Cheap Trick – I Want You to Want Me (from Budokan!)

“I Want You to Want Me” Single by Cheap Trick from the album In Color
B-side “Oh Boy (Instrumental Version)”
Released September 1977
Label Epic
Songwriter Rick Nielsen
Producer Tom Werman
Charted No.7 in US, No.29 in UK, No.2 in Canada, No.1 in Belgium, No.1 in Netherlands, No.1 in Japan.

“I Want You To Want Me” has a long and intriguing history. It was written by Cheap Trick’s guitarist Rick Nielsen and recorded for their 1977 self-titled debut album, but it didn’t make the cut. The song was included on their second album, In Color, released later in 1977. This version has a medium tempo with a country feel and a honky tonk piano throughout the song.

By 1978, the band had dropped it from their setlist, but restored it when they toured Japan that year, since Japanese audiences loved the song.

“I Want You to Want Me” was a number-one single in Japan. Its success in Japan, as well as the success of its preceding single “Clock Strikes Ten”, paved the way for Cheap Trick’s concerts at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo in April 1978 that were recorded for the group’s most popular album, Cheap Trick at Budokan. A live version of “I Want You to Want Me” from the album Cheap Trick at Budokan was released in 1979 and became their biggest-selling single, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Recorded on April 28 and 30 at their concerts at the Budokan temple in Tokyo.