I Want You to Want Me

The single that turned into Cheap Trick's biggest hit came from a concert hall in Tokyo. "I Want You to Want Me" first appeared in studio form on the 1977 album In Color, where it was released as the lead single and failed to chart in the United States. Nineteen months later, a live recording from the band's Cheap Trick at Budokan album was issued as a single, and this harder-edged version reached number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100, number two in Canada, and number one in Japan. It went on to sell a million copies in the United States and earned gold certification from the RIAA.

The path to Budokan began with Japanese audiences themselves. "I Want You to Want Me" had been a number-one single there, and its success along with that of the single "Clock Strikes Ten" opened the door for the April 1978 concerts at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo that were captured for the live album. In Britain, the live single became the band's highest-charting release there, reaching number 29.

The two versions differ in more than energy. The live recording moves at a quicker pace and carries two guitar solos, while the studio cut instead features a piano fill, played by Jai Winding at producer Tom Werman's direction. Werman later described the tune as a burlesque-style number, something like a song from the 1930s, written deliberately campy. Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson were less fond of the original production, and in 1997 the band re-recorded nearly all of In Color with producer Steve Albini, though that remake was never officially released.