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The
Guess Who was Canada's most popular rock band of the 60s and early
70s.
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The
group had its roots in a band called Chad Allan And The
Reflections,
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formed
in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1962. That group itself came out of two
others,
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Allan
And The Silvertones and the Velvetones. The original line-up of Chad
Allan
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And The
Reflections consisted of Allan (b. Allan Kobel; guitar/vocals), Jim Kale
(bass),
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Randy
Bachman (b. 27 September 1943, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; guitar), Bob Ashley
(piano)
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and
Garry Peterson (drums). Their first single, 'Tribute To Buddy Holly', was
released on the
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Canadian
American label in Canada in 1962. Singles for the Quality and
Reo
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labels
followed. By 1965 the group had changed its name to Chad Allan and the
Expressions
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and
recorded a cover of Johnny Kidd And The Pirates' 'Shakin' All Over', released
on
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Quality
Records in Canada and picked up by Scepter Records in the
USA.
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It
became a number 1 single in Canada and number 22 in the USA.
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Ashley
left the group and was replaced by Burton Cummings, formerly of
the
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Canadian
group the Deverons, who shared lead vocal duties with Allan for a
year.
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In 1966
the group released its first album, Shakin' All Over. In order to give the
impression
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to
potential buyers that the group was English, Quality printed 'Guess Who?' on
the cover,
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prompting the group to take those words as its new name.
In 1966 Allan departed
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from the
group. He was briefly replaced by Bruce Decker, another ex-Deveron,
who
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quickly
left, leaving the group as a quartet with Cummings as chief
vocalist.
Although they faded from the US charts for three years, the Guess
Who remained popular in Canada.
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In 1967
they had their first UK chart single with 'His Girl', on the King
label.
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A brief,
disorganized UK tour left the group in debt, and it returned to
Canada,
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recording Coca-Cola commercials and appearing on the
television programme Let's Go,
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which
boosted their Canadian popularity even further. They continued to release
singles in
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Canada
on Quality, and on Amy and Fontana Records in the USA. In 1968, with
financial
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backing
from producer Jack Richardson, the Guess Who recorded Wheatfield Soul in New
York,
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released
in Canada on Richardson's own Nimbus 9 label. The third single from the
album,
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'These
Eyes', written by Cummings and Bachman, reached number 1 in Canada and
earned
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the
group a US contract with RCA Records. The single reached number 6 in the USA
in
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spring
of 1969. That year, the group's second album, Canned Wheat Packed By The Guess
Who,
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also
charted, as did 'Laughing', the b-side of 'These Eyes', itself a Top 10 hit,
and 'Undun', which
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reached
number 22 in the US. The group's busy year was wrapped up
with
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a number
5 single, 'No Time'.
In March 1970, the hard-rocking 'American Woman'
became the Guess Who's only
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US
number 1 The b-side 'No Sugar Tonight' also received considerable radio
airplay. American Woman
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became
the group's only Top 10 album in the US during this time. In July 1970 Bachman
left the group,
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finding
the group's rock lifestyle incompatible with his Mormon religion. He
resurfaced first with Chad Allan in
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a new
group called Brave Belt and finally with Bachman Turner Overdrive (minus
Allan), which itself - ironically -
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became a
popular hard rock group in the 70s. A Guess Who album recorded while Bachman
was still in
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the
group was cancelled. Bachman was replaced in the Guess Who by guitarists Kurt
Winter and
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Greg
Leskiw. Another US Top 10 single, 'Share The Land', finished up 1970 for the
group.
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They
continued to release charting singles and albums in the early 70s, including
'Albert Flasher'
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and
'Rain Dance' in 1971, and their Greatest Hits reached number 12. In 1972
Leskiw and
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Kale
left the group, replaced by Don McDougall and Bill Wallace,
respectively.
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In 1974
Winter and McDougall left, replaced by Domenic Troiano, former guitarist of
the James
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Gang.
That year, the single 'Clap For The Wolfman', written for US disc jockey
Wolfman Jack,
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reached
number 6 in the USA. It proved to be the group's final hit. In 1975
Cummings
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disbanded the Guess Who and began a solo career.
In
1979 a new Guess Who group, featuring Allan, Kale, McDougall
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and
three new members, recorded and toured but were not
successful.
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Similar
regroupings (minus Cummings) also failed.
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A 1983
Guess Who reunion aroused some interest and resulted in an album
and
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concert
video, and Bachman and Cummings toured together in 1987, although they failed
to win large audiences.
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The new
millennium finds The Guess Who again together touring Canada and the United
States.
