Cheap Trick at Budokan - Overview

Overview

Cheap Trick found early success in Japan, and capitalized on this popularity by recording Cheap Trick at Budokan in Tokyo on April 28 and 30, 1978, with an audience of 12,000 screaming Japanese fans nearly drowning out the band at times. The album was intended for release only in Japan but with strong airplay of the promotional album From Tokyo to You, an estimated 30,000 import copies were sold in the United States and the album was released domestically in February 1979. The album also introduced two previously unreleased original songs, "Lookout" and "Need Your Love".

In the U.S., the album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and became the group's best selling album with over three million copies sold. It also ranked number 13 on Billboard's Top Pop Albums of 1979 year-end chart. The single "I Want You to Want Me" reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The second single, a cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" also charted, reaching number 35. Cheap Trick at Budokan was certified triple Platinum in 1986 by the RIAA.

In Canada, it went to number one, hitting the top of the RPM 100 Albums chart on August 11 of the same year. By November 1979, it had achieved quintuple platinum status (500,000 units) in that country.

An unusual aspect of the album release in the UK was the use of coloured vinyl, then primarily restricted to singles and EP's, and soon replaced as a marketing gimmick by so-called "picture discs". A prominently displayed sticker on the sleeve of "Live at Budokan" announced that it had been released on "kamikaze yellow vinyl", and, unlike most coloured discs, which were usually as opaque as the conventional black vinyl records, the two discs in the album were actually translucent.

When Cheap Trick at Budokan was first released on compact disc in the U.S., first pressing contained a slightly different, possibly an unpolished mix of the concert. Notably the guitar trade offs of "Ain't That A Shame" were obviously different from the vinyl release.