CHEAP TRICK:

Cheap Trick: Robin Zander (vocals, guitar); Rick Nielsen (guitar, background vocals); Tom Petersson (bass, background vocals); Bun E. Carlos (drums).

Producer: Jack Douglas.

Reissue producer: Bruce Dickinson

Engineer: Jay Messina.

Recorded at The Record Plant, New York, New York in 1976 and 1977. Includes original liner notes by Eric Von Lustbader and reissue liner notes by Greg Kot.

Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).

IN COLOR:

Cheap Trick: Robin Zander (vocals, guitar); Rick Nielsen (guitar, background vocals); Tom Petersson (bass, background vocals); Bun E. Carlos (drums).

Producer: Tom Werman, Cheap Trick.

Reissue producer: Bruce Dickinson

Engineer: Antonino Reale.

Principally recorded at Kendun Recorders, Los Angeles, California in 1977. Includes reissue liner notes by Greg Kot.

Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).

HEAVEN TONIGHT:

Cheap Trick: Robin Zander (vocals, guitar); Rick Nielsen (guitar, mandocello, background vocals); Tom Petersson (6- & 12-string basses, background vocals); Bun E. Carlos (drums).

Producer: Tom Werman.

Reissue producer: Bruce Dickinson.

Engineer: Gary Landinsky.

Recorded at The Record Plant, Los Angeles, California and Sound City, Van Nuys, California in 1977 and 1978. Includes reissue liner notes by Greg Kot.

Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).

THE COLLECTION contains: CHEAP TRICK (1976)/IN COLOR (1977)/HEAVEN TONIGHT (1978).

Cheap Trick: Robin Zander (vocals, guitar); Rick Nielsen (guitar); Tom Petersson (bass guitar); Bun E. Carlos (drums).

It's sometimes easy to forget that for a period in the late '70s, Cheap Trick were the best straight-up rock band America had to offer. Their first three albums are all classics, lurking stylistically somewhere between pounding arena-size hard rock and quirky power pop.

CHEAP TRICK is the rawest of the three, with lacerating, snotty tracks such as "ELO Kiddies," "Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School," "He's a Whore," and "The Ballad of TV Violence" all instant anthems. IN COLOR is a smoother, poppier affair, with "I Want You to Want Me" delineating the glittering direction the band's later albums would take. HEAVEN TONIGHT kicks off with the group's masterpiece "Surrender," four minutes of nonstop hooks and guitarist Rick Nielsen's most drop-dead ironic lyrics ever. This box set, featuring copious liner notes and bonus tracks, is essential power pop.