Early history: Brave Belt (1971–1973) After finding success with
the Guess Who, Randy Bachman left at the height of the group's popularity in July 1970, citing health issues and lifestyle differences with the other band members. He recalled being labelled "a lunatic and a loser" and being told "nobody wanted to work with me." The exception was
Chad Allan, former Guess Who lead singer, who had left that band four years before Randy. The two agreed to explore a musical project, and Randy then turned to family. The result was the band
Brave Belt, formed in Winnipeg in 1971 with the additions of Randy's brother Robin "Robbie" Bachman on drums, and Gary Bachman acting as band manager. Turner was soon asked to be a full-time member and sing lead for the recording of
Brave Belt II in 1972. According to Randy Bachman's autobiography, Bachman–Turner Overdrive's sound was born at a university gig in
Thunder Bay,
Ontario, shortly after Allan's departure. A promoter, disheartened with reactions to Allan's country-flavoured songs, which the band was still playing, decided to sack Brave Belt for the Saturday night show and bring in a more rock-oriented replacement from
Toronto. When the replacement band did not materialize, he begged Brave Belt to stay on and play a set of classic rock cover songs. As the band played songs like "
Proud Mary", "
Brown Sugar", and "
All Right Now", the dance floor filled up, and according to Randy, "We instantly saw the difference between playing sit-down music people could talk over and playing music they would jump out of their seats and dance to." The band eventually landed a deal with
Mercury Records, one which Randy proclaimed as a pure stroke of luck. In April 1973, Charlie Fach of Mercury Records returned to his office after a trip to France to find a stack of demonstration tapes waiting on his desk. (This was after Fach's assistant had already sent one refusal letter to Randy.) Wanting to start completely fresh, he took a trash can and slid all the tapes into it except one, which missed the can and fell onto the floor. Fach picked up the tape and noticed Bachman's name on it. He remembered talking to him the previous year and had told Bachman that if he ever put a demo tape together to send it to him. Coincidentally, Mercury had just lost
Uriah Heep and
Rod Stewart to other labels, and Fach was looking for new rock acts to replace them. BTO released
their eponymous first album in May 1973. and
Buffalo and stayed on the charts for many weeks, despite lacking a hit single. The Turner-penned "
Blue Collar" reached number 21 on the Canadian
RPM charts, but stalled at number 68 on the US chart. The album's eventual success was the result of the band's relentless touring. Reportedly, Fach had agreed to put this album on the Mercury label only if the band would promote it with a heavy concert schedule. Wherever the band was getting significant airplay, Bachman–Turner Overdrive immediately traveled there, regardless of the tour routing, to build momentum. One such opportunity occurred in
St. Louis. Fred Turner said, "We got a call from radio station
KSHE that was putting on a benefit. They wanted a band to headline that nobody heard of because the headline acts they had booked got bigger offers and weren't coming. We had the
BTO I album out then, so they at least had something to play and make it look like we were big. They started playing our record every hour, every cut off the album, across six states – 150,000 watts. The record company called and said, 'What the hell's happening? We shipped 10,000 records to St. Louis in one week!' We got there and it was an outdoor drive-in theatre, 15 to 20 thousand people. The region had been saturated with our album. They didn't know we were Canadian, they just knew the songs. It was incredible." Backed by manager
Bruce Allen (who replaced Randy's brother Gary in 1972 when Gary was unable to relocate to
Vancouver with the rest of Brave Belt), BTO logged over 300 dates in its first year of existence, which paid off.
BTO I was later certified gold in 1974 by the
Recording Industry Association of America.
Breakthrough and success 1973–1976 BTO's second album,
Bachman–Turner Overdrive II, was released in December 1973 and became an enormous hit in the US (peaking at number four in 1974) and their native Canada (peaking at number six on the
RPM albums chart). Tim Bachman left the band in early 1974 shortly after the release of
Bachman–Turner Overdrive II. BTO continued a very busy tour schedule and during the supporting tour for
BTO II, Tim was replaced by
Blair Thornton. and
album-oriented rock favourite "
Roll on Down the Highway" (number 14
Billboard, number four
RPM).
Not Fragile remains BTO's top-selling noncompilation album, selling over eight million copies to date. In 1975, the band engaged in highly successful tours of Europe and the US, wherein BTO was supported by
Thin Lizzy, an emerging band also on the Mercury Records label. Said Randy, "Lizzy were just opening in England, but our label wanted to bust them in the rest of Europe and break them wide open in the States, so we toured with
Phil and the boys for seven or eight months." The first BTO compilation album,
Best of B.T.O. (So Far) released in July 1976, featured songs from each of the band's first five studio albums. A single, a re-release of "Gimme Your Money Please", was put out from this album, and it also charted well, keeping BTO on both the AM and FM airwaves. Although peaking at only number 19 on the charts, this compilation album became the best-selling BTO album to date, reaching double platinum status in the US.
