Cheap Trick - Greatest Hits [Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Cheap Trick | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 14, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000066AUS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,373 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An OK Primer for Cheap Trick, February 4, 2003

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cheap Trick - Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

I'm glad this came out with a reorganized sequence, because Cheap Trick's cover of "Magical Mystery Tour" is one of the worst songs they have ever recorded. By bumping it to the close of this CD where you can just hit eject and pass it by, you're better off. Using a live version of "Clock Strikes Ten" gives you a much better opening idea to what Cheap Trick, in their heyday, was really about. Loud fast fun!

It's also a sweet victory for Cheap Trick that their late 80's comeback material holds up pretty well next to their classics from the 70's. "Tonight It's You" should have been the hit, instead of the band having to hire songwriters to get "The Flame" for. We must also not forget the obvious...any album that contains the amazing "Surrender" and "I Want You To Want Me" is worth owning.

ON THE OTHER HAND: The "Authorized Greatest Hits" contains a couple other strong selections ("Walk Away" and "Stop This Game" most notably). The main reason I would suggest having THIS version of the greatest hits is for the studio version of "The Flame." ("Authorized Greatest Hits" substitutes it with a live version.) Otherwise I'd wholeheartedly recommend passing on this version for "A.G.H."

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My First Cheap Trick Album!, February 1, 2004

By 

Michael Meunier (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cheap Trick - Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard often goes on about how much he loves Cheap Trick and has been influenced by them. Then, when I saw the video for the Dream Police, I was pleasantly bugged out by the funky images and the awesome guitar work- very imaginative and rocked like hell.

So, the other day, I was able to get this particular version of their greatest hits for a low price... And this is a terrific starter album. The regular albums are probably sequenced better.

It sounds like a pretty mixed bag- no chronological order, which I prefer anyhow. The live tracks are terrific- these guys could make "My Little Buttercup" sound like total rocker, and they're very creative. The old-school studio tracks (first released when I was born) like Dream Police, Surrender, and Voices still sound fresh and exciting- there is no such thing as "over the top" in rock n' roll!

As for the latter-day ballads...well, that's a matter of taste. I used to not like hair metal ballad stuff when I was growing up in the 80's. The market was really flooded with it and I just couldn't relate to the majority of it. Now that I'm a little older, I enjoy it as a bit of a kitchy thrill and the Cheap Trick tracks of this nature are better than most.

It's a pretty inexpensive disc so, while you're shopping, you may as well pick this up- cheap, of course (they wouldn't have it any other way).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great intro to a great band, if a bit lightweight, August 9, 2005

By 

Perry M. Koons "theeighthbeatle" (Crownsville, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheap Trick - Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

Cheap Trick always seemed like three bands rolled up into one, and most of their career has been spent trying to find a balance between the different styles. You have your Beatlesque power pop tunes, which brought the band deserved hits in the 70's and a place in the heart of indie rockers from Nirvana to Guided by Voices. You have the 80's AOR years, filled with ballads that are musically pleasing with great choruses but artistically less interesting, and often heavily produced. And finally, you have the side of the band that was capable of cranking out menacing rockers with dark lyrics such as "Auf Wiedersehen" and "I'm Not The Only Boy".

While the third side of Cheap Trick is pretty much ignored here, the first two are covered pretty well. There's a decent cover of "Magical Mystery Tour" here, though it seems like the boys are rocking by rote rather than adding anything new to the song. All of the big hits are here, including the two songs that guaranteed Cheap Trick their place in the classic rock pantheon - "Surrender" and "I Want You To Want Me".

If you're looking for a disc that captures Cheap Trick as you heard them on the radio, this is a good single-disc encapsulation of their biggest hits. But if you really want to find out what Cheap Trick was all about, and still get most of their big hits, splurge for all five of their first records - Cheap Trick (self-titled), In Color, Heaven Tonight, At Budokan, and Dream Police. While Dream Police is the weakest of the bunch, all of these albums are absolute classics and really cover ALL sides of Cheap Trick - one of the most misunderstood bands of all time.