10 Greatest Love Songs In Rock
4. I Want You To Want Me - Cheap Trick
Most love songs in the rock world have called for slowing things down. Whenever you play rock and roll, you can only get so far with every song being able to blast your eardrums out. When it comes to Cheap Trick though, love is much more exciting than to just be about slow songs.
From start to finish, I Want You To Want Me is the blueprint of what would soon constitute power pop, as Robin Zander sings of his love with a tuneful attitude to rival the Beatles' greatest work. Though the guitar chops on Rick Nielsen are a lot more vicious than you might expect from a song like this, it's not the same kind of hard rock you would normally associate with the genre. No, this was the kind of excitement that comes with being in love for the first time, with the guitar practically echoing Zander's declarations note for note.
Then again, it took a hot minute for things to really settle into place, with the song not really picking up traction until the band played it live at Budokan. Instead of the honky tonk sounding piano, Rick's vicious guitar was added into the mix and into the hearts of fans around the world. As it continues to appear in movies to this day, this kind of musical drug still hasn't worn out its welcome over the years.