| "Hello There" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Cheap Trick from the album In Color | ||||
| Released | 1977 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||
| Length | 1:41 | |||
| Label | Epic Records | |||
| Writer | Rick Nielsen | |||
| Producer | Tom Werman | |||
| In Color track listing | ||||
|
||||
"Hello There" is a song written by Rick Nielsen and first released on Cheap Trick's 1977 album In Color.[1] The song was also often used as the first song of Cheap Trick concerts, and as a result was the first song on the band's seminal live album Cheap Trick at Budokan.[1][2] The song is a frantic, energetic, raucous hard rock song.[1][2] Critic Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone Magazine detected echoes in the song of the "manic verve" of The Beatles' song "Birthday".[3] Denise Sullivan of Allmusic describes the song as being "all about the good-time/partying spirit, asking the proverbial question, 'Are you ready to rock?'"[1] As performed on In Color, the song starts with Nielsen playing a frenzied, fuzzy guitar part for two and a half bars, then Bun E. Carlos' strong drum beat appears, and finally Tom Petersson's bass and Robin Zander's vocal join in.[1] The entire song lasts 1 minute and 41 seconds. Cheap Trick also released the song on its compilation albums Sex, America, Cheap Trick and The Essential Cheap Trick. A live video of Cheap Trick performing "Hello There" at the Budokan concert was shown on the DVD included with the 30th anniversary collector's edition release of Cheap Trick at Budokan album.[4]
Nielsen has stated that he wrote the song because in its early days the band did not always get a soundcheck before it played live. Rather than use one of their more melodic songs to experiment with the sound coming out of the PA system, they could use this song, which Nielsen called a "perfect welcome to the show intro piece." Nielsen said he got the idea for such an intro song from an earlier band, Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera. "Hello There" replaced "ELO Kiddies" as Cheap Trick's live opening song.[2] It was the band's typical live opener from 1977 through the mid-1980s.[5]
"Hello There" was covered by Foetus on their 1996 album Boil.[6] It was also covered by Phil Lewis in 2000.[7] Cheap Trick's version was also included on the soundtrack to the Matt Dillon film Over the Edge, along with the Cheap Trick songs "Surrender", "Downed" and "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace."[8] A version of "Hello There" is also included in the music video game Rock Band 2 as a playable track.[9]
Nielsen wrote a companion song to "Hello There" called "Goodnight Now." "Goodnight Now" basically reworks "Hello There" and was used by the band to end their main set, or the entire show, for many years.[2][5] The song appears on Cheap Trick at Budokan as the next to last song, before the encore "Clock Strikes Ten". At the actual concert the album was taken from "Ain't That a Shame" was played as part of the encore, after "Goodnight Now" and before "Clock Strikes Ten", but the original album release of Live at Budokan moved "Ain't That a Shame" out of sequence to open side 2.[2] In the Netherlands, "Goodnight Now" was released as the B-side of the top 10 single "Surrender".[10]
|
||||||||||||||||||||