Sony
2004
The Essential Cheap Trick
About This Album
Since both fans and critics agree on what Cheap Trick's core canon is, from the first three albums to the highlights that follow, it seems like it would be a fairly easy job to assemble a good overview of the band. History has proven that theory wrong several times. 1991's Greatest Hits largely ignored the first three albums, the 1996 box set Sex, America, Cheap Trick was a rarities-filled extravaganza pitched at the converted, and while 2000's Authorized Greatest Hits was a notable improvement on the first compilation, it had some puzzling inclusions, including substituting alternate takes and live cuts for original single versions. So, there was a need for a new collection, one that got it right. Enter The Essential Cheap Trick, the band's installment of Sony/Legacy's largely excellent Essential series. Spanning two discs and 36 tracks, it is the most generous hits collection yet assembled, but it still falls short of being a definitive overview. Again, there is a considerable problem of substituting alternate versions for the original studio versions; it is toned down from Authorized Greatest Hits, but when the fourth song in is a live version of "Mandocello" from 1998, with guest guitarist Billy Corgan, the momentum is knocked off-track immediately.
Track List

Disc 1 (try track 2)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 9,13 and 18)

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