Song of the Day 3/29: Cheap Trick, “Surrender”

Major law firms are knuckling under to Trump, but Delaware lawmakers one-upped them: They surrendered to Elon Musk himself. Unfortunately, they fucked up by not following Cheap Trick songwriter Rick Neilson’s advice – when they surrendered they gave themselves away.

“Surrender,” the first single from Cheap Trick’s 1978 LP “Heaven Tonight,” was the band’s first song to reach Billboard’s Hot 100, but it shared the fate of most power pop songs – it fell short of becoming a hit, topping out at No. 62. That didn’t stop it from becoming a classic-rock radio standard. The shout-out to Kiss in the last verse was a thank you for giving the band the opening slot on their Love Gun tour the previous year.