Heaven Tonight
Heaven Tonight is Cheap Trick's third studio album, produced by Tom Werman and released in 1978. The album was remastered and released with bonus tracks on Sony's Epic/Legacy imprint in 1998. The album cover features lead singer Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson on the front, with Rick Neilsen and Bun E. Carlos on the back. "Heaven Tonight" is considered Cheap Trick's best album by many fans and critics. While their debut album "Cheap Trick" showed the band's darker, rawer side and "In Color" explored a lighter, more pop-oriented persona, "Heaven Tonight  combined both elements to produce a hook-filled pop-rock album with an attitude. Popular songs from this album include the anthemic Surrender", "Auf Wiedersehen", the title track, and a cover of The Move's "California Man". "Heaven Tonight" is also known as the first album ever recorded with a 12-string electric bass. Overview. This was the second Cheap Trick album to feature Robin Zander and Tom Petersson on the front cover and Bun E. Carlos and Rick Nielsen on the back. While the front cover has Zander and Petersson standing in front of a nondescript background, the back  cover portion (part of a continuous, wrap-around shot on the original LP) reveals that they are standing inside a public restroom where Nielsen is brushing his teeth and Carlos is fixing his tie in the mirror. Nielsen has a cassette copy of the band's previous album, "In Color" sticking out of his back pocket. At the suggestion of the record company, the album was originally to be called "American Standard"; the cover photography was intended to play upon the secondary association with the well-known manufacturer of plumbing fixtures. The band were less pleased with the idea and  opted for the release title, but the cover design remained. "Surrender" was the only song from this album released on the original version of the 1979 live album "Cheap Trick at Budokan". On the 1998 reissue "At Budokan: The Complete Concert", three additional songs from this album were included - "Auf Wiedersehen", "High Roller" and "California Man". "Oh Claire" is a one-minute live jam with "Oh, konnichi wa" as the only lyrics. The title is a pun on Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where the band used to play frequently in their pre-stardom days. Cheap Trick wrote a similarly titled song , "O Claire," for their 2006 album "Rockford". "How Are You" contains, in its second verse, the extract of "The Lord's Prayer", sped up 10 times and inserted between the lyrics 'you lie, you lie.' For the Epic Legacy release (1998), the original version of this track was replaced by a studio outtake with tabla drums and acoustic guitar instead of the electric version - no mention of this was made on the CD sleeve. "Surrender" is featured as a playable song on the video game "Guitar Hero II" with the outro from "At Budokan" used in the game. It is  also featured in the soundtrack to EA's video game "Skate".