Biography by Mark Deming
One of Canada's most enduring bands, the Guess Who rose to fame in their homeland in the 1960s and were major international hitmakers in the '70s, starting out as a hard-hitting garage-y combo (as heard on their first hit, "Shakin' All Over") and maturing into a thoughtful rock band who were as comfortable with tough, guitar-based rockers like "American Woman" as they were with heartfelt, melodic numbers like "These Eyes." Though the band found its greatest fame with lead singer and pianist Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman, they continued to enjoy success, even after Bachman's departure, with 1970's Share the Land and 1972's Rockin'. Cummings quit the group in October 1975, but that was far from the end of the story, as the Guess Who soldiered on despite occasional breakups and frequent personnel changes. Now nearly 60 years on, they delivered a new album in 2023, Plein D'Amour.
Hailing from Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, the story of the Guess Who began in 1958, when singer and multi-instrumentalist Chad Allan formed a rock & roll group, Allan and the Silvertones. After going through several lineup changes, the band re-emerged in 1962 as Chad Allan & the Reflections. Along with Allan on lead vocals, the group featured guitarist Randy Bachman, bassist Jim Kale, keyboard player Bob Ashley, and drummer Garry Peterson. The band released their first single in 1962, "Tribute to Buddy Holly," and they were signed by Quality Records, issuing a pair of singles in 1963 and '64. In 1965, after an American act called the Reflections scored a hit with "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet," the Canadian band changed their name to Chad Allan & the Expressions, and they cut a tough-sounding cover of the Johnny Kidd & the Pirates rocker "Shakin' All Over." Hoping to boost interest in the single, Quality tried a promotional stunt, with the initial pressing identifying the group as Guess Who?, hoping listeners would speculate that it was the work of a well-known British or American group. While the song soon picked up significant airplay, rather than wonder who the artists might be, fans and disc jockeys simply identified the group as Guess Who? Quality soon revealed Chad Allan & the Expressions were the band behind "Shakin' All Over," but radio announcers continued to tell listeners the act was Guess Who?, and when their first album, Shakin' All Over, appeared in stores in 1965, both "Chad Allan & the Expressions" and "Guess Who?" appeared on the front cover. In time, "Shakin' All Over" would become a number one single in Canada, and made the American charts as well, peaking at number 22. Before 1965 was out, the group delivered their second album, Hey Ho (What You Do to Me), which also had both group names on the sleeve.
To take advantage of their chart success, Chad Allan & the Expressions took on a punishing touring schedule, and at the end of 1965, Bob Ashley resigned from the band. Taking over on keyboards was Burton Cummings, previously a member of the Winnepeg-based group the Deverons. Cummings was as good at singing as he was at piano, and he was soon sharing lead vocal duties with Allan. In 1966, Allan left his own band to go back to school; he'd later go on to a long career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Bruce Decker, Cummings' former bandmate in the Deverons, joined the group on guitar, Cummings became the sole lead vocalist, and with Allan gone, they billed themselves as the Guess Who? Their first LP under the new banner, It's Time, was issued in mid-1966. They continued to hit the pop charts in Canada, though a disastrous British tour left them deep in debt. Needing to reassert their reputation at home, in 1967 they became regulars on a CBC-TV pop music series, Let's Go, hosted by none other than Chad Allan; they also hosted a CBC Radio show, The Swingers. The Guess Who? caught the attention of record producer and promo man Jack Richardson, and when he was tasked with putting together a record album featuring Canadian talent as a marketing gimmick for Coca-Cola, he asked the Guess Who? to be one of the featured bands. (The other, the Staccatos, would go on to greater success as the Five Man Electrical Band.) Richardson saw potential in the Guess Who (who had dropped the question mark from their name), and when he started a record label and production company called Nimbus 9, the Guess Who were one of his first signings.
