You're listening to song exploder where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.

I'm Rishikesh Herway.

This episode doesn't contain any explicit language, but I still wanted to flag it in case there are any parents out there who listen to the podcast with their kids.

And if your kids are not old enough to know what an STD is yet, then you might get some questions you're not ready for.

So, just a heads up.

The song Surrender by Cheap Trick was released in 1978.

Rolling Stone called it the ultimate 70s teen amp and included it in their list of the greatest songs of all time.

It's been in a bunch of movies and TV shows including South Park, Scrubs, Fast Times at Richmont High, New Girl and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Cheap Trick formed in Rockford, Illinois in 1973.

They've released 20 studio albums, they've sold over 20 million records, and in 2016 they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Rick Nielsen is the guitarist in the band.

He wrote Surrender, and for this episode I talked to him about how the song was made.

My name is Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick.

Everybody I knew thought their parents were weird, or even if they're not weird to certain people they're weird to the kid.

Oh, my parents are weird. Oh, they wore that or they did that or whatever.

My father's an opera singer, my mother's an opera singer, my parents bought a music store in Rockford.

My dad was a choir director at Trinity Lutheran Church, but he also sang at Temple.

I think they enjoyed the religious stuff for the music.

So he was probably in 1973, and I was in my apartment in Rockford in the kitchen.

I had the idea for the chorus.

Mommy's alright, my dad is alright. Yeah, but they just seem a little weird.

I had a stream of conscience in the sun. He was like, what are your parents doing?

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