This Wednesday marks the 45th anniversary of Cheap Trick‘s first live and most successful album, At Budokan, being certified platinum — May 22nd, 1979.
On April 24th, 1978, they released their third album, Heaven Tonight. Four days later, April 28th, they performed at the Budokan in Tokyo, which was recorded solely for Japan, where it was released in October 1978.
However, it received strong airplay in the U.S. courtesy of the promotional album From Tokyo to You, and, as a result, an estimated 30,000 import copies were sold here forcing Epic Records to release At Budokan in February 1979 and delaying the release of their fourth studio album, Dream Police.
The live version of “I Want You to Want Me” cracked the Billboard Top 10 and a rendition of “Ain’t That a Shame” hit number-35. At Budokan remains the band’s best-selling album at three-million copies, and one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed live albums of all time.
In 2020 it was added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress.
BC: “They don’t have middle initials in Japan so they thought my name was Bune.”
RN: “I thought, ‘My God this is my kind of country.”
“The fact that a lot of people enjoyed our music at that time and still seem to enjoy it is like, what a deal. It’s amazing, and it’s cool. It’s inspirational to us.”
