As Part 1 of our feature on Cheap Trick's many contributions to notable soundtracks drew to a close, Cheap Trick were belting out "Up The Creek" at the top of Zander's lungs to an audience of approximately ten.
To say that the band's once-enviable soundtrack work was taking place well out of earshot of their mainstream audience would be an understatement as both "Spring Break" and "Up The Creek" soundtracks met even quicker commercial deaths than the films, whose theatrical runs proved brief.
The metallic sheen of "Up The Creek" had come as no surprise to anyone who'd heard the band's bombastic Roy Thomas Baker-produced One On One album three years earlier. The band's 1985 studio album Standing On The Edge sought to take the band back to their rough-edged roots while also dabbling with synthesizers ("She's Got Motion") while aiming for the fences with yet another power ballad as first single.
None of that could have prepared Cheap Trick fans for the "Axel F" version of the band that took part in the recording of Harold Faltermeyer's "Mighty Wings" for the "Top Gun" soundtrack in 1986.
While the full band was credited, only Robin Zander provided lead vocals while Rick Nielsen added a guitar solo. As was becoming a story we fans were getting a wee bit tired of seeing, of the five singles released from the massively successful soundtrack, only Cheap Trick's failed to chart. So much for completely selling out.
The odd pairings would continue: That same year, Robin Zander would appear on the duet "You Send The Rain Away" with Rebbie Jackson, which peaked at #50 on the Hot Black Singles chart.
In 1988, the band would reunite with original bassist Tom Petersson and make their first soundtrack appearance in two years on the John Cusack-Ione Skye coming-of-age movie "Say Anything". The song, "You Want It", was cut with producer Richie Zito during their Lap Of Luxury sessions, which launched the band back into the spotlight due to the success of "The Flame" and "Don't Be Cruel".
Between "You Want It" and "Through The Night", another quality original that saw release as the non-LP b-side to "The Flame", one couldn't help ask why such tunes hadn't made the cut for Lap Of Luxury, seeing as how "Space" and "No Mercy" (two outside contributions suggested by the label) wound up contributing nothing to the album.
Just when you thought the band was back on track, they phone in an appearance on "Caddyshack II" that defies logic. First off, if anybody has a raging version of "Money (That's What I Want)" inside them (besides the Babys, of course), it is Cheap Trick, but you sure as heck wouldn't known it from the half-frozen version they turned in here.
For better and worse, it would be four long years before the band would cuts some new soundtrack sounds, but when they did, it seemed as if they'd turned a corner of sorts. "I Will Survive", from the otherwise forgettable "Gladiator" movie, was a bonanza of bad lyrical cliches, but was otherwise a pulsating rocker that you could actually imagine hearing the band perform live.
The same cannot be said for their version of "Wild Thing", which the band recorded for the Pauly Shore-Brendan Fraser cinematic vehicle "Encino Man".
Any and all hopes that the band would unleash their inner garage band and breathe some new life into the classic Troggs hit were vaporized by a plodding four-on-the-floor lunker that just might be the worst cover of "Wild Thing" ever recorded.
Hilariously, the very same song was licensed twelve years later for "Garfield: The Movie".
The band's most recent contribution to a soundtrack was "Transformers (The Fallen Remix)", which saw the band "Tricking up" the "Transformers" theme, but the fact that the tune didn't even appear in the movie left a "why bother?" taste in one's mouth.
Can we admit that Cheap Trick and big budget movies just don't mix?
Seeing as how the Hall of Fame rock band is now accepted for the influential weirdos that they are, perhaps it isn't too late to led their skills to more arty film fare? I mean, if Bill Murray can go from slumming it in "Garfield: The Movie" to working with Wes Anderson, why can't Cheap Trick?
Tags:
cinema sounds