10 Live Songs Better Than The Studio Recordings

Cheap Trick were the darlings of power pop in the 1970's. With all the disco and soul music dominating the pop landscape, these rockers from Rockford, Illinois came onto the scene ready to inject some life back into rock and roll. The only problem they had was that no station would play their music.

Once the band returned from a successful tour of Japan, their live album gave their masterpiece "I Want You to Want Me" an added shot of adrenaline. One listen to the studio version of this song will show you the inherent wrongness of the track. Instead of the rip-roaring guitar of Rick Nielsen, there's a honky-tonk style piano which makes the song feel like its crawling to the finish.

While on the road, Nielsen picked up his guitar and absolutely wailed on this track, giving the song an added sense of excitement that was sorely missing from the original. On the other side, vocalist Robin Zander trades in his more laid-back studio delivery for a more raucous shout that enhanced the lyric's sense of longing. Whereas the band's first crack at this song bored many rockers to tears, the live tape from At Budokan shows the band at the absolute peak of their powers.