Cheap Trick's - "Surrender"

Cheap Trick's
"Surrender"

by Chris Michie

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Cheap Trick/Heaven Tonight
From the album sleeve: (L to R) Rick Nielsen, Bun E. Carlos, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson - PHOTO: REID MILES

Formed in 1974 by four musicians from Rockford, Ill., Cheap Trick possessed all the ingredients necessary for success: experience, musical chops, quality material, a ferocious work ethic and an instantly recognizable image. The zany onstage persona of guitarist Rick Nielsen played well against the studly good looks of bassist Tom Petersson, while singer Robin Zander’s choirboy-in-a-strip-club exuberance only emphasized the air of world-weary sophistication exuded by mustachioed drummer Bun E. Carlos. And they not only looked good, they could play. Taking on Midwest booking agent Ken Adamany as manager, the quartet worked a grueling apprenticeship, playing four or five nights a week on the club circuit, interspersed with supporting act slots for such arena-filling acts as AC/DC, Kiss, Rush, Queen, The Kinks and Ted Nugent.

The hard work paid off. In 1976, A&R executive Tom Werman signed Cheap Trick to Epic, and the band recorded their eponymous first album with producer Jack Douglas. It sold a modest 150,000 copies in the U.S. but went Gold in Japan, a pattern that was to repeat throughout the band’s career. The follow-up LP, 1977’s In Color, which was produced by Werman, only just penetrated the U.S. album charts, though it did feature a song that would figure large in the band’s future—“I Want You to Want Me.” Finally, the first single from the third album, Heaven Tonight, became the group’s first 45 to make the U.S. singles charts. Though it peaked at a lowly Number 62 in September 1978, “Surrender” undoubtedly paved the way for the group’s breakthrough single—the live version of “I Want You to Want Me,” which reached Number 7 in the U.S. Sales of the Live at Budokan album eventually reached Platinum status in the U.S. (triple-Platinum in Japan).

Recording for Heaven Tonight began in January 1978 at Sound City in Van Nuys, Calif. Producer Werman, who was based at Epic’s headquarters in New York, recruited engineer Gary Ladinsky through a round of phone interviews. “I was given the name of four engineers who worked at the Record Plant a lot by Rose Mann, who was the manager,” recalls Werman. “I remember calling each one of them and thinking that Gary sounded the best. He was the least boastful, the most honest and down-to-earth. I just liked the way he sounded, so I said, ‘Okay, you’ll do the record.’” Ladinsky had been on staff at the Record Plant and had become an independent in around 1975 or ’76. “But I did most of my stuff out of Record Plant,” Ladinsky says. “I just knew the place so well; I knew the facility, knew the staff. It was comfortable to do stuff there.

“I don’t remember how we ended up at Sound City,” Ladinsky continues. “I think we were just looking for a big room, and Sound City had a reputation as being a good rock ’n’ roll room, and it had a Neve. I don’t think I’d ever worked there before. We just went in there and scoped it out, probably set up the way they suggested, but we ended up moving things around a lot.”

In fact, it took Ladinsky and Werman about three days to get the drums sorted out to their satisfaction. The drum-miking setup included both close and distant mics, and, more than two decades later, Ladinsky can only guess at the mic selection, but it probably included a Shure SM57 on the snare or an AKG 451. “There could have been two kick drum mics,” notes Ladinsky, naming an AKG D-12 and a 421 as the most likely candidates. Tom mics were likely Sennheiser 421s and overheads were probably 451s or 414s. In addition to the close mics, Ladinsky remembers using two room mics. “And then I had a shotgun mic in the room,” he adds. “But I didn’t use much of it, at least not on ‘Surrender,’ I know. It’s more of an in-your-face kind of a record.”

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