The Guess Who's first album for Nimbus 9, Wheatfield Soul, was released in 1969, and represented a creative leap forward for the band, adding sophisticated pop, folk-rock, and jazz accents to their arrangements, and showing off the songwriting gifts of Cummings and Bachman. (it also saw Bachman taking on full guitar duties after Bruce Decker left the group.) A single from the LP, "These Eyes," went Top Ten in both Canada and the United States, and the group landed an American record deal with RCA Victor. Their second album of 1969, Canned Wheat, fared even better; "No Time" and "Laughing" were Number One hits in Canada and went Top Ten in the U.S., while "Undun" peaked at 21 in Canada and 22 in the States. Appearing in early 1970, American Woman would be the Guess Who's most successful album; the swaggering title track became a fixture on rock radio for years, and along with "No Sugar Tonight" it was half of a two-sided hit single that hit number one in Canada and America, while "No Time" was another number one in Canada and hit five in the U.S. The Guess Who were easily the most successful Canadian band of their day (and the first to score more than one number one single in the United States), but Randy Bachman was becoming dissatisfied with his role in the group. He'd released an instrumental solo album in 1970, Axe, and dropped out of touring with the group, citing health concerns. He'd also had a spiritual awakening, joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the Mormons), and the lifestyle of a touring rock band didn't mesh with his new beliefs. Bachman left the Guess Who in May 1970; he was initially replaced for live work by American guitarist Bobby Sabellico, and when Bachman's departure became permanent, the group brought in two new guitarists, Kurt Winter on lead and Greg Leskiw on rhythm.
The Guess Who's first album after Bachman dropped out, 1970's Share the Land, saw Cummings and Winter handling most of the songwriting, and it produced three more hit singles, "Hand Me Down World," "Hang On to Your Life," and the title cut. The band had racked up enough hits that RCA Victor compiled The Best of the Guess Who, and 1971 saw the release of a fresh studio set, So Long, Bannatyne. While the singles "Rain Dance" and "Sour Suite" fared well in Canada, the album's sales didn't meet RCA Victor's expectations in the United States, and Rockin', released in early 1972, met a similar fate as the group's American profile was beginning to fade. While touring in support of Rockin', Greg Leskiw had a falling out with Cummings and left the group; Donnie McDougall took his place on guitar and would appear on Live at the Paramount, a concert set recorded in Seattle, Washington that came out in August 1972. Not long after Leskiw's departure, bassist Jim Kale also turned in his notice, joining Scrubbaloe Caine, and Bill Wallace (who had been a member of the group Brother with Kurt Winter) was hired to play bass. Wallace made his recording debut on 1973's Artificial Paradise, which became their lowest-charting album since signing with Nimbus 9 in 1969. 1973's #10 revived their fortunes in Canada somewhat, spawning the single "Glamour Boy" and rising to number seven on the album charts, and 1974's Road Food spawned a pair of hits, "Clap for the Wolfman," featuring guest vocals from the famous disc jockey Wolfman Jack (number four in Canada, number six in the U.S.), and "Star Baby" (number nine in Canada, number 39 in U.S.). In June 1974, Kurt Winter and Donnie McDougall were asked to leave the Guess Who, and Domenic Troiano, who had previously played in the James Gang, took over on guitar. Troiano's first album with the group, 1974's jazz-influenced Flavours, just missed the Top Ten in Canada, topping out at number 11 on the album charts, but without a hit single to support it, it only made it to number 48 in the United States, while 1975's Power in the Music included the nostalgic single "When the Band Was Singin' 'Shakin' All Over.'" The album came and went with little notice, and Cummings, unhappy with the group's creative direction, broke up the Guess Who in October 1975. In 1976, they released The Way They Were, which collected unreleased tracks cut shortly before Randy Bachman left the group.
