History Music / TheGuessWho

The band would have a string of international hits that would mark them as Canada's biggest band for years, especially with the 1971 establishment of the Canadian Content broadcast rulings that allowed Canadian acts to have airplay without being overwhelmed by primarily American music. [[note]]For radio play this happened in 1971, with the establishment of the MAPL system to determine Canadian Content, or [=CanCon=].[[/note]] Some tension between Bachman and the others, partly brought on by Bachman's conversion to UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} (a religion he later abandoned) led him to leave the band in 1970, recording a solo album and forming Brave Belt, which morphed into Bachman-Turner Overdrive a few years later, as well as the later bands Ironhorse and Union. Cummings would leave for a successful solo career of his own in 1976, after which The Guess Who disbanded. Bassist Jim Kale gained control of the band name, and put out various line-ups with no other original members over the years. These lineups generally tour the US but very deliberately avoid Canada, where Canadian concert-goers are steadfastly vociferous that The Guess Who [[TheBandMinusTheFace must include Burton Cummings (and very probably Randy Bachman), or they won't bother to show up.]]

Bachman and Cummings did pay for the right use the Guess Who name for a wildly successful Canadian tour in 1983, and again from 2000-2003. But Bachman, now also famous as the host of ''Vinyl Tap'' on Creator/{{CBC}} Radio, and Cummings would mostly tour together as the de facto reunited Guess Who as "Bachman-Cummings".

* SpellingSongs: The blues intro to "American Woman" features Burton Cummings spelling the word "American".

* InTheStyleOf: They did a few songs that were pretty obviously a musical homage to a different artist, like "Undun" (Music/TheZombies), "No Time" (Music/BuffaloSpringfield) and "American Woman" (Music/LedZeppelin). Bachman continued doing this in Bachman-Turner Overdrive, with "Blue Collar" (Music/{{Santana}} and Lenny Breau)[[note]]Randy recorded a solo instrumental album, "Axe" that included songs that hinted at "Blue Collar" and other BTO songs.[[/note]]and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" (Music/TheWho).

* ProtestSong: "American Woman" is an analogy to America's cultural domination, which was especially becoming apparent around the time of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.

The band was originally called "Chad Allen and the Reflections," [[note]]As there was another band called "The Reflections" they changed to "Chad Allen and the Expressions". Then they found out there was band called, "The Expressions". That is what led to "Guess Who?" being used, as below.[[/note]] and issued a few singles under that name in Canada. Then they covered the British hit "Shakin' All Over" (originally by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates), and the record company decided to market it as by "Guess Who?" in an attempt to build an impression that the record was actually performed by a famous British group working incognito. Members of The Beatles, perhaps? The Rolling Stones, maybe? Well, no -- just a bunch of kids from Winnipeg.

Part of its rise to fame in the 1960s is that it refused to play to the dismissive trope of CanadaDoesNotExist in North American popular culture. Instead, unlike other acts who went south to the US and downplayed their origins to find their fortune as disguised Americans, the Guess Who defiantly stayed in Canada, proud of their country internationally in reflection of its growing self-confidence that its Centennial helped encourage. For instance, check out this musical TV appearance from this period and notice that the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLQJ4toj-JY recently established maple leaf Canadian flag is front and center]].

That confidence combined with its undeniable talent paid off in 1970 when it became the first Canadian rock band to have a #1 US hit single, "American Woman," which reflected much of Canada's distinctive ambivalence living next to a super power which Prime Minister UsefulNotes/PierreTrudeau described as like "sleeping with an elephant."

The band would have a string of international hits that would mark it as Canada's biggest band for years, especially with the 1971 establishment of the Canadian Content broadcast rulings that allowed Canadian acts to have airplay without being overwhelmed by primarily American music. [[note]]For radio play this happened in 1971, with the establishment of the MAPL system to determine Canadian Content, or CanCon.[[/note]] Some tension between Bachman and the others, partly brought on by Bachman's conversion to UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} (a religion he later abandoned) led him to leave the band in 1970, recording a solo album and forming Brave Belt which morphed into Bachman-Turner Overdrive a few years later, as well as the later bands Ironhorse and Union. Cummings would leave for a successful solo career of his own in 1976, after which the Guess Who disbanded. Bassist Jim Kale gained control of the band name, and put out various line-ups with no other original members over the years. These lineups generally tour the US but very deliberately avoid Canada, where Canadian concert-goers are steadfastly vociferous that The Guess Who [[TheBandMinusTheFace must include Burton Cummings (and very probably Randy Bachman), or they won't bother to show up.]]

Bachman and Cummings did pay for the right use the Guess Who name for a wildly successful Canadian tour in 1983, and again from 2000-2003. But mostly Bachman, now also famous as the host of ''Vinyl Tap'' on Creator/{{CBC}} Radio, and Cummings would tour together as the de facto reunited Guess Who as "Bachman-Cummings".

* InTheStyleOf: They did a few songs that were pretty obviously a musical homage to a different artist, like "Undun" (Music/TheZombies) and "American Woman" (Music/LedZeppelin). Bachman continued doing this in Bachman-Turner Overdrive, with "Blue Collar" (Music/{{Santana}} and Lenny Breau)[[note]]Randy recorded a solo instrumental album, "Axe" that included songs that hinted at "Blue Collar" and other BTO songs.[[/note]]and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" (Music/TheWho).