For this, the last An Album A Day feature, HERC tampered with the otherwise random process just a bit - today's pick was originally supposed to be featured yesterday but when research turned up the fact that it was actually recorded 35 years ago today, HERC pushed it back a day and drew again.
The music of Cheap Trick and HERC go way back: Cheap Trick At Budokan was the first live album and the first Cheap Trick album HERC ever bought. (The fact that the concert was recorded practically on his birthday only sweetened the deal.) The concert was also filmed and the very first song is the introductory "Hello There" (above). The second song on the album is "Come On, Come On" (below)- like "Hello There" it originally appeared on their second 1977 album In Color.
At Budokan's third track was the previously unreleased "Lookout". Or is it "Look Out"? (above) In Color's "Big Eyes" was the next track followed by another unreleased song "Need Your Love" which closed out Side One of the vinyl album. A studio recording of "Need Your Love" would eventually appear on the group's next album, 1979's Dream Police.
Side Two opens with a rocking cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That A Shame" (above) which was also a Top 40 single from the album. Many years later, HERC would learn that the song was placed on the album out of sequence - it was the first of a two song encore. (It was at that time that HERC learned the entire concert was not presented on the At Budokan album. More on that later.)
Although "I Want You To Want Me" (above) was on the In Color album and had been released as an unsuccessful single in 1977, it found new life onstage in a sped-up version and as the first single from At Budokan. It climbed into the Top 10 on the Hot 100 and sold more than a million copies and in turn drove millions of fans to buy the live album, which peaked at #4 with sales of over three million. Such was the old paradigm in the music industry.
"This next one is the first song on our new album..." Before the Beastie Boys co-opted that line, it was known solely as the intro to "Surrender", the third track on Side Two of At Budokan. As a single off of 1978's Heaven Tonight, the studio version of "Surrender" was Cheap Trick's very first Hot 100 single.
The next track "Goodnight Now" closed the concert proper before the band returned to the stage for their encore "Clock Strikes Ten" (above). And just over 42 minutes after it had begun, the album - and the concert - was over. Or was it?
In 1993, Budokan II was released featuring the other nine songs from that same April 28, 1978 concert plus three songs recorded at Budokan in 1979 on the Dream Police tour.
Five years later, for the original album's 20th Anniversary, At Budokan: The Complete Concert was released as it had been performed with all 19 songs in their correct sequence.
For the 30th Anniversary, Cheap Trick sweetened the pot by adding a DVD of the original Japanese concert film - they even made a promotional video for the set (below).
On each of these anniversaries, Cheap Trick performs At Budokan in its entirety and this year's 35th Anniversary is no exception as the band is performing the album in New York and then Los Angeles. Although the original album will always have a special place in his heart as well as his library, HERC has to admit that the fully-restored show (below) is growing on him.
NOTICE
Featuring albums on their anniversaries will NOT be a regular feature here at The Hideaway for the simple reason is that others are out there doing it, and doing a fine, fine job at it. As a public service to his viewers (and HERC knows they're not viewers), here are a few links to album anniversary sites:
The Second Disc
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