Disco de Cheap Trick: “Heaven Tonight [Bonus Tracks]”

Cheap Trick has 13 full length studio cds on the market and most people under 20 have never heard this band. I select Heaven Tonight as the cd to start with. Sure, the debut Cheap Trick and the follow up, In Color, are great cds, but you can get those after Heaven Tonight. Sure, Live at Budokan was what sent Cheap Trick up the charts, but Heaven Tonight came before that. Then there are the mediocre Cheap Trick cds like All Shook Up, Standing on the Edge, The Doctor and Busted. I happened to like One On One, Next Position Please, Lap of Luxury, Woke Up With A Monster and 1997's self titled Cheap Trick. Yet most Cheap Trick fans would agree that their first four albums are their best. I have to agree to an extent. Heaven Tonight achieved the cohesiveness and consistency that their first two albums missed. Heaven Tonight is stronger than Dream Police is. With Heaven Tonight, Cheap Trick displays exactly what they do best--rock and roll with a pop flare. This cd sounds even better now that it's been digitally remastered. This cd is worth having if you are a serious music fan. Also, if you are a die-hard Cheap Trick fan that is open minded about their entire catalogue, you might check out the now hard-to-find solo cd from Robin Zander (1993). I thought it was different but yet just as good as Cheap Trick's material.

This CD captures Cheap Trick perfectly. The songwriting, playing, and production came together here to create a music set that withstands the test of time extremely well.

Unlike "In Color", which showcased Cheap Trick's pop sensibilities, "Heaven Tonight" is a raving rock CD. From the opening riff of 'Surrender', this CD is a great collection of hooks, melodies, and rhythms for people who think too much of today's popular stuff is awful.

Unlike so many contemporary CD's, there is no 'filler' or 'throwaway' material here: it's all very good, and every song leaves you wanting to hear the next one.

Cheap Trick released several CD's after this one, and while most had at least one great song, none of them measured up to "heaven Tonight" for consistent excellence from start to finish. While Cheap Trick is a band best known for their own music, The Move's "California Man" is covered here, and Cheap Trick's remake is actually more forceful than the original.

Note to Audiophiles: The Cheap Trick remasters show some of the greatest degree of improvement of any set of remasters, in part because the original CD releases were so bad. The engineering here is extremely good, and the mix is really clear. Even if you have the old CD's, this one's well worth the few extra dollars for the improved sound quality.

A million miles from the po-faced, breast-beating histrionics of, say, Bon Jovi, Cheap Trick offers a more tongue-in-cheek, cerebral vision of Rock n Roll. Heaven Tonight, their third album, has all the ingredients of outstanding power pop: catchy melodies, groovy harmonies, humor and superb guitar-playing. The opener, Surrender has already gone down in rock history as a classic, while several other songs - notably Auf Wiedersehn and Heaven Tonight - that are also stand-outs. It's a slice of power pop heaven to be sure BUT two things have to be taken into account: firstly, in my opinion the band's late-seventies-early eighties production has not aged well, and secondly, the remastered CD version still sounds strangely static compared with the vinyl. To sum up, then, highly recommended fare for lovers of good guitar pop.

I bought this on LP when I was about fourteen (so, about six years ago), mostly because I thought Tom Petersson looked good. Well, he still does, but the album rocks too. If you like Cheap Trick (from the radio or wherever) you'll like this album. If you're a rock fan, you'll still like this album. When I scratched the record in the middle of "Heaven Tonight" (a great song), I went into a severe depression. Doesn't that say enough?

The sonic boom of Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight is second to none. It inspired a generation of Baby Boomers into Generation X's grunge. When Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight hit the streets 20 years ago it blew my speakers away. Despite being mis-marketed (the band has always been too eclectic for marketing weinies to define), time has proven this to be one of rocks greatest albumns, look at how just about every 70's anthology, movie or TV show has used 'Surrender' (Detroit Rock City, That 70s Show, Private Parts.) Personally I think thier version of 'California Man' is classic. 'On Top of the World', 'Heaven Tonight', and 'Auf Wiedersehen' are all-time favorites. The whole albumn is classic. Buy it, your life will be better because of it!