If you\u2019ve spent much time listening to classic rock radio, more than likely you\u2019ve heard one of Randy Bachman\u2019s bands.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s The Guess Who, who came of age during the British Invasion and notched top 10 hits like \u201cThese Eyes,\u201d \u201cLaughing,\u201d \u201cNo Time,\u201d and \u201cAmerican Woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or maybe it\u2019s Bachman\u2019s subsequent band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, who scored chart-topping harder rock hits like \u201cYou Ain\u2019t Seen Nothin\u2019 Yet,\u201d \u201cTakin\u2019 Care of Business,\u201d and \u201cLet It Ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Rush went on to take the lead among Canadian bands when it comes to album sales and widespread recognition, The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive come in a close second and third.<\/p>\n
All of this despite the fact that Bachman-Turner Overdrive \u2014 which, with the exception of a couple of breaks, have consistently toured since their formation in 1973 \u2014 had not stepped into a recording studio in nearly three decades.<\/p>\n
That changed this past March with the release of their \u201c60 Years Ago\u201d single, which reflects on the artists\u2019 early years in the Winnipeg music scene and includes a guitar solo from Neil Young.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our teenage dreams of rock and roll, we never thought we\u2019d get this old,\u201d sings Fred Turner, who came out of retirement for the single.<\/p>\n
Even more unexpected is the news that Guess Who cofounders Bachman and Burton Cummings plan to reunite next year for a string of live dates in which they\u2019ll perform as The Guess Who, having finally won a lawsuit to regain the rights to the band name.<\/p>\n
Bachman\u2019s musical journey began when he and Cummings both caught chronic cases of Anglophilia. Like many of their friends growing up in Winnipeg, Canada, they were addicted to a local radio station that played British hits for two hours a day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also had relatives in England who would get their friends\u2019 singles and put them on a reel-to-reel tape recorder and send them to us as a Christmas present,\u201d recalled Bachman in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019d get this seven-and-a-half-inch reel of singles that were hits in England. We wouldn\u2019t even know what the songs were.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those songs was Johnny Kidd & The Pirates\u2019 \u201cShakin\u2019 All Over,\u201d which would play a crucial role in Bachman\u2019s career and is virtually guaranteed to show up in Bachman-Turner Overdrive sets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a No. 1 hit in England in 1961, but it was 1963 by the time we got it,\u201d said Bachman. \u201cWe started to play it at high school dances, and everybody loved it. So we recorded it in mono with one microphone and one tape recorder, and it became a hit song. And that\u2019s when we became The Guess Who.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1970, the group released its signature song \u201cAmerican Woman.\u201d It was their first single to reach No. 1 on the \u201cBillboard\u201d magazine Hot 100 chart. It would also be Bachman\u2019s last recording with the band due to a combination of gall bladder attacks on the road and his conversion to Mormonism, whose beliefs weren\u2019t compatible with the rock and roll lifestyle.\u00a0 Bachman subsequently required future band members to be clean and sober.<\/p>\n
After leaving the Guess Who, he returned to Winnipeg to have his gall bladder operation and to figure out what to do next, which is where Neil Young comes into the picture. Both musicians had been part of the same Winnipeg music scene growing up and were now at a crossroads in their careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter \u2018American Woman,\u2019 I knew I could not top what I had done with The Guess Who, so I had to do a different kind of music,\u201d Bachman said. \u201cAnd Neil Young had come back to Winnipeg after Buffalo Springfield had broken up, and he didn\u2019t know what he was going to do. He was being asked to join Crosby, Stills & Nash at the time, and I wanted to be in kind of a country-rock band like Poco. So Neil helped me get a record deal with Reprise Records, and I did two albums that were a real lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those albums, released under the band name Brave Belt, served as the precursor for B.T.O. Randy had recruited his brothers Robbie and Tim as rhythm guitarist and drummer, while Turner played bass and shared lead vocal duties with Randy.<\/p>\n
There have been a number of lineup changes in the years since, but the prohibition against drinking and drugs remains in force. Instead, band members focus on playing music and packing arenas, amphitheaters and concert halls. Among their upcoming shows is Thursday\u2019s appearance at Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s lineup includes Bachman\u2019s son, Tal, on lead guitar, along with three musicians who have been in the band since 2009 \u2014 bassist\/keyboardist Mick Dalla-Vee, guitarist Brent Howard and drummer Marc LaFrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never really had to work,\u201d Bachman said. \u201cWhen you put on a guitar and play songs that you made up, you\u2019re just doing a fun thing that you always do, and people suddenly pay you money to play that music.\u201d<\/p>\n
For their \u201cRoll On Down The Highway 2025 Tour,\u201d the band is co-headlining shows with a who\u2019s who of classic rock acts that will join B.T.O. at various dates along the tour. Among them are The Marshall Tucker Band, Jefferson Starship, The Outlaws, and Blue \u00d6yster Cult, who will join them in Bethehem.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single band has its own magic,\u201d said Bachman, who figures he\u2019s shared the bill with just about every classic rock artist except Eric Clapton.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole world revolves around music,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the soundtrack of everyone\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Forman is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve spent much time listening to classic rock radio, more than likely you\u2019ve heard one of Randy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1681,1213,289,432],"class_list":["post-9994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-entertainment","tag-music-and-concerts","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}