May 20, 1996 By JANE STEVENSON --

Burton Cummings has come undone.

Sitting in a hotel restaurant recently, he's acting more like the 19-year-old kid from the North End of Winnipeg with the big voice and piano chops who joined The Guess Who in 1965 than a 48-year-old wealthy rock star who's been around the block.

"The buzz around this record is so intense," says Cummings of his latest release, Up Close And Alone.

"It's very exciting for me. I can't believe it. You think somebody would get jaded after awhile. This is my 32nd album! We were all hoping for good things from this, but I had no idea. The initial response is way beyond any of our wildest dreams."

Up Close And Alone, basically Cummings on a piano (at the Glenn Gould Theatre last December) belting out his greatest hits, including Stand Tall, Break It To Them Gently, Undun, I Will Play A Rhapsody, I'm Scared, Dream Of A Child and These Eyes, sold 30,000 copies in just two weeks. It is currently hovering near gold (50,000) after almost two months in stores.

"I've managed to stay around long enough to reach a second generation of people, which doesn't happen to every artist," says Cummings, who also is finally working on a book about his life after a decade of trying.

"I remember doing Lulu's last year twice, in Kitchener, and there were teenagers there, like 18, 19 years old, that weren't even born when some of these records were out and they were mouthing every single word and phrase and nuance that I did vocally."

Cummings credits classic radio support, in Canada in particular, and being force-fed Guess Who records by older siblings for his young fan base in the '90s.

"I was initially a little concerned that MCA wanted to lean so heavily on just the time-proven stuff but for my first project with the label, I didn't want to get into a fight with them so I just acquiesced. They wanted to load up the guns with title power, and I guess they were right. Even Dream Of A Child, which was the biggest album of my solo career -- it was 300,000 units in 1979 -- was nowhere near the initial heat that this had.

"This could probably end up being the biggest album of my solo career. And it's remarkable because it's just a guy sitting at a piano."

But not just any guy.

Whatever you think of Cummings and his music, just listen to American Woman -- which unfortunately didn't make the cut on Up Close And Alone because "that's just totally out of the question as far as piano goes," he says -- and try to deny the power of his pipes.

"The gimmick is that there are no gimmicks," says Cummings, who has homes in Los Angeles, Victoria and Winnipeg.

"I'm sick and tired of the spectacle overtaking the music. I like the Rolling Stones and I like Pink Floyd, but when the music becomes the third or fourth consideration to going to a show -- 'Oh, man, let's do acid, you won't believe the lasers' -- it's like what happened to all that practising and playing and studying of music?

"I miss the days when five sweaty guys were standing in a circle working off each other."