b. 1947, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Burton Cummings started his rock and roll career in Winnipeg as a teenager with The Devrons. When Bob Ashley and Chad Allan left the The Guess Who in 1966 Cummings was asked to join as keyboardist and vocalist.
Wanting to shake their earlier 'British Invasion' sound, The Guess Who began experimenting with psychedelic and garage sounds filtered north from Minneapolis. They soon began recording there. Eventually, one of the their Minneapolis songs "His Girl" reached England which resulted in interest from Tony Hiller at Mills Music who negotiated a contract with King Records in the U.K.
The song, a minor hit in Canada, was remixed and made the Top 20 in England. The band immediately cancelled 6 months worth of gigs and went to England for a tour. King had their course set out for them including where the money went, royalties and retainers and as a result were broke before they began. After one album the Guess Who walked out on King Records.
Not coincidentally, Canadian radio stations had by then discovered that the Guess Who were not English; their ardor for the Winnipeg group's records paled considerably. After four poor selling albums for Quality Records, they sold the Guess Who's contract to Jack Richardson's newly formed Nimbus 9 label for $1,000!
In early 1968, after recording 2 singles and half of a special Coca-Cola promotional LP (with The Staccatos on the flipside) called 'A Wild Pair', Nimbus 9 decided to release a full length album containing 8 Bachman/Cummings originals called 'Wheatfield Soul'.
Nimbus signed a deal with RCA records for $3,000 and this association has been heralded by RCA as the beginning of the Canadian Invasion. "These Eyes" would be the first single, but radio stations were already indicating that they would not support any inferior Canadian music, especially the new Guess Who record, so Richardson hired promotional people in 4 key American cities to launch the single.
This tenacity by both Nimbus and RCA paid off as the song broke new ground in the US eventually reaching No.3 on the charts and selling 1,000,000 copies. Embarrassed Canadian broadcasters, who had followed American music trends to the letter, were soon forced to playlist the song. The doors were now open for a string of hits including the double-A sided "Laughing/Undun" and their biggest selling record of all time - "American Woman".
At the time of "American Woman's" US success at #1 in 1970, Bachman quit to form Brave Belt (with former Guess Who member Chad Allan), then B.T.O. and finally Ironhorse/Union before continuing on with a solo career. With his replacement by Kurt Winter and Greg Leskiw, the group continued with a string of successful singles and albums over the next 5 years.
More member changes followed including Donnie McDougall, Bill Wallace and Domenic Troiano) concluding with their final album 'Power In The Music'. Cummings would launch an extremely successful solo career in 1976 after signing to Portrait Records in the US. Two of his solo hits, "Stand Tall" and "I'm Scared", would both go on to be played more than a million times each on radio making them two of the most airplayed songs of all time.
Jim Kale continued the band through the remainder of the 1970's but with little success. The remaining members refused to reform due to conflicts over song ownership and the band's name which Kale owned. There have however been two reunions since with the original late '60's line-up and a tour which became part of a live album entitled 'Reunion' in 1985.
They were inducted into the Canadian Recording Arts & Sciences (CARAS) Hall Of Fame during the 1987 Juno Awards but their acceptance speech was cut-off during the CBC broadcast to which the band members has never forgiven the Academy or the CBC. Bachman and Cummings temporarily patched up their decade of differences and buried the hatchet and even recorded some new material but individual previous obligations failed to bring a full blow reformation of the band.
Tired of waiting for Cummings and Bachman, Kale and Peterson began touring once more as the Guess Who right into the 1990's. The four reunited for a celebrated four-song concert at the conclusion of the 1999 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg.
In September 1999, Sony Music Canada finally reissued Cummings' first four solo albums on CD, remastered and complete with the requisite bonus tracks.
