Surrender (Cheap Trick song)

src: i.axs.com

"Surrender" is a single by Cheap Trick released in June 1978 from the album Heaven Tonight. It was the first Cheap Trick single to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 62. Its success in Japan, as well as the success of its preceding singles "Clock Strikes Ten" and "I Want You to Want Me", paved the way for Cheap Trick's famous concerts at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo in April 1978 that were recorded for the group's most popular album Cheap Trick at Budokan.

Rolling Stone deemed it "the ultimate Seventies teen anthem" and ranked it #471 on its list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The song originates from 1976, as like many other Cheap Trick songs it was played in concert before its release.

Video Surrender (Cheap Trick song)

Composition

"Surrender" is composed in B-flat major, with a key change to B major following the instrumental intro, and a key change to C major after the second time of the chorus.

Maps Surrender (Cheap Trick song)

Content

"Surrender" is a late 1970s teen anthem, describing the relations between the baby boomer narrator and his G.I. generation parents. His mother, having served in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in the Philippines, frequently warns him about the girls he will meet, as he will never know what diseases he will catch from them. The narrator describes how his parents are weirder and hipper than many teens would believe. For example, the narrator describes how he discovers his "mom and dad are rolling on the couch" and listening to his Kiss records late at night ("rolling numbers, rock-and-rolling, got my Kiss records out").

In the 2007 book Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Power Pop Guide, a section on Cheap Trick featured reviews on the top 20 stand-out tracks from the band. One track included was "Surrender", where the author John M. Borack wrote "A no-brainer selection, to be sure, but since I believe that it's clinically impossible to get tired of this rock and roll funhouse, it belongs here. A stone classic for the ages."