The Guess Who | Suite101.com

Let's put History aside and look at something else. A poll has been posted to see who amongst the choices was the best Canadian artist. The artists included The Guess Who, The Band, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot. The Guess Who leads with 44.44% of the votes followed by Neil Young with 22.22%, and the others with 11.11% each. This poll was posted in honour of Canada Day (July 1st) and this article is devoted to the winner, The Guess Who. The Guess Who is one of the first Canadian Music Groups to be world renowned as they figure in Rock History books and are inducted in Canada's Music Hall of Fame. Although The Guess Who was formed in the sixties and seventies, they are still touring now. Many replacements were made and only two of the current members were there when the band was created: Bassist Jim Kale and Drummer Garry Peterson.

The band was signed by Quality Records in 1962 with the name "Chad Allan & The Expressions" and was created by Chad Allan, Randy Bachman Bob Ashley, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson. They recorded American Material but were blocked out because of the British Invasion (we'll see that next week). They decided to record a British song called "Shakin' All Over," a UK #1 hit by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. The song could have known success if only Canadian radio stations had supported it instead of rejecting it with all other Canadian music. The Company released the song with only the words written "Shakin' All Over" and 'Guess Who?'. It became a success due to the British Sound and it also gave the Band a new name. In 1966 Bob Ashley and Chad Allan left and were replaced by Burton Cummings. They started to record in Minneapolis and their song "His Girl" reached England and got much interest and made the top 20. Since it was only a minor hit in Canada, the Band went on tour in England. Unfortunately their British Record Company held royalties and the band was broke before it even started the tour. They walked out on the Company, King Records. At about the same time Radio discovered they were not English and they stopped playing them. Their record Contract was sold to the Nimbus 9 Label owned by Jack Richardson.

With Nimbus 9, The Guess Who started anew, releasing two singles and half of Coca-Cola Promotional single. In 1968, Nimbus decided that Guess Who would release a Full Length Album called "Wheatfield Soul." Nimbus signed a deal with RCA (this deal is the so-called beginning of the Canadian Invasion) and released "These Eyes" as a first Single. Since the Canadian Radio Stations refused to play The Guess Who, Richardson hired people in four American cities to launch the single. The Single reached #3 and sold one million copies. Canadian Broadcaster were now forced to play Guess Who. Guess who released more hit material such as "Laughing/Undun" and of course their most famous record, "American Woman" which toped the charts in 1970. It was at this point that Bachman quit the band and formed Brave Belt (and later BTO and Ironhorse/Union). His replacements were Kurt Winter and Gary Leskiw and the Guess Who continued with their success for another five years. Donnie McDougall, Bill Wallace and Domenic Troiano joined the band. The Band did their final album, "Power in the Music," in 1975.