#21 – Cheap Trick – “I Want You To Want Me” – (1977)

This is a weird one. I know we’re counting down 1977, the year this song was originally released, but the album cover to the right is not Cheap Trick’s In Color, but rather Cheap Trick at Budokan which was released in Japan in 1978 and in the U.S. in 1979, the year that the live version of this song actually became a hit (the album version was not). They differ in tempo, the live version being faster (and better). The live version ended up becoming a top ten hit in the U.S. and a #1 in Japan, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Cheap Trick is a band that was apparently huge, but they didn’t really have that many major hits. I guess I don’t get it. And as a rock band, this song is more or less straight pop… it’s funny how bands want to be known as “X” but find the biggest success with “Y.”