When Cummings disbanded the Guess Who, he believed he owned the rights to the band's name, and after Jim Kale asked Cummings for permission to use it for a one-off concert, he learned it had never been trademarked in Canada. Kale wasted no time trademarking the name the Guess Who himself, and in 1978, he released Guess Who's Back, which featured former group members Kale, Kurt Winter, and Donnie McDougall, as well as guitarist David Inglis and drummer Vince Masters. Winter was out and the Guess Who were a quartet for 1979's All This for a Song, while that same year, Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Bill Wallace, and Garry Peterson reunited for a televised concert on CBC-TV. The Jim Kale edition of the band issued Now and Not Then in 1981; Kale was the only original member on board, accompanied by vocalist Brent DeJarlais, guitarists Mike McKenna and Dale Russell, and drummer Sonnie Bernardi. In 1983, Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Jim Kale, and Garry Peterson staged a Guess Who reunion tour, and the 1984 album Together Again featured live recordings from a show at Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition, as well as a handful of new tracks. (An expanded edition of the same album appeared under the title Reunion.) By this time, Kale's edition of the Guess Who toured regularly each summer in the United States and Canada, and in 1994 he took them back to the studio for the album Liberty. For this project, Kale was joined by one other original member of the Guess Who, Garry Peterson on drums, with the band rounded out by singer and guitarist Terry Hatty, guitarists Kevin Breit and Dale Russell, keyboardist John Sheard, keyboard and sax player Leonard Shaw, and percussionist Rick Lazar. The album also appeared with a different sequence under the title Lonely One.
In 1997, after their hometown of Winnipeg was hit by severe flooding, Cummings and Bachman played a benefit show for disaster relief. They would periodically reunite for touring, but Kale declined them permission to bill themselves as the Guess Who, with the duo advertising themselves as Bachman-Cummings. The Cummings/Bachman/Kale/Peterson lineup of the Guess Who returned for a special performance at the closing ceremonies of the 1999 Pan-American Games; while health issues forced Kale to drop out, Donnie McDougall and Bill Wallace were added and they played the half-time show at the 2000 Grey Cup game (the Canadian Super Bowl), and this lineup staged periodic tours until 2003, including an appearance at a Toronto SARS benefit concert that attracted 450,000 people. One of their reunion shows was documented on the 2000 album Running Back Thru Canada, while the Kale-led version brought out a live disc of their own, 1998's The Spirit Lives On: Greatest Hits Live. In 2016, Kale retired from music, and drummer Garry Peterson took over ownership of the Guess Who. He put a handful of younger hard rockers together to record 2018's The Future Is What It Used to Be, including Will Evankovich on guitar, Leonard Shaw on keyboards and sax, Derek Sharp on guitar, keys, and lead vocals, and Rudy Sarzo on bass. 2023 saw another studio album from Peterson's Guess Who, Plein D'Amour; for these sessions, Peterson, Shaw, and Sharp were joined by guitarist Michael Staertow and bassist Michael Devin.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-guess-who-mn0000061480#biography
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Biografía de Mark Deming
Una de las bandas más duraderas de Canadá, the Guess, que saltó a la fama en su tierra natal en la década de 1960 y fue uno de los principales creadores de éxitos internacionales en la década de 1970, comenzando como un combo garage-y contundente (como se escuchó en su primer éxito, "Shakin 'All Over") y madurando hasta convertirse en una banda de rock reflexiva que se sentía tan cómoda con rockeros duros basados en la guitarra como "American Woman" como con números melódicos y sinceros como "These Eyes. Aunque la banda encontró su mayor fama con el cantante principal y pianista Burton Cummings y el guitarrista Randy Bachman, continuaron disfrutando del éxito, incluso después de la partida de Bachman, con Share the Land de 1970 y Rockin'de 1972. Cummings abandonó el grupo en octubre de 1975, pero eso estaba lejos del final de la historia, ya que Adivinen quién siguió adelante a pesar de las rupturas ocasionales y los frecuentes cambios de personal. Ahora, casi 60 años después, lanzaron un nuevo álbum en 2023, Plein D'Amour.
