Songfacts®:

• Cheap Trick brought "Don't Be Cruel," a hit for Elvis in 1956, back to the charts with their 1988 cover. For many younger listeners, this was their first exposure to the song; the only other popular covers of the song came in the '60s, when Bill Black did an instrumental version and Barbara Lynn gave it an R&B treatment.
• Cheap Trick recorded this song because they needed a follow-up to their single "The Flame." As drummer Bun E. Carlos explained to Songfacts, they went through hundreds of demo tapes before someone suggested "Don't Be Cruel." The Judds had recently covered the song, taking it to the Country chart, so Cheap Trick thought a rock cover could work too.
  
  "The Flame" shot to #1, giving Cheap Trick their first big hit since the '70s; "Don't Be Cruel" kept them on the charts, reaching #4 in the US.
• This wasn't the first '50s hit Cheap Trick covered. The Fats Domino classic "Ain't That A Shame" is a staple of their setlists, and a live cover from their At Budokan went to #35 in 1979.
• The music video is eye-catching fun, capturing the essence of Cheap Trick. Directed by Jim Yukich, it's set in a room with checkerboard flooring reminiscent of a '50s diner.
  
  In the video, there's a false ending when they stop the song until Carlos pulls out a remote control and restarts it. The video showed the fun, irreverent side of the band, which didn't come through in "The Flame," also directed by Yukich.