The accordion photo.

In early 1976 photographer Rich Kwasniewski met up with the members of Cheap Trick at the Ralph Nielsen Music House in Rockford for a photo shoot. 

"I remember it was wintertime," Kwasniewski told me, "because I had to drive with a big roll of background paper hanging out my window and it was cold."

Before the photographer had even finished setting up, Rick Nielsen grabbed a nearby accordion (they were in a music shop, after all) and started...performing. Kwasniewski hurriedly snapped some pictures. 

Soon enough, Tom Petersson wandered into the frame.

The bottom photo (above) was used for a promotional 8x10 (ICM was the band's booking agency from the summer of 1976 to the summer of 1977):

A cropped version of that photo (minus Tom) ended up on the cover of Performance magazine in April 1977.

And of course, Rick Nielsen can be seen clutching a framed print of the photo on the band's first album cover:

Read more about the photo shoot (and see more pictures from it) in This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick.