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Cheap Trick

American rock band

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ1068713
Source-derived summary

Cheap Trick is an American rock band formed in Rockford, Illinois, in 1973. The band's work bridged elements of 1960s guitar pop, 1970s hard rock, and the emerging punk rock sound, and helped set the template for subsequent power pop artists.

Cheap Trick released its self-titled debut album in 1977. Later that year, the band found success in Japan with the release of its second album, In Color. In 1979, the band released the triple-platinum live album At Budokan and a Top 10 single, a live recording of "I Want You to Want Me". The band followed with its most commercially successful studio album, Dream Police (1979), which reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart. After experiencing declining popularity in the 1980s, Cheap Trick enjoyed a major resurgence toward the end of the decade, topping the US charts with the power ballad "The Flame" (from 1988's Lap of Luxury). The band's other hits include "Surrender" (1978), "Dream Police" (1979), "Voices" (1979), "She's Tight" (1982), "Tonight It's You" (1985), a cover version of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" (1988), "Ghost Town" (1988), and "Can't Stop Fallin' into Love" (1990).

Cheap Trick has continued releasing new music into the 21st century.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Cheap Trick” as american rock band. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cheap, Trick and American.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1973, 1977, 1979, 1988—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1974-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Cheap, Trick and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Cheap Trick”, the useful work is to connect “american rock band” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1068713. VIAF identifies the subject as 124477292. The Library of Congress control number is n91116031. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 1977, 1979 and 1988.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Cheap Trick” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.