CHEAP TRICK, IN COLOR and HEAVEN TONIGHT are also available separately in newly remastered versions.

CHEAP TRICK:

Cheap Trick: Robin Zander (vocals, guitar); Rick Nielsen (guitar, background vocals); Tom Petersson (bass, background vocals); Bun E. Carlos (drums).

Producer: Jack Douglas.

Reissue producer: Bruce Dickinson

Engineer: Jay Messina.

Recorded at The Record Plant, New York, New York in 1976 and 1977. Includes original liner notes by Eric Von Lustbader and reissue liner notes by Greg Kot.

Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).

IN COLOR:

Cheap Trick: Robin Zander (vocals, guitar); Rick Nielsen (guitar, background vocals); Tom Petersson (bass, background vocals); Bun E. Carlos (drums).

Producer: Tom Werman, Cheap Trick.

Reissue producer: Bruce Dickinson

Engineer: Antonino Reale.

Principally recorded at Kendun Recorders, Los Angeles, California in 1977. Includes reissue liner notes by Greg Kot.

Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).

HEAVEN TONIGHT:

Cheap Trick: Robin Zander (vocals, guitar); Rick Nielsen (guitar, mandocello, background vocals); Tom Petersson (6- & 12-string basses, background vocals); Bun E. Carlos (drums).

Producer: Tom Werman.

Reissue producer: Bruce Dickinson.

Engineer: Gary Landinsky.

Recorded at The Record Plant, Los Angeles, California and Sound City, Van Nuys, California in 1977 and 1978. Includes reissue liner notes by Greg Kot.

Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).

THE COLLECTION contains: CHEAP TRICK (1976)/IN COLOR (1977)/HEAVEN TONIGHT (1978).

Personnel: Rick Nielsen (vocals, guitar, mandocello); Tom Petersson (vocals, bass guitar, 12-string bass); Robin Zander (vocals); Bun E. Carlos (drums).

Audio Mixer: Danny Kadar .

Liner Note Authors: Eric VonLusbader; Greg Kot.

Recording information: Ardent Studios, Memphis, TN (1975-1978); Kendun Recorders, Los Angeles, CA (1975-1978); Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA (1975-1978); The Record Plant, New York, NY (1975-1978); The Whiskey, Los Angeles, CA (1975-1978); Whiskey, Los Angeles, CA (1975-1978).

Photographers: Jim Houghton; Reid Miles; Benno Friedman.

Sony repackaged and re-released Cheap Trick's three best albums -- Cheap Trick, In Color, and Heaven Tonight -- as a slip-cased box set. It's not a bad way to acquire the albums if you don't already own them, but there are no bonus tracks or new packaging or remastering, which means it's of marginal interest to hardcore collectors. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Epic/Legacy's Cheap Trick "three-fer" may offer nothing in the way of bells and whistles -- it's just some records wrapped in an ugly box -- but it houses three of the legendary Rockford, IL, quartet's finest offerings. Cheap Trick, In Color, and Heaven Tonight were landmark power pop triumphs, boasting classics like "Surrender," "Mandocello," "Southern Girls," and "I Want You to Want Me." The Collection includes the 1998 remastered editions, each of which contains numerous bonus cuts and extensive liner notes. Listeners looking to bypass the plentiful "greatest collections" and dive headfirst into the music that made the late '70s tolerable would do well in picking up this trio of recordings. ~ James Christopher Monger

It's sometimes easy to forget that for a period in the late '70s, Cheap Trick were the best straight-up rock band America had to offer. Their first three albums are all classics, lurking stylistically somewhere between pounding arena-size hard rock and quirky power pop.

CHEAP TRICK is the rawest of the three, with lacerating, snotty tracks such as "ELO Kiddies," "Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School," "He's a Whore," and "The Ballad of TV Violence" all instant anthems. IN COLOR is a smoother, poppier affair, with "I Want You to Want Me" delineating the glittering direction the band's later albums would take. HEAVEN TONIGHT kicks off with the group's masterpiece "Surrender," four minutes of nonstop hooks and guitarist Rick Nielsen's most drop-dead ironic lyrics ever. This box set, featuring copious liner notes and bonus tracks, is essential power pop.

Epic/Legacy's Cheap Trick "three-fer" may offer nothing in the way of bells and whistles -- it's just some records wrapped in an ugly box -- but it houses three of the legendary Rockford, IL, quartet's finest offerings. Cheap Trick, In Color, and Heaven Tonight were landmark power pop triumphs, boasting classics like "Surrender," "Mandocello," "Southern Girls," and "I Want You to Want Me." The Collection includes the 1998 remastered editions, each of which contains numerous bonus cuts and extensive liner notes. Listeners looking to bypass the plentiful "greatest collections" and dive headfirst into the music that made the late '70s tolerable would do well in picking up this trio of recordings. ~ James Christopher Monger