“Surrender”
Rick Nielsen’s “rock nursery rhyme” made Cheap Trick famous.
BY JOE BOSSO
ALTHOUGH “SURRENDER” WAS featured on Cheap Trick’s third album, 1978’s Heaven Tonight, the song actually dates back to the band’s pre-record deal club days. As guitarist Rick Nielsen points out, “We almost recorded it for our debut album, but we did something like 26 songs for that one, so ‘Surrender’ never made it. Nor did it make our second album, In Color. It wasn’t until the third album that we gave it a go.”
Released as a single, the studio version of “Surrender” stalled at number 62 on the Billboard charts. The track didn’t take on its status as a rock anthem until 1979, when the band delivered its bravura live performance of the song on their breakthrough album, Cheap Trick at Budokan. “The studio version is good, but I’m partial to the live version,” Nielsen says. “There are no gimmicks: It’s guitars, bass, drums and vocals. And how good is that? I think it’s really good!”