Early years Cummings was born and raised in
Winnipeg by his mother and maternal grandparents, after his father left the family during his infancy. He attended
St. John's High School but dropped out at age 17 to pursue a career in music. The school granted him an honorary diploma in 2010. In 1964 Cummings joined local R&B band the Deverons (not to be confused with an American group called the Devrons) on piano and vocals. The Deverons released two singles locally in Winnipeg. In early 1966, shortly after his 18th birthday, Cummings joined another regionally successful band, Chad Allan & The Expressions, to replace departed keyboardist Bob Ashley. Cummings also took on lead vocal duties in conjunction with group leader
Chad Allan. This group had been subjected to a record company publicity stunt in which their 1965 hit single "
Shakin' All Over" was released anonymously with the message "Guess Who?" to trick listeners into thinking it was by a famous
British Invasion band.
With the Guess Who A few months after Cummings joined Chad Allan & the Expressions, Allan left his namesake band, leaving Cummings as the sole singer. The band's name was changed to simply
the Guess Who, with Cummings becoming one of the band's primary songwriters in conjunction with guitarist
Randy Bachman. Their first album under this name was ''
It's Time'' in the summer of 1966. The band became internationally successful upon the release of their album
American Woman in 1970, which reached the top ten in several countries and made the Guess Who the first Canadian band to achieve a number one single in the United States. Bachman then left the Guess Who, and Cummings continued to lead the band through several more internationally successful albums. Cummings and drummer
Garry Peterson were the only consistent members of the band during this era. Cummings disbanded the Guess Who in 1975 due to songwriting disagreements with guitarist
Dominic Troiano. The single "
Stand Tall" was an international hit and sold more than one million copies in the United States. In 1977, he was presented with a
Juno Award as best male vocalist. Also in 1977, he provided backing vocals for the
Eric Carmen album
Boats Against the Current, and released his second solo album
My Own Way to Rock. accepting his
Juno award for
Male Vocalist of the Year. Stood behind him are
Gordon Lightfoot and
Liona Boyd His 1978 album,
Dream of a Child, sold more than 300,000 copies in Canada, making it one of the country's highest-selling albums up to that point. Due to a dispute with his record label, his 1980 album
Woman Love was not released in the United States but was another substantial hit in Canada that earned Cummings another Juno Award. The 1981 album
Sweet Sweet was much less successful. Cummings joined a short reunion tour of the classic Guess Who lineup in 1983, which resulted in the live album
Together Again! (known as
The Best of The Guess Who - Live! in the United States). The solo albums
Heart (1984) and
Plus Signs (1990) were moderately successful in Canada. Cummings then convened another reunion of The Guess Who for an extensive nostalgia tour from 2000 to 2003. In July 2003 the group performed before an estimated audience of 450,000 at the
Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto SARS benefit concert. The show was the largest outdoor ticketed event in Canadian history. , 2008 In 2004 Cummings released the one-off single "
With God on Our Side", a Bob Dylan cover, which reached no. 29 on the Canadian singles chart. In 2006, Cummings and Randy Bachman started a new duo project backed by the Canadian rock band
The Carpet Frogs, but were unable to use the name The Guess Who, which had been trademarked by bassist
Jim Kale. The project became known as the Bachman-Cummings Band or simply Bachman-Cummings, and performs occasionally whenever both men are available. They released the covers album
Jukebox in 2007 and most recently performed live in 2020. The Carpet Frogs have also served as Cummings's solo band. In 2008, Cummings released his first all-new solo album in 18 years,
Above the Ground. In 2017 he released a book of poetry titled
The Writings of B. L. Cummings. He returned to solo performances in 2019, with shows featuring cover songs and original songs from throughout his career with The Guess Who and as a solo artist. His latest album,
A Few Good Moments, was released on September 26, 2024. In 2025 Cummings announced his "A Few Good Moments" tour would perform at 22 locations in Canada and the United States, including
Line Spike 2025 in
Harrowsmith, Ontario. == Awards ==