Predecessor groups (1958–1965) In 1958, Winnipeg singer and guitarist
Chad Allan formed a local rock band called Al and the Silvertones. After several lineup changes, the band stabilized in 1962 under the name
Chad Allan and the Reflections, which included Allan and keyboardist Bob Ashley, plus future Guess Who mainstays
Randy Bachman on guitar,
Jim Kale on bass, and
Garry Peterson on drums. They then signed with Quality Records and released several singles in 1963–1964, which gained some regional notice around Winnipeg but made little impact in the rest of Canada. One single was credited, perhaps mistakenly, to Bob Ashley and the Reflections. After an American group called
the Reflections released the 1964 hit single "
(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet", the group changed its name to
Chad Allan and the Expressions. Under this new name, they released the
garage rock album ''
Shakin' All Over'' in January 1965. That album's single, "
Shakin' All Over", earlier recorded by
Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, was the band's first major hit, reaching no. 1 in Canada, no. 22 in the United States, and no. 27 in Australia. Their Canadian label, Quality Records, disguised the single by crediting it to
Guess Who?, as a publicity stunt to generate speculation that it was by a more famous
British Invasion band working incognito. After Quality Records revealed the band to be Chad Allan and the Expressions, disc jockeys continued to announce the group as Guess Who?, effectively forcing the band to accept the new name. They released their second album,
Hey Ho (What You Do to Me!) in late 1965; it was credited to Chad Allan and the Expressions with "Guess Who?" displayed prominently on the cover.
Early years (1965–1968) Keyboardist Bob Ashley left the band in January 1966 because of the rigors of touring. He was replaced by 18-year-old
Burton Cummings (formerly of Winnipeg group the Deverons) who also took on lead vocal duties in conjunction with Chad Allan as the band formally renamed itself as the Guess Who? (The question mark would be dropped later.) Just a few months later, Allan departed; he returned to college and then became a media personality with the
CBC. This left Cummings as the sole lead singer. After Allan's departure in 1966, guitarist Bruce Decker, a former bandmate of Cummings in the Deverons, joined for a few months. The first album under the Guess Who name, ''
It's Time'', was released in 1966, with Cummings on vocals and keyboards, Bachman on guitar, Kale on bass, and Peterson on drums. Decker, despite being pictured on the cover of the album, did not participate in the recording. Conversely, some contributions by Allan (recorded before he left the group) can be heard on the album, though he is not credited or pictured on the album cover. Many of the songs were written by Randy Bachman. The Guess Who continued to release singles that were moderately successful in Canada, and "
His Girl" entered the UK charts in 1967. The band travelled to the United Kingdom to promote the single, but this was a financial mistake as the song quickly dropped off the charts. They were unable to book shows or obtain work visas while in the UK, and returned to Canada heavily in debt. Later in 1967, the Guess Who were hired as the house band for the
CBC Radio show
The Swingers, and as the house band for the
CBC Television program ''Let's Go'', which was hosted by their former bandmate Chad Allan. They initially performed hit singles by other artists, but the CBC producers encouraged them to develop more of their own music as well. This gave the Guess Who greater exposure in Canada and financial stability for the next two years. After seeing the Guess Who on ''Let's Go
, record producer and sales executive Jack Richardson contacted the band about participating in an advertising project for Coca-Cola. This project became a split album titled A Wild Pair'' with
Ottawa band the Staccatos (themselves soon to renamed
Five Man Electrical Band). The album could be purchased only by mail-order from Coca-Cola. and they were managed during that entire period by Don Hunter.
American Woman era (1968–1970) Richardson signed the Guess Who to his Nimbus 9 label and production company, and personally financed the recording of a new album in late 1968. The band was also signed to
RCA for distribution outside of Canada. The Guess Who transitioned to a more mature
pop-rock sound with
soul and
jazz influences. Their second studio album
Wheatfield Soul was released in early 1969 and achieved success in both Canada and the United States. The single "
These Eyes" reached the top ten in the United States and became a
gold record with sales of more than one million copies.
Wheatfield Soul would prove to be a breakthrough not only for The Guess Who, but for Canadian music in general in the United States, and within a year, multiple Canadian acts had broken through to chart in the United States, where American and British acts had up until then dominated the charts. The follow-up album
Canned Wheat was released in September 1969 and featured the double-sided hit singles "
Laughing" and "
Undun". For their third studio album, the band adopted more
hard-rock influences.
