Cheap Trick Has Another Trick Up Their Sleeve: ’70s Superstars To Release Christmas Album

Cheap Trick wants you to want them — for Christmas. The ’70s supergroup has just completed work on a holiday album, which will mark the band’s third release in just two years. News of the upcoming holiday album comes just one month after Cheap Trick released the album We’re All Alright. Last year, the band dropped the album Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello.

In an interview with Orange Amps, longtime Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson revealed that the band finished recording a holiday album “about two months ago.” Petersson revealed the Christmas record will be released around Halloween and said it came out “great.”

“We did one standard, and then all sorts of different songs on there, it’s really cool,” he said.

“We’ve got a few originals, and we covered songs from artists that we really like which have done Christmas songs.”

While he didn’t reveal the track list, Petersson teased that the new Cheap Trick album will include a cover by Roy Wood, which could possibly be “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday,” a song the ELO founder recorded in 1973 while in the glam rock band Wizzard. The Stubby’s House of Christmas website reveals that there has been speculation that Cheap Trick will also cover Christmas songs by Chuck Berry, Slade, and the Ramones.

Because the album is all Christmas songs, Petersson said there was just one issue the band had in the recording studio.

He joked, “The only confusing thing about recording this record, is that every song had the word Christmas in it, so we could never keep it straight during recording, trying to figure out which song was which; ‘Ok guys so let’s do the Christm….. the sleigh song next.'”

This won’t be the first time Cheap Trick has spread holiday cheer. In 1996, the band released a holiday-themed fan club EP Gift featuring the songs “Come On Christmas” and “Christmas Christmas.” In 2012, the band also and reworked their most famous song, “I Want You to Want Me,” as “I Want You for Christmas” to commemorate the 25th anniversary of A Very Special Christmas album franchise, complete with a bizarre marionette-themed music video.

After four decades together, Cheap Trick shows no signs of slowing down. Petersson said it’s hard for him to explain the band’s natural creative drive, but he added that the bandmates still love recording and writing together. Tom also said the group is still striving to make “that perfect record,” which could be what keeps them going. The band has said they hope to continue to release one new album each year. In 2016, Cheap Trick was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

You can listen to Cheap Trick’s “Come on Christmas” below.

[Featured Image by Michael Kovac/Getty Images]