Saturday, December 31, 2022

Phil Nee Interviews Randy Bachman

2022 draws to a close with one last interview by Phil Nee, who has graced this column nearly every Saturday this past year, sharing conversations from his archives of nearly forty years with WRCO Radio in Wisconsin.

We want to thank him again for allowing us to relive so many of these memories every week in Forgotten Hits.

And, appropriately enough, after kicking off our 2022 Series with Phil's interview of Burton Cummings, it only seemed fitting to close things down with his interview with Randy Bachman!

Together, these two became the foundation of The Guess Who's biggest hits, 1969 - 1970, writing songs like "These Eyes," "American Woman,""Laughing," "No Time" and several others.  Randy would go on to more success with Bachman-Turner Overdrive ... while Burton would enjoy a successful solo career.  (The two reunited last year for a special concert celebrating Manitoba's 150th anniversary ... and did a brief series of shows in Canada.  Unfortunately, the US leg of the tour was cancelled due to Covid restrictions.)

While we've seen Burton Cummings perform numerous times over the years (and have been to a couple of other Guess Who reunion shows), we have only seen Randy Bachman's solo show once ... but it really was quite amazing.  He is an incredibly talented songwriter and musician.

So, Phil ... run us thru the paces once last time for 2022!!!  (kk) 

It has been an honor to be included in Kent's Forgotten Hits this past year.  It was fun digging through the archives to find favorite moments from 36 plus years of my Those Were the Days radio show.  
 
This will be my last post ... however, we do take requests.  Just ask Kent to get in
touch with me if you are wondering about an artist or group that may have appeared on our airwaves.  Although it has been a year of interview highlights, we barely scratched the surface of my collection.

The first Those Were the Days / Forgotten Hits interview post happened on
December 30th of last year when we featured highlights of an interview
with Burton Cummings.  Today we have moments from a talk with Burton's
former band mate,  Randy Bachman.  
 
Randy joined me in 2002 and we talked about a recent release at that time called 'This Time Long Ago,' which was a compilation cd of early Guess Who tracks.
 
 
It was a great talk with Randy Bachman.  He has long been a favorite of mine.  He was very generous with his time and I was able to ask him many questions.  Randy provided great insight into his songwriting.
 
 
The Guess Who made the Billboard chart 21 times between 1965 and 1975. 
Randy Bachman was around for 'Shakin All Over' in 1965 through 'American
Woman / No Sugar Tonight' in 1970.  
 
I asked Randy about some Guess Who faves.
 
 
Bachman-Turner Overdrive charted 12 times in Billboard.  'Let It Ride' hit American radio in early 1974, followed by Takin' Care Of Business,' which went on to become a classic rock staple. There is quite the backstory to Takin' Care Of Business.
 
 
Bachman-Turner Overdrive was originally known as Brave Belt. When they
moved from a country/rock sound to more of hard driving style, they hit
it big and even accomplished a number one record in the States (You Ain't
Seen Nothin' Yet.)
 
During our 2002 interview, Randy Bachman talked with me about the legacy of BTO.