The B-side of the "Dream Police" single was "Heaven Tonight," previously released as the title track of Cheap Trick's previous studio album, 1978's Heaven Tonight. It is a disturbing song that was written by Rick Nielsen and Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson. "Heaven Tonight" was one of two songs on the album that involved death, "Auf Wiedersehen" being the other. In this song, potential death comes from drug abuse; Nielsen described it as an "anti-drug" song. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described the song as being "dreamily psychedelic." Mitchell Schneider of Rolling Stone noted a resemblance between "Heaven Tonight" and The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever."
Nielsen played a mandocello on the song, and other instruments include harpsichord and cello. Nielsen described the song as "a kind of parody on some of the drug songs of the sixties" and stated that "it could even be the basis for a movie." Petersson stated that they tried to make the song sound like Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir." Nielsen noted that the song's ending line: "you can never come down" was taken from a Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies song.
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Famous quotes containing the words heaven and/or tonight:
“When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o’erflow?
If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,
Threatening the welkin with his big-swollen face?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I’m a poor underdog,
But tonight I will bark
With the great Overdog
That romps through the dark.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)