Our look back at the band’s third album, released in 1978
Author: Cary Baker
Cary Baker
Cary Baker is a writer based in the Palm Springs, Calif. area. The Chicago native and long-time Los Angeles resident is at work on his first book about music history. The return to writing follows a 42-year hiatus during which Baker directed publicity for six labels (including Capitol and I.R.S.) and two of his own companies, 1984-2022. He worked with such artists as R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, the Smithereens, James McMurtry, the Mavericks, Bobby Rush, Willie Nile and The dB’s. Prior to his PR years in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Baker wrote for the Chicago Reader, Creem, Trouser Press, Bomp!, Goldmine, Billboard, Mix, Illinois Entertainer, and Hit Parader.
While the album would find itself the object of critical scorn, it served its purpose: introducing a new generation to blues.
The debut album, like the spectrum of Southern rock itself, showed more diversity than some fans of the genre gave it credit for.
“Until the day he died, Lou didn’t know that the applause on his best-selling album came from a John Denver concert!”—Producer Steve Katz
Said Bevan in our 2024 interview, “’A New World Record’ is a fabulous album, and I am proud to have been part of it.”
They only gave us two albums and then they were gone, but that hit-packed second one helped to define an era.
With hits like “Hero Takes a Fall” and “Going Down to Liverpool,” the band displayed its own distinct sound and persona on its debut LP.
Edgar on the LP: ‘We were just having fun. Play the music you love and follow your heart, and you can’t go wrong.’
When recording their third album, the band “all felt that this would be a special record right from the start,” says guitarist Jim Babjak.
Cheap Trick broke musical and lyrical boundaries, even defying the look of a rock band with a couple of rock stars and a couple of nerds.