Surrender

Released as a single in June 1978 and opening Heaven Tonight, Surrender was the first Cheap Trick single to enter the Hot 100, peaking at 62. Nielsen wrote it. The narrator's mother warns him about girls, his father says she served with the WACs in the Philippines, and late at night his parents are on the couch with his Kiss records out. The line thanks Kiss, who hired the band to open the 1977 Love Gun tour. Nielsen has said it drew on his own life, including an aunt who was in the Women's Army Corps, and that the moral is not to give yourself away.

The song modulates twice, from B flat to B and then to C, which Nielsen added to make it feel more exciting. Jai Winding played synthesizer and piano and Werman added tambourine. Rolling Stone called it the ultimate Seventies teen anthem and ranked it 365 on its 2021 list of 500 songs. Ultimate Classic Rock's Zaleski placed it second among their songs. A live version, 4:25 long, is on At Budokan. In their 1999 That '70s Show theme, the lyric We're all all right comes from Surrender.