Randy's departure and the new "BTO" 1977–1979 , Sweden, April 1991 L-R: Randy Bachman, Fred Turner, Blair Thornton, Robbie Bachman
Freeways, BTO's sixth studio album that was recorded in late 1976 and released in February 1977, signaled the end of BTO's most successful line-up. Facing some criticism for the "sameness" of the band's songs on the two follow-up albums to
Not Fragile, Randy Bachman wanted to update BTO's sound, including adding horns and strings on some songs, but the rest of the band seemed to disagree. Said Fred Turner: Years later, Randy seemed to agree with Turner, stating, "Looking at it now, we should have taken four, five, six months off ... live a little, and then come back together with new ideas. In retrospect, that's what a lot of great bands do. And we didn't." BTO played this song on
American Bandstand in February 1979 (with producer Vallance guesting on piano), along with another single from the same album called "
Jamaica". Fred Turner and Jim Clench also appeared on Bryan Adams's debut album in 1980 as session musicians. (Adams had written one song, "Wastin' Time", for BTO's ''Rock n' Roll Nights'' album; Adams' own version of the song appeared a year later on his debut album.)
Disbandment, side projects, and reunions 1979–1991 BTO completed a relatively successful 80-date tour for
Street Action through late 1978, but only one show for ''Rock n' Roll Nights'' was played, at
Victoria Memorial Arena in
Victoria, BC, on April 7, 1979, Replied brother Robbie, "Randy Murray doesn't fill anyone's shoes. He brings his own." In 2003, the
Canadian Music Hall of Fame voted to induct Bachman–Turner Overdrive into the museum. The band would have had to play as the
Not Fragile line-up, however, meaning the inclusion of Randy Bachman to the band for that performance. The current version of BTO at the time declined the invitation unless they could be inducted as "BTO" without Randy Bachman playing on stage. The hall refused and the band was not inducted. (The "classic" line-up of Randy Bachman, Fred Turner, Blair Thornton, and Robbie Bachman was eventually inducted - by astronaut
Chris Hadfield - in 2014.) In an interview in 2004, Rob Bachman had stated that BTO was working on 9 or 10 new songs. Numerous sources reported that the band could not get a good label to release the project and wanted this album to be distributed and publicized well, unlike what happened to the
Trial by Fire CD. A plan had been made to release a live DVD/CD from a show in 2003 in their hometown of Winnipeg, but thus far this has not happened.
Hiatus 2005–2009 After the 2005 disbandment of the band, several of their albums were reissued. The first one to be made available again after the disbandment was
Freeways in 2005, followed by
Bachman–Turner Overdrive II in 2006 and
Four Wheel Drive in 2008.
Brave Belt I and
Brave Belt II were re-released on a single CD March 17, 2009. Although Rob and Blair remained very reticent about BTO since late 2004, Rob had been rumoured to state he no longer wished to play in the band and had hung up his drum sticks. On January 10, 2023, Robbie Bachman died at age 69. On September 12, 2009, the
Winnipeg Free Press had already reported that Randy Bachman and C.F. Turner would reunite to play concert dates in Europe, Canada, and the US in 2010 backed by Randy's current band of Marc LaFrance, Mick Dalla-Vee, and Brent Howard, billed simply as Bachman and Turner. Some early confirmed tour dates announced were June 2010 at the Sweden Rock Festival and the High Voltage Festival in July 2010 at London UK; the story added that also interest arose from agents as far away as South America and Australia. Bachman and Turner's tour and album plans resulted in a lawsuit by Rob Bachman and Blair Thornton regarding ownership of the band name and related trademarks. Rob Bachman and Blair Thornton claim that US and Canadian rights in the BTO name and trademark were transferred to Rob Bachman, Blair Thornton, and Fred Turner when Randy Bachman commenced a solo career in 1977. Randy Bachman is said to have registered the names "Bachman-Turner", "BTU", "Bachman-Turner United", and "Bachman-Turner Union" in both the United States and Canada. These names are said to cause confusion with the names "Bachman-Turner Overdrive" and "BTO", resulting in potential damages to Rob Bachman and Blair Thornton. There appeared to be general legal agreement that one could perform under one's own legal names such as "Bachman and Turner", so the newly reunited pair were billed as such for the 2010 tour and album. The band played the halftime show at the 2010
Grey Cup in Edmonton. The rock duo's self-titled album,
Bachman & Turner, was released September 7, 2010, in North America and on September 20, 2010, in Europe. In November 2010, they performed at the famous Roseland Ballroom in New York City as part of their North American tour. A double live album,
Live at the Roseland Ballroom, NYC, was recorded at that show, which was also filmed and released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2012. Capitalizing on the recent Bachman and Turner album and supporting shows, BTO released another compilation set in 2013,
Bachman–Turner Overdrive: 40th Anniversary, with 26 songs on two CDs. Much of the collection had been released before, but the four previously unreleased songs included "Rough Ride" from the 1984
BTO reunion album sessions and "West Coast Turnaround" from the 1975
Head On sessions. The CD set also features one Brave Belt song ("Never Comin' Home") and eight songs on disc two are from the long out-of-print
B.T.O. Live – Japan Tour album from 1976. Disc two also adds live versions of "Blue Collar" and "Give It Time", recorded at the same Japan concerts, but not released on the LP edition.
Band member deaths On November 3, 2010, Jim Clench died at age 61 in a Montreal hospital after a battle with stage-four lung cancer. Robbie Bachman died on January 12, 2023, aged 69. Less than four months later, on April 28, 2023, Tim Bachman died at age 71 after battling cancer. ==Impact and influence==