Singles
1976 Stand Tall (Portrait/Epic)
1977 I'm Scared (Portrait/Epic)
1977 Timeless Love (Portrait/Epic)
1977 My Own Way To Rock (Portrait/Epic)
1978 Your Back Yard (Portrait/Epic)
1978 Break It To Them Gently (Portrait/Epic)
1979 Draggin' Them Down The Line (Portrait/Epic)
1979 I Will Play A Rhapsody (Portrait/Epic)
1980 Fine State Of Affairs (Portrait/Epic)
1980 Mile A Second (Portrait/Epic)
1980 One And Only (Portrait/Epic)
1981 You Saved My Soul
1981 Heavenly Blue
1982 Mother Keep Your Daughter In
1989 Take One Away
1990 One Day Soon
1990 The Rock's Steady
1990 Free
with THE GUESS WHO
1966 Believe Me/Baby Feelin' (Quality)
1966 Clock On The Wall/One Day (Quality)
1966 And She's Mine/All Right (Quality)
1967 His Girl/It's My Pride (Quality)
1967 Pretty Blue Eyes/Pretty Blue Eyes (Quality)
1967 This Time Long Ago/There's No Getting Away (Quality)
1967 Flying On The Ground/If You Don't Want Me (Quality)
1967 This Time Long Ago/Flying On The Ground (Quality)
1967 Miss Felicity Grey/Flying On The Ground (Fontana - UK)
1968 Hurting Each Other/I'll Keep Coming Back (Quality)
1968 When Friends Fall Out/Guess Who Blues (Nimbus 9)
1968 Of A Dropping Pin/Mr Nothin' (Nimbus 9)
1969 These Eyes/Lightfoot (Nimbus 9)
1969 Maple Fudge/Of A Dropping Pin (Nimbus 9)
1969 Laughing/Undun (RCA)
1969 No Time/Proper Stranger (RCA)
1970 American Woman/No Sugar Tonight (RCA)
1970 Hand Me Down World/Runnin Down The Street (RCA)
1970 Share The Land/Bus Rider (RCA)
1971 Hang On To Your Life/Do You Miss Me Darlin' (RCA)
1971 Albert Flasher/Broken (RCA)
1971 Rain Dance/One Divided (RCA)
1972 Sour Suite/Life In The Bloodstream (RCA)
1972 Heartbroken Bopper/Arrivederci Girl (RCA)
1972 Guns, Guns, Guns/Heaven Only Moved Once (RCA)
1972 Runnin' Back To Saskatoon/New Mother Nature (RCA)
1972 Runnin' Back to Saskatoon/Glace Bay Blues (RCA)
1973 Follow Your Daughter Home/Bye Bye Babe (RCA)
1973 Orly/The Watcher (RCA)
1973 Glamour Boy/Lie Down (RCA)
1974 Star Baby/Musicione (RCA)
1974 Clap For The Wolfman/Road Food (RCA)
1974 Dancin' Fool/Seems Like I Can't Live Without You (RCA)
1975 Loves Me Like A Brother/Hoedown Time (RCA)
1975 Rosanne/Dreams (RCA)
1975 When The Band Was Singin' 'Shakin All Over'/Woman (RCA)
1976 Silver Bird/Runnin Down The Street (RCA)
1981 Beyond Beautiful/Country Disco (El Mocambo)
1981 Lovelite/Straight Shootin' Man (El Mocambo)
1984 Let's Watch The Sun Go Down (live)/These Eyes (live) (Ready)
Albums
1976 Burton Cummings (Portrait/Epic)
1977 My Own Way To Rock (Portrait/Epic)
1978 Dream Of A Child (Portrait/Epic)
1979 The Very Best Of Burton Cummings (Portrait/Epic)
1980 Woman Love (Portrait/Epic)
1981 Sweet Sweet (Portrait/Epic)
1984 Heart (Epic/CBS)
1990 Plus Signs
1996 Up Close And Alone (MCA)
with THE GUESS WHO
1966 It's Time (Quality)
1968 The Guess Who (Quality)
1968 A Wild Pair (Capitol) [split album w/The Staccatos]
1968 Canned Wheat (Nimbus 9)
1968 Wheatfield Soul (Nimbus 9)
1969 Born In Canada (Nimbus 9)
1969 The Guess Who? Super Golden Goodies
1970 Share the Land (Nimbus 9)
1970 American Woman (Nimbus 9)
1971 Guess Who Play The Guess Who (RCA)
1971 The Best Of The Guess Who (RCA)
1971 So Long, Bannatyne (RCA)
1972 Shakin' All Over [re-issue] (RCA)
1972 The Guess Who Live At The Paramount (RCA)
1972 The History Of The Guess Who
1972 Rockin' (RCA)
1972 Wild One (RCA)
1973 The Best Of The Guess Who [re-issue] (RCA)
1973 The Best Of The Guess Who Vol. II (RCA)
1973 Artificial Paradise (RCA)
1973 #10 (RCA)
1973 Superpak (RCA)
1974 Road Food (RCA)
1974 Flavours (RCA)
1975 Power In The Music (RCA)
1976 The Way They Were
1977 The Greatest Hits Of The Guess Who
1981 Now And Not Then (El Mocambo)
1984 Together Again
1985 K-Tel Presents the Guess Who - 20 Original Hits
1986 The Best Of The Guess Who Live
1988 Track Record: The Guess Who Collection (BMG)
1995 The Lonely One (fre/EMI)
1997 The Guess Who: The Ultimate Collection (BMG)
Video
Compilation Tracks
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