Randy Bachman
Randall
Charles Bachman was born on September 27, 1943 in Winnipeg, Canada.
His first band was Chad Allen and the Silvertones formed in the late
1950's. In 1962, the band changed their name to Chad Allan and
the Reflextions, and later to Chad Allan and the Expressions.
With this name, the band got it's first recording contract with
Quality Records. however, it was very hard to get Canadian music
recognized in American influenced radio stations, so Quality
released the band's single with the words "guess who?" written on
it. The record went on to sell 2 million copies.
Bob Ashley and Chad Allan left the group, and in 1966 they hired keyboardist Burton Cummings. Together they experimented with different sounds and released the single His Girl. This song lead to a contract with King Records in the UK. The song was a small hit in Canada, but was remixed and released in England where it became a top 20 hit. The band immediately cancelled 6 months worth of gigs, and went to England for a tour after signing with King Records. As it turned out, King records had everything planned out for them when they got there, including where their money went, royalties, retainers, etc. They were actually broke before they got started, so after one album, the band walked out on them. They came back to Canada and signed with Nimbus Records.
After 10 years of much success with The Guess Who, Bachman decided to leave. He released a solo album in 1970 entitled Axe. But, he missed the collaborative atmosphere of being with a band, so he got back together with Chad Allen, and put together a new band with Randy's younger brother, Robin. The trio became Brave Belt. They went almost immediately to the studio and recorded a self titled album. It was released in 1971. Just as they completed Brave Belt, they took on Bassist Fred Turner. (He is seen on the cover of their album even though he did not play on it.)
In 1972, they released Brave Belt II. Turner's heavy songwriting and "truck driver" vocals seemed to conflict with Allen's vision of the band. He quit before this album was even released. The success of this album was limited, so Bachman decided to start hunting for a better record deal. He found it with Mercury/Polydor records.
Chad Allen was replaced with another Bachman brother Tim. The band began to write even heavier music than before. Their next record was to be released as Brave Belt III, but since they were starting with a new label, They became Bachman Turner Overdrive.
This self-titled album was released in 1973. It stayed on the charts for 68 weeks. But, after 4 tries, the album only produced one single, Blue Collar. It reached number 68 on the Billboard top 100 list. By the end of the same year, they released another album entitled Bachman Turner Overdrive II. The album was a huge success going all the way to the top ten. The hit singles from this album included Let it Ride, and Takin' Care of Business.
Tim Bachman left the band shortly after this album's release, and was replaced by Blair Thorton on guitar. They released an album in 1974 entitled Not Fragile. The album was also another huge success for the band. It rose to number 1 on the charts, and the single You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet went number 1 worldwide. The same year, the band's first 2 albums became certified gold.
Their fourth album, Four Wheel Drive proved to be a smash hit peaking at number 5 on the Billboard and going platinum.
For their next album, BTO changed gears and released a more jazzy blues sounding album. It featured songs like Looking Out For Number One, and Take It Like A Man. By this time, there seemed to be a struggle with in the band over song representation. While personal conflicts raged through the band, Mercury Records released The Best Of BTO (So Far) in the summer of 1976. As it turned out, Bachman had regained song writing interests from Turner. They released Freeways. The album turned out to be a failure. Mercury records panicked. They released a live album of BTO's Japan tour. Bachman left the band due to musical differences, and went on to record his second solo album, Survivor in 1978.
Because of internal problems at his label, he left and approached the Scotti Brothers who had their own label. They were only interested in rock bands, so Bachman quickly put together a band called Iron Horse with Tom Sparks, Chris Leighton and Randy Bachman. Together they released 2 singles from their debut album. After it's release Sparks left the band and was replaced by keyboardist Frank Ludwig. But the follow up album, Everything Is Grey was a failure. The band left Scotti Brothers records, and Bachman called on his old friend Fred Turner. Together with Leighton and Ludwig, the band Union released On Strike with their new label, Portrait records. The album was another failure, and the band split up.
In 1983, the original members of BTO met and discussed a reunion. Randy wanted to include Time as part of the reunion, but brother Robbie pushed for Thorton as he was considered to be a better musician. Randy made the final choice and chose Tim, and Robbie backed out citing irreconcilable differences. So, Gary Peterson from The Guess Who joined BTO as their new drummer.
BTO later reformed to with members Turner, Bachman (Randy), Thorton, and Robbie Bachman. They toured together for 3 years before Randy Bachman had enough an left the band in 1991. He went on to run his own label, and has also released 2 solo albums and did some touring.
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The Guess Who: The Guess Who Songbook (Featuring
Burton Cummings) Performed by The Guess Who. For voice,
piano and guitar chords. Format: piano/vocal/chords
songbook. With vocal melody, piano accompaniment, lyrics,
chord names, guitar chord diagrams and introductory text.
Rock and classic rock. 64 pages. 9x12 inches. Published by
Hal Leonard. (HL.308250) See more info... |
|
Songs Made Famous by BTO/The Guess Who Tune 1000
(General MIDI software). Floppy disk only. Size 5x7 inches.
Published by Tune 1000. (658887) See more info... |