Burton Cummings - Part Three

We wrap up our interview with Burton Cummings today in Forgotten Hits.  Remember you can catch him at The Arcada Theatre on Friday, September 27th.  (Link below for more ticket information)  And be sure to check out his website for all the latest Burton Cummings news.  

Click here: Burton Cummings   

(photo by Brad Joblin)

KENT KOTAL / FORGOTTEN HITS:  To go back to a point you made earlier, I've always thought, as a listener, that the "Jukebox" CD you did with Randy Bachman must have been what it was like for you guys way back when, when you were just learning how to work together at your craft, sharing your different musical tastes with one another ... he'd show you something he liked and then you'd turn around and shoot one back at him ... a whole evolution process, if you will, as you learned to write songs together.  The songs on the "Jukebox" CD would almost seem to me to be the kind of stuff you used to play to each other as you were learning your craft.  
BURTON CUMMINGS:  Yeah, the "Jukebox" CD ... that's a VERY good example ... the "Jukebox" CD was TREMENDOUS fun for us.  He picked things he liked and I picked things that I liked and there was no pressure for song writing ... there was no pressure on creating.  All we did was do our own version ... kind of put our stamp on those old songs.  He did a GREAT job on The Beatles and "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You", almost a jazzy ... almost like a different song ... and I think that we did a really cool job of "Judy In Disguise" ... instead of the horn line that John Fred and the Playboy Band did, we did all those horn lines with guitars.  And I loved singing the Sam Cooke song and I loved doing the Edwin Starr "Double-O-Soul" song.  We had a lot of fun doing that, man ... that was REALLY fun doing that album. 

kk:  My favorite song on there is the Cliff Richard song ... which I'd never heard before.  That song wasn't a hit here in America so I discovered that song through YOU, not through the original Cliff Richard recording.  
BC:  Oh, "Don't Talk To Him", yeah ... you know, I think fanwise ... I have a bunch of fans that follow me online, they're called "The Faithful", and I think that was voted the favorite song on "Jukebox" ... everybody LOVED the Cliff Richard song.

kk:  And it was NEW to me which goes back to the point you were making earlier about still discovering new music today at this age ... I discovered that song ... even though technically it's 45 year old music ... I first discovered that track through YOU GUYS, not through Cliff Richard, 'cause that didn't get played here when that song was out and was a hit.  
BC:  Yeah, that was a pretty well-played thing in Winnipeg.  We were very fortunate in Winnipeg in that we got to hear some of the British stuff that Americans didn't get to hear ... some Georgie Fame and some Gerry and the Pacemakers that really didn't get off the ground in the States ... Billy J. Kramer was another one.  The British Invasion was very, very extensive in Canada, I guess probably because we were part of the Commonwealth.  and Canadian Capitol Records, they had just about everybody ... from The Beatles and Dave Clark on down ... Hollies, Animals, Ciff Richard and the Shadows ... EVERYTHING was on Capitol.  It was a very cool time in Canada.  We took that British Invasion square in the face.  

kk:  That's actually what we're covering right now on The Forgotten Hits Website ... we're doing a whole series on the hundred biggest hits of the British Invasion ... and the response is just phenomenal ... it's just amazing how many people relate to this part of their lives.  
BC:  Oh, I imagine it would be ... and The Beatles would score VERY heavy in there ... Wow!  What would be the #1 Song of the British Invasion?  My God!  Well, you know what, "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" would have to be right up there near the top.

kk: That's a GREAT song.  
BC:  Although they didn't have a string of records, Procol Harum, but "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" was as big as any Beatles record.  And I remember when that it, it was #1 forever.  That was a big, big record. 
I think The Beatles would be right up there ... I think "A Hard Day's Night" would have to be one of them ... that record hit like a ton of bricks.  "A Hard Day's Night" and "Can't Buy Me Love" ... those two hard rockers, they hit like a ton of bricks in the '60's.   

kk:  OK, well here, that's a good segue into this next question ... I was BLOWN AWAY by the fact that The Guess Who never really had a major hit record in England.  How the heck can that be?!?!  Seriously, what's the deal with that???  Like most bands of the day, The Guess Who were heavily influenced by the sounds coming out of England at that time.  Untold THOUSANDS of kids picked up a guitar or a bass or a drum kit ... (or, in your case, a piano!) ... searching for rock and roll success ... and you guys were no different.  How is it even REMOTELY possible that The Guess Who had exactly ONE Top 40 Hit in Great Britain?  And that one ... "American Woman" ... only peaked at #19. BC:  No, not so much.  "American Woman" did okay but RCA in England never really worked that hard on us.  I actually did better with CBS with "My Own Way To Rock" many years later.  But we didn't really happen that much in England.  I don't know why.  It's just one of those things.  I mean there's a lot of Canadian acts that are HUGE in Canada that never had any success in the States.  Sometimes I guess it just doesn't translate well across borders ... I don't know ... we were pretty lucky.  We had a lot of success in Australia, too.  But as I look back, I think we were pretty lucky, especially considering where we came from, which was this little dot on the map in the middle of snow!   

