Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Randy Bachman's place with Chad Allen and the Expressions, The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive has made him a Rock Icon. That he is well known in North America is an understatement.

For Roy, and the UK members of this Forum and those who have lived on both sides of the pond, what sort of following did Randy Bachman have in the UK?

Well I guess I have my answer.

After a little research, it woud seem that Randy Bachman made a couple of tiny dents, but none in the 1960s at all. This makes his discussion here outside the scope of Clough's Classics.

A brief note, in passing, his standings in the UK charts that I could find were as follows.

#19 Guess Who American Woman (re-entry) - May 1970
#2 Bachman-Turner Overdrive You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Nov 1974
#22 Bachman-Turner Overdrive Roll On Down The Highway - Feb 1975

A pity.

All of these and some more were on the radio here... but it wasn't in the 60s and not in UK.

I mention Bachman as he got his start in the 1960s. Here is one of their Canadian hits from 1969.

As some of you may recall I knew both Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings quite well back in the mid 60's.

In his early career Randy was heavily influenced by the British music scene. IIRC the very first time I saw him play in a band Chad Allen was their lead singer and he played the keyboards. Burton has not yet joined the band. The band often played songs by the Beatles and I even once saw Randy play I Can't Explain by the Who. He really impressed me when he nailed the solo to a tee. Randy was a good friend of a local DJ in Vancouver, named Darryl Burlingham. Darryl was coincidentally a good friend of mine, so by way of explanantion that is how I ended up meeting Randy. The rest is history as they say. I know for certain that in the beginning Randy really wanted have a hit in the USA, because that's where the bigger market was. He would have really enjoyed a hit in England but he felt that his chances there were slim to none because of the name of his band (The Guess Who) was too close to The Who.

A great bit of history, thanks for the firsthand account, Brian. "Shakin All Over" was a good choice of a cover of too. I consider that it rivaled Johnny Kidd and the Pirate's version.

Chad Allan did a great job on the vocals on Shakin All Over IMO. Sorry Chad for wrongly spelling your name in my previous post, it was a slip of the keyboard. Jeez I can't stand it when people who should know better do that .

I've always liked Randy's guitar style, kind of a sloppy Chuck Berry style when he played rock n roll, like in Taking care of Business (BTO). The Guess Who's version of Shaking all Over was a huge hit here in MA and I love it to this day with it's big bass sound and great guitar style. I have an old album on Swan (I think) with mostly Chad Allan singing on it and it's great. I like their later stuff too, they were so huge here in th US it's hard to believe they are not known in Britain. I saw them live in 1970 right at the height of their success here at an outside concert and they were a very good live band, especially considering the technology at that time, all their harmony's were right there as well as the music. One of my more memorable concerts.

Here's Shaking All Over, a cover with no band shots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX6qjAFqmLs

Virtually unknown in UK Peter, strangely he was on Twang - A instrumental tribute to The Shadows, released a few years back in 90's. He and Neil Young did Spring Is Nearly Here a great guitar ballad which was on Out Of The Shadows the second album The Shadows released in 61.

What's that on your picture Sheena- Goat's head soup?

What's that on your picture Sheena- Goat's head soup?

Mmm... no, that's a "kekekemouse" sitting on a palm and eating something. A small white&red mouse from Hawaii, as i was told. But i still think it's a hamster.