Day After Day #14: Surrender

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Surrender

Growing up in the 1970s was something else, man. I'm not coming at this from some "you kids are soft" vantage point; it was just different. I'm not going to go into all the differences, but for the purposes of this post, I'm going to talk about live albums. The '70s were all about live albums and they totally made careers. 

Sure, you had the Who and the Stones releasing some of the best live albums of all time, but if you were a struggling artist, sometimes a live album was what it took to convince music fans that you were all that. KISS had a good gimmick but their first three albums were duds. It wasn't until Alive! was released in the fall of 1975 that the band broke through, even as they were savaged by critics. The album hit #9 on the Billboard 200 chart and stayed on the chart for 110 weeks. Peter Frampton had four albums under his belt and little success before he released Frampton Comes Alive! in 1976. It ended up going to #1 and becoming the best-selling album of the year, selling over 8 million copies in the U.S. alone. It has sold 20 million worldwide. 

Then there's Cheap Trick, straight outta Rockford, Illinois. Formed in 1973, the band released its self-titled debut in early 1977, chock full of excellent, hard-edged power pop, but it didn't register with fans. The band had a gimmick, namely the matinee idol good looks of singer Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson and the dorkier look of guitarist Rick Neilsen and perpetually smoking drummer Bun E. Carlos. Zander and Petersson would be featured on album covers while Neilsen and Carlos would be goofing off on the back covers. 

A second album, In Color, came out in September '77 and emphasized the pop side with songs like "I Want You to Want Me" and "Southern Girls" but again, it didn't meet with success in the U.S. But it was big in Japan and the band played two shows there in April 1978, just before the release of its third album, Heaven Tonight. Played in front of 12,000 screaming fans, the shows were recorded for a live album intended for a Japan-only release that fall. Cheap Trick At Budokan was later released in the U.S. in February 1979 and after the live version of "I Want You to Want Me" was released as a single, it took off. The song was everywhere that spring, hitting #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and #2 on the Canadian singles chart. The live version was fuller than the studio one, with a faster tempo and heavier guitar. The second single was a cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame," which hit #35 on the charts. 

At Budokan was a monster success, peaking at #4 on the Billboard 200 and selling over 3 million copies; it went to #1 on the Canadian album charts. Several other songs received tons of airplay on FM rock radio, most notably "Surrender," which was on Heaven Tonight. The song was a modest success when first released, hitting #62 on the Hot 100 chart. But again, the live version surpassed the studio one. The song is a classic teen anthem, contrasting the teen narrator and his parents, but then notes that "Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright/They just seem a little weird/Surrender, surrender/But don't give yourself away." Doesn't get much catchier.

The band followed up the live album with Dream Police later in '79. The title track was a big hit (and I bought it on 45) and it signaled a heavier sound for the band, who started headlining arenas. Petersson left the group but they kept going with a couple of replacements. None other than George Martin produced the next album, 1980's All Shook Up, which went gold. The first half of the '80s saw the band in a downturn, still releasing albums but having less and less success. Petersson returned in '87 and the band started working with outside writers for the 1988 release Lap of Luxury and sure enough, they scored a #1 hit with the ballad "The Flame" and also got to #4 with a cover of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel." 

However, the '90s were a struggle for Cheap Trick, with more lackluster albums. In 1997, they went back to basics, ditching the outside songs on their second self-titled album. It was a strong release but didn't sell much. The following year, the band released the full version of the Budokan album and re-released their first three albums, playing three-night stints in multiple cities and doing a different album front to back each night (I saw them play In Color at the Paradise on that tour). They're still going, albeit without Carlos. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

Cheap Trick headlined the first concert I ever attended, in July 1984 in my hometown at the time, Kingston, New Hampshire. They sounded great, but sadly they were an afterthought compared to the bands on the rise who opened for them: Ratt, Twisted Sister and Lita Ford. After Ratt left the stage, half the crowd left the fairgrounds. I moved up to the front and managed to get a Nielsen guitar pick (not a huge feat since he constantly flicks them into the crowd at every show). I didn't care that they weren't that popular anymore. At Budokan definitely still ruled in my mind.