kk:  Did you guys ever tour England in the day?  
BC:  We did a promotional tour in 1970 ... it was just very brief ... very, very brief ... we were only there about five or six days ... nah, never really worked on it much.  We were too busy touring the States!  We toured the States ENDLESSLY!    

kk:  And I would go see The Guess Who faithfully when you guys would come to Chicago ... and, of course, a lot of the solo shows, too, when "Stand Tall" became a hit. 
BC:  I remember The Arie Crown ... The Arie Crown was always a favorite place to play.  And we played a lot in Texas.  We played a lot in El Paso ... and then we would go across and drink tequila in Juarez ... I'll tell you one thing, man, you wouldn't be doin' that today!  It's not the same as it was in 1970!  Look at that, 43 years later ... it's not the same!  We used to cross the border regularly and drink tequila till five in the morning and sometimes I'd even shoot the worm ... but we wouldn't be doin' that now!  I can tell you that!  (lol)  Times have changed!  
kk:  (Laughing)  Hey, you don't have to tell me ... I watch that TV show "The Bridge"!  You go across the border today and you may not be coming back!  

kk:  We can't do an interview like this and not bring up this question so please, grit your teeth and bare with me one more time.  
It is no secret that it has been a real point of contention for you that, as the driving force and focal point of The Guess Who, you do not have the legal rights to use the name ... that it is instead owned by the former drummer and bass player whose names 99.9% of the world, with all the money on the line, couldn't come up with on a "phone a friend" segment of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire".  
In 25 Swear Words Or Less, tell us a little more about this situation so that the fans out there can better understand why even when you and Randy Bachman have appeared together, you cannot use "The Guess Who" name.

BC:  At this point I honestly don't know who owns it overall … maybe Kale and Peterson, maybe more … I don't know for sure. To me personally, it's a shame that now sometimes there are five people on stage calling themselves "The Guess Who" and once or twice, not one of the five was on any of the records. I guess it's like "The Platters" or "The Temptations". You can go and see these acts but it's not the people who made the records. To me it always seemed like owning a McDonald's franchise or a Dairy Queen … nothing to do with the magic of the records … the true followers know who made the recordings … and the recordings will live forever.   

BEGIN SOAPBOX MOMENT:  
Here's my take on this whole Guess Who thing ...
What seems to bother Burton the most is the fact that you've got this "fake band" running around, using the real records to draw people into the concerts.  Simply put, it's misleading and deceptive to the fans.  Of course the REAL fans know better 'cause they've been around it and have heard all the stories ... but the casual fan who sees or hears this ad and thinks, "Hey, that's a show I might like to see ... The Guess Who had a lot of great hits" is potentially going to buy a ticket to that concert and not get to see the people who recorded all those hits.  
Burton feels very fortunate that after he joined the band, he was the one to have written and sung EVERY hit The Guess Who ever had ... and yet this OTHER band, who have the legal right to the use of the name are using HIS voice on those records in order to sell tickets to their shows with a completely different singer who's trying his best to SOUND like Cummings ... and that's taking advantage of the fan base as well as tarnishing the memory of those great records when they're sung by somebody else, misrepresenting themselves as "The Guess Who".  
Burton mentioned SEVERAL times during our interview that he is VERY proud of the fact that he can still sing those songs and sound like the records ... all in the original keys and with all the original arrangements ... fans are constantly coming up or writing in, telling him how good he still sounds ... and, at this stage of his career, that really means a lot.

