Heaven Tonight (1978)


 

  1.Surrender
  2.On Top of the World
  3.California Man
  4.High Roller
  5.Auf Wiedersehn
  6.Takin' Me Back
  7.On the Radio
  8.Heaven Tonight
  9.Stiff Competition
 10.How Are You?
 11.Oh Claire

--Bonus Tracks--
 11.Stiff Competition (Demo Version)
 12.Surrender (Demo Version)

 

With Heaven Tonight, Cheap Trick achieved something they’d only hinted at on their first two records—a synthesis of brute force and pop sensibility that vaulted them from bar-band darlings to cult legends. It’s the culmination of their early sound: raw, aggressive, and wickedly catchy, but dressed now in sharper studio threads. One foot planted in Midwestern grit, the other daringly toeing the waters of psychedelia and pop polish.

The album kicks off with Surrender, an instant classic and arguably the band’s defining anthem. What makes it great isn’t the storyline—a dorky teenager realizing his parents are cooler than he is—but the sheer exuberance of its delivery. Everything aligns: the chugging guitar riff, the half-mocking, half-reverent vocals, the punchline payoff in the chorus. It’s as if the entire ‘70s teenage experience has been distilled into one perfect radio moment.

From there, things get stranger. Auf Wiedersehen is a suicide note disguised as a stadium sing-along—savage, melodic, and disconcertingly fun. It’s this contrast, this blend of ghoulish subject matter with irresistibly sugary hooks, that defines the album’s brilliance. Cheap Trick weren’t afraid of darkness, but they served it up with a grin.

The title track, Heaven Tonight, is a lysergic lullaby—wreathed in eerie strings and synthetic haze, it’s the band’s most blatant nod to the Beatles. The influence is overt, but not derivative. It’s less a pastiche than a séance: summoning the spirit of Revolver or Magical Mystery Tour and bending it to their own strange ends.

Elsewhere, the group hurls itself through California Man, a cover of The Move that outpaces the original, injecting a bit of Brontosaurus along the way in a cheeky homage. Even How Are You?, a vaudeville-tinged oddity, feels oddly appropriate—this time it works, where similar gestures on In Color misfired.

In hindsight, Heaven Tonight was their apex. Many later albums flickered with promise but rarely caught fire quite like this. The stars aligned in 1978, and Cheap Trick took flight—not just loud, but luminous.


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