Proveniente de Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canadá, la historia de The Guess Who comenzó en 1958, cuando el cantante y multiinstrumentista Chad Allan formó un grupo de rock & roll, Allan and the Silvertones. Después de pasar por varios cambios de formación, la banda resurgió en 1962 como Chad Allan & the Reflections. Junto con Allan en la voz principal, el grupo contó con el guitarrista Randy Bachman, el bajista Jim Kale, el tecladista Bob Ashley y el baterista Garry Peterson. La banda lanzó su primer sencillo en 1962, "Tribute to Buddy Holly", y firmaron con Quality Records, emitiendo un par de sencillos en 1963 y ' 64. En 1965, después de que un acto estadounidense llamado the Reflections obtuviera un éxito con "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet", la banda canadiense cambió su nombre a Chad Allan & the Expressions, y grabaron una versión que sonaba dura del rockero de Johnny Kidd & the Pirates "Shakin' All Over."Con la esperanza de aumentar el interés en el sencillo, Quality intentó un truco promocional, con la presión inicial identificando al grupo como Guess Who?, esperando que los oyentes especulen que fue obra de un conocido grupo británico o estadounidense. Si bien la canción pronto recibió una gran difusión, en lugar de preguntarse quiénes podrían ser los artistas, los fanáticos y disc jockeys simplemente identificaron al grupo como Guess Who? Quality pronto reveló que Chad Allan & the Expressions eran la banda detrás de "Shakin' All Over", pero los locutores de radio continuaron diciéndole a los oyentes que el acto era ¿Adivina quién?, y cuando su primer álbum, Shakin' All Over, apareció en las tiendas en 1965, tanto "Chad Allan & the Expressions "como" Guess Who?"apareció en la portada. Con el tiempo, "Shakin' All Over" se convertiría en el sencillo número uno en Canadá, y también llegó a las listas estadounidenses, alcanzando el puesto 22. Antes de que saliera 1965, el grupo lanzó su segundo álbum, Hey Ho (What You Do to Me), que también tenía los nombres de ambos grupos en la portada.
Para aprovechar su éxito en las listas, Chad Allan & the Expressions emprendieron una dura agenda de giras y, a fines de 1965, Bob Ashley renunció a la banda. Asumiendo el mando de los teclados estuvo Burton Cummings, anteriormente miembro del grupo The Deverons, con sede en Winnepeg. Cummings era tan bueno cantando como al piano, y pronto compartió las tareas vocales principales con Allan. En 1966, Allan dejó su propia banda para volver a la escuela; más tarde pasaría a una larga carrera en la Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Bruce Decker, excompañero de banda de Cummings en The Deverons, se unió al grupo a la guitarra, Cummings se convirtió en el único vocalista principal y, sin Allan, se promocionaron a sí mismos como Guess Who? Su primer LP bajo la nueva marca, It's Time, se publicó a mediados de 1966. Continuaron llegando a las listas de éxitos en Canadá, aunque una desastrosa gira británica los dejó sumidos en deudas. Necesitando reafirmar su reputación en casa, en 1967 se convirtieron en habituales de una serie de música pop de CBC-TV, Let's Go, presentada nada menos que por Chad Allan; también presentaron un programa de radio de CBC, The Swingers. ¿Adivina Quién? llamó la atención del productor discográfico y promotor Jack Richardson, y cuando se le encomendó la tarea de armar un álbum discográfico con talento canadiense como truco de marketing para Coca-Cola, preguntó ¿Adivina quién? ser una de las bandas destacadas. (El otro, The Staccatos, alcanzaría un mayor éxito como Five Man Electrical Band. Richardson vio potencial en The Guess Who( que había eliminado el signo de interrogación de su nombre), y cuando fundó un sello discográfico y una productora llamada Nimbus 9, The Guess Who fue uno de sus primeros fichajes.
El primer álbum de Guess Who para Nimbus 9, Wheatfield Soul, fue lanzado en 1969 y representó un salto creativo hacia adelante para la banda, agregando sofisticados acentos de pop, folk-rock y jazz a sus arreglos, y mostrando los dones de composición de Cummings y Bachman. (también vio a Bachman asumiendo todos los deberes de guitarra después de que Bruce Decker dejara el grupo.) Un sencillo del LP, "These Eyes", se ubicó entre los diez primeros tanto en Canadá como en los Estados Unidos, y el grupo consiguió un contrato discográfico estadounidense con RCA Victor. A su segundo álbum de 1969, Canned Wheat, le fue aún mejor.; "No Time" y "Laughing" fueron éxitos número uno en Canadá y se ubicaron entre los diez primeros en los EE. UU., mientras que "Undun" alcanzó el puesto 21 en Canadá y 22 en los Estados Unidos. Apareciendo a principios de 1970, American Woman sería el álbum más exitoso de Guess Who's; la arrogante canción principal se convirtió en un elemento fijo en la radio de rock durante años, y junto con "No Sugar Tonight" fue la mitad de un sencillo de dos caras que alcanzó el número uno en Canadá y Estados Unidos, mientras que" No Time " fue otro número uno en Canadá y alcanzó el cinco en los EE. UU. Adivinen Quiénes eran fácilmente la banda canadiense más exitosa de su época( y la primera en obtener más de un sencillo número uno en los Estados Unidos), pero Randy Bachman se estaba volviendo insatisfecho con su papel en el grupo. Había lanzado un álbum instrumental en solitario en 1970, Axe, y abandonó las giras con el grupo, citando problemas de salud. También había tenido un despertar espiritual, al unirse a la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días (también conocidos como los Mormones), y el estilo de vida de una banda de rock de gira no encajaba con sus nuevas creencias. Bachman dejó Guess Who en mayo de 1970; inicialmente fue reemplazado para el trabajo en vivo por el guitarrista estadounidense Bobby Sabellico, y cuando la partida de Bachman se hizo permanente, el grupo incorporó a dos nuevos guitarristas, Kurt Winter a la cabeza y Greg Leskiw al ritmo.
