Cheap Trick – ‘The Complete Epic Albums Collection’ (2022) – Box Set (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

Back in 2013, Legacy, Epic Records and Sony released a CD box set that contained all albums in Epic Records from the band’s debut album all the way up to 1990’s album ‘Busted’. In 2022, the box set was reissued on Music on CD, Legacy, Epic & Sony and that is the box I have in my collection. You get 14 CDs in all including the full Budokan show on 2 CDs along with the E.P. ‘Found all the Parts’ that was only available on Vinyl and cassette until 2003 when there was a Japanese release on CD.

The albums from the debut up to ‘All Shook Up’ were original remastered and reissued back in 1998 with bonus tracks and that is what we have here with those albums. If what I am reading is correct, the remaining albums were remastered for this box set but there is a debate on whether or not that is true as the sound quality isn’t as great as the earlier albums. For me, it doesn’t bother me one way or the other as I’m not going to sit and listen to all 14 discs in a row where I would notice and differences. I am just happy to have all the albums on CD as I had them all on vinyl, so I needed the CDs.

For those of you that need to know this, Cheap Trick is from Rockford, Illinois and consists of Robin Zander on Vocals, Rick Nielsen on guitar, Bun E. Carlos on drums and there are two different people on bass. First is Tom Petersson from Discs 1 – 8 and then back again on 13-14 while Jon Brant is on Discs 9-12 as Tom left for a spell and thankfully returned. They have been labeled as the American Beatles which is high praise especially considering the band was heavily influenced by The Beatles.

The first half of their catalog is amazingly strong and they have one of the best live albums of all time with ‘At Budokan’. The last half of their catalog is a little weak at times, but still some great classics on each album. The band is still going strong today and still frequently releasing quality material that any band would be proud to call their own. They have not rested on their past and always strive to be better. This is a large taste of the band if you aren’t familiar and unless you buy the Vinyl, this CD set is pretty reasonable as I picked it up for around $45. Not bad for 14 CDs. Let’s take a look.

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Cheap Trick – ‘Found All The Parts E.P.’ (1980) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

The 70’s were a huge decade for Cheap Trick. In just three short years, we were blessed with four studio albums and one of the greatest live albums of all time with ‘Cheap Trick at Budokan’. Not a bad run. Now we are in to the 80’s and this album was sort of a way to end the 70’s with a nice little bonus. The four-song E.P. was released on 10″ Vinyl and was part of Epic Records series called Nu-Disk, but that series was rather short-lived and I don’t know if I’ve found another album from that series.

If I remember correctly, it was believed that some of the songs on here were from a Cheap Trick album that was canned and never released, especially when more songs from this time frame were released as bonus tracks on other releases/compilations down the road. I believe there were 7 other tracks with all but 1 being released. However, I don’t think that was ever confirmed or denied. Most likely, they were working on an album and decided to shift gears in to a new direction which then became the album ‘All Shook Up’ which we will get to next time.

The album was released on June 2, 1980 and contained four tracks. Side 1 were both live songs (cough, cough, sort of) and side 2 were brand new studio tracks (thus the rumors mentioned above). I don’t see any chart information on them so not sure how well the E.P. did, but doesn’t matter to me as I love finding this kind of stuff.

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