All of the JUNO awards have been handed out. Congrats to big winners Arcade Fire, Serena
Ryder plus Tegan and Sara. It’s a good
thing Justin Bieber wasn’t in Winnipeg to personally accept his JUNO Fan Choice
Award or he would have heard that loud chorus of ‘boos’ coming from the prairie
crowd.
If you were watching the telecast, you saw Canadian
astronaut Chris Hadfield introduce Bachman-Turner Overdrive into the Canadian
Music Hall of Fame this year. So, in
honour of BTO’s honour, this week’s quiz is all about the Winnipeg band. Pretty simple really, so let’s start ‘takin’
care of business’.
QUESTIONS
1. Prior to
Bachman-Turner Overdrive but after The Guess Who, Randy Bachman formed another
band that eventually morphed into BTO.
What was the name of this band?
Was it: a. Brown Belt b. Brave Belt
c. Black Belt d. Belt Up
2. Randy Bachman sang
lead vocals on BTO’s 1974 # 1 hit, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”. On one of his early takes, Randy stuttered
during the choruses. He’d planned to
send a copy of this version to his brother who stuttered and later re-record the
vocals without stuttering. What is the
name of Randy’s brother who stuttered?
a. Robbie b. Joe c. Gary
d. Tim
3. During the late
night recording session in Seattle for “Takin’ Care of Business”, there was a
delivery person who brought in food for a session in another studio. He popped into Randy’s session and heard
“Takin’ Care of Business”. The delivery
guy said the song needed a piano. Randy
said ‘OK, go ahead and play it.’ The guy
wrote the chord changes down, walked into the studio, played his piano part in
ONE take, then left and that became the hit version. What fast food was the piano playing delivery
man delivering? Was it: a. Chinese food b. Chicken Wings c. Hamburgers d. Pizza
4. Before BTO, there
was The Guess Who. And before The Guess
Who, they went by several names. Which
of the following names did they use? a. Al and the Silvertones b.
Chad Allan and the Reflections c. Chad
Allan and the Expressions d. all of them
5. In the world of
rock management, this man is a bona-fide legend. His company is based in Vancouver and besides
BTO, he’s also managed Bryan Adams, Anne Murray and Michael Buble. Randy Bachman thanked him during his JUNO
Hall of Fame acceptance speech and he was shown on camera sitting in the
audience. So who is he? Is he:
a. Sam Feldman b. Red
Robinson c. Bruce Allen d. Dan Plouffe
ANSWERS
1. The answer is b. Brave
Belt, which initially featured Randy’s brother Robbie as well as former Guess
Who lead singer Chad Allan. Chad stayed
for the debut album, “Brave Belt I” but left soon after. Fred Turner had been brought in to play bass
on tour and took over vocals for the “Brave Belt II” album and Randy’s brother
Tim Bachman was added as a second guitarist.
Manager Bruce Allen convinced Randy to change the name of the band and
they settled on Bachman-Turner Overdrive (the Overdrive came from the title of
a trucker’s magazine). I think you can
guess where the Bachman and Turner part came from.
2. c. Gary is the
correct answer. When Randy later tried
to re-do the vocal for “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” without stuttering, it
didn’t work at all, so he left it alone.
A Mercury Records executive heard the original stuttering version and told
the band that they had to include it on their album “Not Fragile” as it was
definitely a hit. Randy reluctantly
agreed. Later, when the executive wanted
to release the song as a single, Bachman initially refused, but eventually
agreed. The song went to # 1 on Billboards’
Hot 100 chart in November of 1974.
Ironically, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” knocked off Stevie Wonders # 1,
“You Haven’t Done Nothin’”. The BTO song
also went to # 1 in Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark and South Africa.
3. It was d. pizza. The delivery guy was actually a trained
musician moonlighting as a pizza delivery guy to make money. His name is Norman Durkee and he went on to
become musical director for Bette Midler and Barry Manilow. In order to pay him for the session, Randy
had to call around to various pizza places until he found the guy who delivered
the pizza that night. In 2011, “Takin’
Care of Business” was the most licensed song in Sony Music’s catalogue. It was used as a theme song for several years
in commercials for Office Depot, OfficeMax and K-Mart. The title came from Vancouver radio DJ Daryl
B. who regularly used to say “‘We’re takin’ care of business.” Randy Bachman was listening one night and
thought that would make a great title for a song.
4. The correct answer
is d. all of them. The band started out
as Al and the Silvertones, then became Chad Allan and The Reflections by
1962. By the time they recorded “Shakin’
All Over” in 1965, they’d become Chad Allan and The Expressions, because there
was an American group called The Reflections who had a hit called “(Just Like)
Romeo and Julier”. Chad Allan and The Expressions record company, Quality
Records, thought the group sounded British on “Shakin’ All Over” (It had
previously been a hit in England for Johnny Kidd and the Pirates), so they sent
out white labeled 45 singles with the name ‘Guess Who?” on them. That name stuck.
5. c. Bruce Allen is
the name we were looking for. Bruce has
had (and continues to have) an illustrious career, managing major Canadian
performers. In 1985, he co-ordinated (and wrangled) many Canadian stars into
recording “Tears Are Not Enough” for African famine relief. That same year, industry magazines The Record
and Billboard (in the U.S.) named Bruce ‘Manager of the Year’. In 2008, he was only the second Canadian
manager to receive the ‘Honour Role’ award from the Music Managers Forum in
Canada. His client list includes veteran
singer/songwriter Jann Arden as well as Bryan Adams, Anne Murray, Michael Buble
and producer Bob Rock. Bruce has a
reputation for ‘telling it like it is’ and ‘shooting from the lip’ and for over
16 years, Bruce has made his opinions known on various radio stations in
Vancouver. Currently he can be heard on
News/Talk AM980, CKNW.
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