American Woman was released in January 1970 and became a
Billboard Top 10 hit. It was their first album to top the Canadian albums chart, and their first to reach the top ten on the American
Billboard album chart. The
title track, written by Bachman and Cummings (although all four original members are credited), reached number 1 in both countries, and was also a substantial hit in the United Kingdom. This made the Guess Who the first Canadian band to achieve a chart-topping single in the United States during
Billboard's
Hot 100 era (Canadian doo-wop group
The Crew Cuts had a number one single in 1954 before the Hot 100 was instituted). "
No Time" and "
No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" also reached high on the singles charts in both Canada and the United States.
Continued success (1970–1974) While
American Woman became a success in the early months of 1970, Bachman recorded an all-instrumental solo album titled
Axe with Peterson on drums. The Guess Who began recording a follow-up to
American Woman, completing seven tracks (which were withheld and not released until 1976 under the title
The Way They Were.) Bachman took a break from touring with the Guess Who due to illness, with American guitarist Bobby Sabellico filling in temporarily. Bachman played a final show with the band and exited the band in May 1970; his relations with Cummings had deteriorated and his recent conversion to
Mormonism caused dissatisfaction with the band's rock 'n' roll lifestyle. Bachman later formed the successful hard-rock band
Bachman–Turner Overdrive, which remains active into the 2020s. Indicating a move into more intricate arrangements and vocal harmonies, while shooting for
album rock radio, the Guess Who replaced Bachman with two guitarists from the Winnipeg rock scene:
Kurt Winter from the band
Brother, and
Greg Leskiw from the band Wild Rice. Winter brought some songs from his previous band and became one of the Guess Who's primary songwriters. The expanded lineup quickly recorded the album
Share the Land, which was released in late 1970 and became another substantial hit in both Canada and the United States. Songs from the albums
Wheatfield Soul through
Share the Land were compiled for the album
The Best of The Guess Who, which became another successful release in both countries in 1971. The band's commercial fortunes and chart performance then declined in the United States, perhaps due to an inability to be taken seriously by the fans of album rock radio, though they remained very successful in their native Canada. They released the albums
So Long, Bannatyne in mid-1971, and ''
Rockin' in early 1972. Both albums displayed more progressive and experimental elements. Shortly after the release of Rockin''', Leskiw suddenly left the band in the middle of a US tour. Leskiw was replaced on short notice by guitarist/singer Donnie McDougall, a veteran of the Winnipeg rock scene who had most recently played with the
Vancouver-based
Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck. With McDougall on board, the band recorded the album
Live at the Paramount at the
Paramount Theatre in
Seattle in May 1972; it was released in August and included some songs that had not appeared on previous studio albums. Just two months after McDougall joined the Guess Who in 1972, founding bassist
Jim Kale was dismissed from the band; he then joined Vancouver band
Scrubbaloe Caine who released one album and achieved some Canadian hit singles in the mid-1970s. Kale subsequently formed and played with the Jim Kale Band, followed by the Ripple Brothers, before falling on hard times later in the decade. The Guess Who replaced Kale with Bill Wallace, who had played with Kurt Winter in their early Winnipeg band
Brother. This lineup released the albums
Artificial Paradise in early 1973,
#10 in late 1973 (the title of which represented their number of original albums up to that point), and
Road Food in early 1974.
Road Food included the single "
Clap for the Wolfman", which was a hit in both Canada and the United States, and the band's first top ten American single since 1970. The novelty song was a tribute to disc jockey
Wolfman Jack, who lent his voice to the recording.
Breakup of the Guess Who (1974–1975) For undisclosed reasons, guitarists Winter and McDougall were dismissed from the band in June 1974. and had also served briefly with
James Gang. Having grown up in
Toronto, Troiano was the first member of The Guess Who not to hail from Winnipeg. He had also collaborated with an earlier version of the Guess Who on an aborted movie soundtrack in 1970 and had played on Bachman's album
Axe that year. The lineup of Cummings, Troiano, Wallace, and Peterson released the albums
Flavours in late 1974 and
Power in the Music in mid-1975. Due to Troiano's songwriting influence, these albums moved toward
jazz rock; Cummings was unhappy with the stylistic change and the group disbanded in October 1975. Cummings then embarked on a lengthy solo career. Troiano also enjoyed a solo career until his death in 2005. Gary Peterson teamed with Toronto singer and ex-Domenic Troiano associate Roy Kenner and Bobby Sabellico in an R&B band, Delphia, in 1979. The group went unsigned and left no recordings. Peterson then worked as a night clerk in his father-in-law's hotel and as an insurance salesman to make ends meet before eventually making his way back to music. He played drums in the backup band accompanying Cummings from 1979 through 1983, followed by
Bachman-Turner Overdrive from 1984 through 1986. == Post-breakup activities and classic lineup reunions ==