El primer álbum de Guess Who después de que Bachman abandonara, Share the Land de 1970, vio a Cummings y Winter encargarse de la mayor parte de la composición, y produjo tres sencillos más exitosos, "Hand Me Down World", "Hang On to Your Life" y el corte del título.. La banda había acumulado suficientes éxitos que RCA Victor compiló lo mejor de Guess Who, y 1971 vio el lanzamiento de un nuevo set de estudio, So Long, Bannatyne. Si bien a los sencillos "Rain Dance" y "Sour Suite" les fue bien en Canadá, las ventas del álbum no cumplieron con las expectativas de RCA Victor en los Estados Unidos, y Rockin', lanzado a principios de 1972, corrió un destino similar cuando el perfil estadounidense del grupo comenzaba a desvanecerse. Mientras estaba de gira en apoyo de Rockin', Greg Leskiw tuvo una pelea con Cummings y dejó el grupo; Donnie McDougall tomó su lugar a la guitarra y aparecería en Live at the Paramount, un set de conciertos grabado en Seattle, Washington que salió en agosto de 1972. Poco después de la partida de Leskiw, el bajista Jim Kale también entregó su aviso, uniéndose a Scrubbaloe Caine, y Bill Wallace (que había sido miembro del grupo Brother con Kurt Winter) fue contratado para tocar el bajo. Wallace hizo su debut discográfico en Artificial Paradise de 1973, que se convirtió en su álbum con las listas más bajas desde que firmó con Nimbus 9 en 1969. El #10 de 1973 revivió un poco su fortuna en Canadá, generando el sencillo "Glamour Boy" y llegando al número siete en las listas de álbumes, y Road Food de 1974 generó un par de éxitos, "Clap for the Wolfman", con la voz invitada del famoso disc jockey Wolfman Jack (número cuatro en Canadá, número seis en los EE.UU.) y "Star Baby" (número nueve en Canadá, número 39 en EE. UU.). En junio de 1974, se les pidió a Kurt Winter y Donnie McDougall que abandonaran Guess Who, y Domenic Troiano, que había tocado anteriormente en James Gang, se hizo cargo de la guitarra. El primer álbum de Troiano con el grupo, Flavours, influenciado por el jazz de 1974, se perdió el Top Ten en Canadá, encabezando el número 11 en las listas de álbumes, pero sin un sencillo exitoso que lo respaldara, solo llegó al número 48 en los Estados Unidos, mientras que Power in the Music de 1975 incluyó el sencillo nostálgico "When the Band Was Singin' 'Shakin' All Over."El álbum llegó y se fue sin previo aviso, y Cummings, descontento con la dirección creativa del grupo, separó The Guess Who en octubre de 1975. En 1976, lanzaron The Way They Were, que recopilaba pistas inéditas cortadas poco antes de que Randy Bachman dejara el grupo.
01 – American Woman
02 – These Eyes
03 – No Sugar Tonight
04 – No Time
05 – Undun
06 – Laughing
07 – Share The Land
08 – Hand Me Down World
09 – Shakin' All Over
10 – Lightfoot
2022
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