DISQUS

scrumble · 1 year ago

Could Tracy Chapman have been the first sign that the Hot 100 wasn't going to make it much longer as a measure of mainstream taste? Those songs had a much greater impact than chart positions indicate, everywhere except the top 40 radio used as the main measuring stick...

jack · 1 year ago

"Baby Can I Hold You?" is one of those songs that may not have impacted the charts, but there are likely many people who associate this song with a past relationship (like I do). Adds a bittersweet quality to it.

Cheap Trick was (is?) just an amazing band. The harmonies at the beginning of "If You Want My Love" are tight. And I really liked "Up the Creek." I had the 45, even though I wasn't old enough to see the movie!

And admit it, Dave, the 13 years old you would have totally done 63-year-old Cher as well. Most of us would have at 13.

Darren · 1 year ago

re: Cheap Trick's "Up The Creek"...yeah, its hokey, yeah it was written for a really lame Animal House--goes-camping movie, but the tune itself rocks and ranks as one of my fave Trick tunes...

Spring Break, on the other hand, is a total throw-away. The band was too busy to actually write a tune for the movie so their manager gave the honor to Graham from the Elvis Brothers, who was managed by the same guy. Graham sweats it out, write a great tune, then Rick comes along, realizes he can make some publishing bucks if he does it himself, and literally pens a tune at the last minute.

Admittedly, at the time, I remember liking the tune enough to have my band cover it. We played it at our gigs that took place during spring break (symmetry, my friend) and it always went over really well.

j · 1 year ago

"Tommy Chong presumably just continued to smoke the ganja."

Didn't he go to prison when his chain of high-end head shops got busted?

scrumble · 1 year ago

It was a designer bong website his son was running, Tommy himself stopped smoking the stuff years before.

MarlboroTestMonkey7 · 1 year ago

The Champlin songs have just re-emerged from the depths of my mind

wags · 1 year ago

Chong did show up on That 70s show in the late nineties/early aughts...

DavidMedsker · 1 year ago

Love "Tonight It's You" and "Baby Can I Hold You Tonight." God, how many times did Cheap Trick just miss the Hot 100?

eddie_w · 1 year ago

I've always loved Cherrelle's version of "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On", much more than Mr. Palmer's. Takes me right back to being 15 again.

And, if I remember right, some Europe-based boy band covered "Baby Can I Hold You" in the late 90s to much success there. Just goes to show how a well-written song will hold up.

Great column again...always a highlight of my week!

Old_Davy · 1 year ago

I always thought "Baby Can I Hold You" should have been a bigger hit. That song made it's way onto a lot of my mix tapes. And yeah, I like it better than "Fast Car" too.

I agree about Cheap Trick, they are terribly underrated. In the era of 'image-is-everything' rock, poor Rick Nielsen could've written the best rock song ever and the public still would have ignored it. A friend of mine was dating this ditz who said she didn't like Cheap Trick because they had a fat guy and a nerd in the band. Geez.

As for Cheech and Chong, this is something that Weird Al is sooooooo much better at. But by this time C&C were so burned out, a breakup was probably the best thing for both of them.

rwcass · 1 year ago

But their album covers put the traditionally good-looking guys right in front, with the fat guy and the nerd on the back. That made them seem pretty image-conscious to me. You can blame it on their management or label, but it seemed like Cheap Trick worked the visual aspect harder than people would've expected.

EightE1 · 1 year ago

Funny how many hit songs from '82 and '85 were just throwaways, yet "If You Want My Love" and "Tonight It's You" still resonate with me. God, I love Cheap Trick!

And I remember seeing Chubby Checker lip-synching "Running" on Solid Gold back in the day. Haven't heard that song in 25 years. Wow.

Rob
EightE1

Eric S. · 1 year ago

I'm not even sure "most underrated band of the decade" does Cheap Trick justice. I've seen them 7 or 8 times over the last three decades (as recently as last year) and I've never been disappointed. The band's influence goes way beyond the songs that have charted. Their last album even got some critical acclaim, even though it couldn't get played anywhere. How many other bands have stayed that relevant for that long while (almost) maintaining the same lineup?

Matt · 1 year ago

I agree with Darren, in reference to "Up The Creek" by Cheap Trick: It's a great (albeit hokey) number...

Sara · 1 year ago

Quite a shame Bill Champlin never lived up to the success of Peter Cetera. Most of his future albums were released in Europe and Japan where they care about Westcoast (a.c.) music. He's so talented!