Ruckus At The Movies: Cheap Trick

You know what's been missing around here lately? Some good ol' fashioned rock'n'roll, that's what! Amid my love for all things Americana, I sometimes forget to mix in something a little more...crunchy. Et voilà, a new series to remedy that (I know, throw it on the pile...). So, what's Ruckus At The Movies? It'll be a bunch of compilations of harder rock acts and the music they contributed to movie soundtracks. And what better band to start off shenanigans than that ultracrunchy quartet from Rockford, Illinois - the one and only Cheap Trick. 

Cheap Trick are the ultimate smart dumb rock'n'roll band. They also seem to be perpetually underrated. No one ever seems to go "Hey, those Cheap Trick fellas were pretty damn good, right?". Or: "That Rick Nielsen sure knew how to write some deceptively clever seemingly dumb songs". Or: "Boy, that Robin Zander really was quite a singer, wasn't he?". All of these things go without saying, but the fact that Cheap Trick were seen as a dumb rock'n'roll band seems to have prevented them from having some cred with the cool crowd. Other than...uh, Billy Corgan, where are the rock'n'roll stars singing the praises of the Trick? 

Arguably, most of the tracks on this compilation come from when the band was on a bit of a downswing, meaning from the early 80s on. Trying to find a sympathetic producer after having separated from Tom Werman, as well as a hit record, the Trick went from George Martin to Roy Thomas Baker to Todd Rundgren to Jack Douglas to Tony Platt, the latter messing up the band's sound on Standing On The Edge and especially The Doctor. The Richie Zito-produced Lap Of Luxury brought them their only no. 1 hit, power ballad "The Flame" before follow-up Busted, well, busted whatever commercial standing they had.

                                           The dreamboats and, uh, the other guys

All the while Cheap Trick maintained income and visibility by placing songs on soundtracks, from genre exercises like Heavy Metal and Rock And Rule (for which they recorded three songs, both outtakes are also included) to mainstream fare like Caddyshack II (for which they recorded a stomping cover of "Money (That's What I Want)") or the forgotten Brendan Fraser-comedy Encino Man (for which they recorded an even more rowdy - and heavy - cover of "Wild Thing"). I also threw in two solo tracks by Robin Zander, big AOR ballads for the Sly Stallone-vehicle Over The Top and the Kurt Russel-Mel Gibson joint Tequila Sunrise. The latter features Ann Wilson.  

One of my favorite Trick tracks from this comp is a pure "gun for hire"-work. Harold Faltermeyer, who worked on the scores and songs for Top Gun got them to perform "Mighty Wings" which is also prominently featured in the film. And yet the single missed the charts completely, whereas even Loverboy's soppy "Heaven In Your Eyes" made it all the way to no. 12. Oh well. Opener "Everything Works If You Let It" (from Roadie) and "Up The Creek" from the movie of the same title (which the band incidentally hates and describes as possibly their worst song) at least scraped into the Top 50. 

But hey, charts, shmarts, right?! If you wanted some big dumb fun rock'n'roll on your movie soundtrack, you should call Cheap Trick and they would get the job done. The 17 tracks featured here are the proof. So, hang up your brain for a while, get warmed up for some air guitar and let's cause some ruckus at the movies...