WCSX Classic Cuts
Cheap Trick: “I Want You to Want Me”
The Hook: What’s wrong with a song that makes you smile?
Album: Cheap Trick at Budokan
Year: 1979
Writer: Rick Nielsen
Stats: The studio version was the first single from Cheap Trick’s 1977 album, In Color. It didn’t chart in the U.S., but went to number-one in Japan. When they released the live version recorded at Budokan in Tokyo, it became their biggest U.S. single, reaching number-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and receiving a gold certification.
Background: Dismissed by some as a piece of pop fluff, Cheap Trick guitarist and songwriter Rick Nielsen defends his song and says there’s a certain amount of unfulfilled fantasy amid the good cheer.
Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen on how he feels about “I Want You to Want Me.” OC:…happened yet. :17
”I like ‘I Want You to Want Me.’ It always make people smile and smiling is good. The world has enough things to not smile about. And for two-and-a-half minutes to smile and remember something good is alright. And plus, the guy in that song or the girl in that song, they’re still wanting something to happen, it hasn’t happened yet.”