to Want Me", an outtake from the first album. Since the live "Budokan" version is here, too, I suppose it would have been overdoing it to include the "Heaven Tonight" version, too, but I wouldn't have minded.

There are actually two versions of "World's Greatest Lover" here -- the final version from "All Shook Up" and the original demo, with Rick Nielsen on the lead vocal. I was surprised to hear that he can actually sing, with a voice that isn't too dissimliar from Robin Zander's.

The version of "If You Want My Love" is not the final single, but a longer take with no synthesizers. I like both versions, so it's a mixed bag.

Big minuses: "California Man" and "Magical Mystery Tour" are missing; and "The Flame" is here. It was a #1 single, so I guess it had to be here, but it's a terrible song that was forced upon the group. Speaking of which, the original boxed set has an extensive history of the band written by Ira Robbins. It does an excellent job of covering the ups and downs of the group, especially battles with Epic Records which resulted in crap like "The Flame". Fortunately, this is the only example of such tripe on this collection.

However, since you don't get the essay with a download, this entire collection is only for die-hard Cheap Trick fans. For other people, I'd suggest cherry-picking your favorite Cheap Trick songs (many of them will probably be here, but not all of them) and creating your own personalized anthhology, instead.