A rant about their videos π
Let's be honest, when it comes to hard rock, Cheap Trick had some of the worst videos this side of Dokken. From the awkward tri-camera setup and way too clean-cut image of "If You Want My Love" to the terribly integrated sign language in "It's Only Love", many of their videos will leave you baffled and wondering just how the hell they could've ended up the way they did. Was everyone involved on some drug that prevented users from recognizing obviously terrible ideas?
That all changed with Lap of Luxury , presumably due to Epic Records. They'd had enough, Cheap Trick were going to join the likes of Heart, Aerosmith, KISS and others who adapted to the hair-metal era and resurrected their careers. So they forced them to record "The Flame" (which the band hated) and gave them a video budget.
The videos for Lap of Luxury and Busted all have their own unique theme/setting with no silliness like pro boxing matches suddenly appearing in the middle of a performance ("Tonight, It's You").
Personally, I think the best one they made was "If You Need Me". It appears at first to be a cheap cop-out comprised of stock footage from prior videos...until a camera angle changes and you see the band is clearly performing this song despite it appearing to be footage from "Don't Be Cruel". They do this with several then-recent videos, painstakingly recreating the sets and costumes seen in them. They are spot-on too, so much so that my first thought was that they had shot the footage for this when making those other videos. Then I realized that was ridiculous, they're an album and 2 years apart from each other.
They even recreate some of the photo shoots seen in the booklets for Luxury and Busted!
Unfortunately, the brilliance of this video is kind of lost to time for many since it requires specific recognition of a certain era of the band. It's one thing seeing it on MTV in 1991 when their videos were in heavy rotation. It's another catching it on youtube today while having not seen the other videos in years (or maybe ever). Still, I'd call it their best video, despite that bangin' gold suit Robin wears in "Can't Stop Fallin' Into Love".