The Guess Who is a Canadianrock music band from Winnipeg, Manitoba that was one of the first to establish a major successful following in their own country as well as abroad in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were the first Canadian rock group to have a No.1 hit on the American Music Charts.
The band was originally known as "Chad Allan & The Expressions" before their record label tried a stunt of hiding the name of the band with the words "Guess Who?" The reception proved so positive that the name stuck. As the group lineup changed, so did their sound. 1969's "These Eyes" was the group's first Top Ten hit under new group leader Burton Cummings. By the beginning of the 1970s, the group moved towards an edgier hard-rock sound with the album "American Woman", which featured among its tracks the title song (the only Number One hit the group had in the U.S.), "When Friends Fall Out" (a short ditty that was sort of a cross between Strawberry Alarm Clock, Jefferson Airplane and the Lennon Sisters), and the Top Ten hit "No Time".
Group differences led Randy Bachman to leave the group, return to Winnipeg, and form Brave Belt, which eventually evolved into the hit group Bachman Turner Overdrive. The Guess Who continued with more hit singles such as "Share The Land" and "Clap For The Wolfman" (an homage to disc jockey Wolfman Jack, who incidentally, lent his own voice to the recording).
The Guess Who broke up in 1975, but a new incarnation has since been formed and continues to tour in the tradition of the group and sound Cummings made famous.
In 2001, a year after the Guess Who went on a cross-Canada national tour, the band received honourary doctorates at Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba. For lead vocalist Cummings, it was a privilege to receive the doctorate, since he did not graduate from high school.
In 2004, Jim Kale started touring with his version of the Guess Who (known as the "Klones" by Cummings), Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings are planning on touring as the Bachman-Cummings Band in the summer of 2005 with Toronto's The Carpet Frogs .
Major Hits
"Shakin' All Over" - 1960--original by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates; 1965--covered by The Guess Who; 1970--covered by The Who
"Laughing"
"These Eyes"
"American Woman" - The first Canadian rock song to hit #1 in the American Music Charts
"Clap For the Wolfman"
"No Sugar Tonight"
"Hand Me Down World"
"Share The Land"
"Undun", which fans sometimes call "She's Come Undone"
"No Time"
Lineups
1960The Silvertones:Chad Allen (Allen Cobell), Bob Ashley , Brian Donald , Johnny Glowa , Jim Kale , Larry Wah
1961Chad Allen & The Silvertones: Chad Allen, Bob Ashley, Randy Bachman, Jim Kale, Garry Peterson , Carol West
1962Chad Allen & The Reflections: Chad Allen, Bob Ashley, Randy bachman, Jim Kale, Garry Peterson
1964 Chad Allen (Allen Cobell), Randy Bachman, Jim Kale, Bob Ashley, Garry Peterson
1965The Guess Who: Chad Allen, Randy Bachman, Jim Kale, Garry Peterson, Burton Cummings
1966 Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Bruce Decker , Jim Kale, Garry Peterson
1966 Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Jim Kale, Garry Peterson
1970 Burton Cummings, Jim Kale, Greg Leskiw , Garry Peterson, Kurt Winter