We've been over this point time and time again in Forgotten Hits ... and sadly it really has become a case of "Buyer Beware".  It's the Rock And Roll World we live in today.  SO many acts have continued on, trying to earn a living playing the music that got them there in the first place ... and we would never deny them this ... after all, in most cases, some of THESE guys were on those hit records, too ... but there needs to be a certain "honesty" in representing what you're putting up there on the stage.  Perhaps the best parallel example I can think of is Creedence Clearwater Revisited.  Now don't get me wrong ... I was one of the biggest CCR fans on the planet when these guys were out making hit records ... and there is absolutely NO doubt that the rhythm section of Doug Clifford on Drums and Stu Cook on bass contributed GREATLY to the sound and success of those records ... but the guy who wrote and sang every hit they ever had is nowhere to be found.  Instead, they're trying to mimic the sound of these records with a sound-alike singer, much the way Jim Kale and Garry Peterson are doing with their version of The Guess Who.  There's a version of The Grass Roots out touring right now without a SINGLE member of the original band ... they're just using the name.  They're faithfully recreating all of the group's biggest hits ... but they're NOT The Grass Roots!  At best, they should bill themselves as "A Tribute To The Grass Roots" and leave it at that.  You still get the same music ... the same vibe ... but without the misleading moniker.  Peter Noone, who was the voice of Herman's Hermits throughout the '60's, competes with a British version of Herman's Hermits led by their original drummer, who never sang a note and didn't play on half of their recordings in the studio!  Paul Revere INSISTS that absolutely NO original recordings can be used when promoting his upcoming concerts because he doesn't want ANYBODY buying a ticket thinking that they're going to get to see Mark Lindsay up there singing the hits that night.  In fact, he supplies the promoters and radio stations and advertisers with clips of five songs done by the current band, live in concert, to more accurately present what you're going to see and hear if you buy a ticket to their show.  And the truth is that, thanks to Paul's insistence on this matter, they're contractually obligated to do so and abide by this method of "truth in advertising".  And I'll tell you what, it's still one HELL of a show ... but he's not trying to FOOL anybody into seeing it.  (Burton may be surprised to hear that although the previously-mentioned Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna are long-time members of The Buckinghams and were there for all of the hit records, they played bass and guitar on those records and never sang a single hit.  The vocals on those hits belong to Dennis Tufano, no longer with the band and now working as a solo act.)

Now in all fairness, some of these artists have chosen to walk away from these musical institutions at some point in their careers, only to try and reclaim their rightful spot years later, by which time the remaining members who kept things going have already re-established themselves as the "current" make-up of the band and, in many cases, built a new and loyal following in the process.  The recent "Truth In Music" laws require that at least ONE original member be part of the hit group selling tickets to the public and, by this definition, groups like The Buckinghams, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Guess Who, Creedence Clearwater Revisited and Britain's version of Herman's Hermits qualify ... but as we have seen SO many times here over the years, it is always best to do your research FIRST before buying your tickets to some of these shows.  If you just want to hear the hits played well, faithfully honoring and respecting the music you love, then every one of these bands will give you your money's worth.  But if you want to see the guys who wrote and/or sang those hits, then you'll want to catch Burton Cummings, Mark Lindsay, Dennis Tufano, Peter Noone and John Fogerty ... 'cause there ain't ANYBODY out there who are going to do these songs any better!!!    
END SOAPBOX MOMENT  

kk:  Last year you released a live CD of your performance at Massey Hall, which I'm told is the equivalent of performing at America's Carnegie Hall. 

CD available here:   Click here: Amazon.com: burton cummings massey hall: Music

Clearly a number of honors have been bestowed upon you back home in Canada ... you're a member of Canada's Walk Of Fame not once, but TWICE ... as both a member of The Guess Who and as a solo artist.  What do these accolades mean to you in the scheme of things?   
BC:  After a certain point all these awards started coming my way. I'm particularly happy that my Mother lived long enough to see me inducted into the Order of Canada. That's the highest honour that Canada bestows upon a civilian.  

kk:  In addition to all of these honors bestowed on you of late, there's even a THEATER named after you in Winnipeg now!  
BC:  (Laughing) It's still a pleasure and honor to have the old Odeon Theatre named after me in my hometown of Winnipeg. It's a beautiful old building with the ghosts of decades and decades lurking in the wings.  I used to go and see movies there for years. My Mother and Dad even went to the movies there before they were married. I love seeing my name on the building, and love hearing it referred to as "the Burt"!  (laughing)

kk:  (laughing) Which begs, of course, the most obvious question ... 
With all these accolades being bestowed in your honor, there still seems to be one TREMENDOUS oversight in the music world that truly is nothing short of unjust and unthinkable in light of the music you guys created.  For the past two decades we have campaigned for The Guess Who to be inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.  It is a COMPLETE injustice that this hasn't happened yet.  What would this mean to you at this point in your career ... or does it mean nothing at all after all this time?  That is to say, would any recognition now be diminished by the sheer stupidity of the oversight and snub for so many years?  And, if you WERE inducted now, would you feel any differently?  And finally, in light of the somewhat "strained" circumstances between some of the former members of the band, who would you bring up to accept the award and perform???  
BC:  The Hall of Fame hasn't seen fit to name the Guess Who before now, and at this point in time, the name doesn't mean what it once did. I honestly don't think I could stand up there and be inducted and then watch those "other people" go right back out on the road calling themselves "The Guess Who". What so many of us feel nowadays is that the name means very little, but the memories and the recordings are the real treasure. Remember what happened with Axl … enough said.    

kk:  Burton, we can't wait to see the show.  There are still a few seats available to see The Burton Cummings band LIVE at The Arcada Theatre (with The Zombies!!!) on Friday, September 27th. (Hey, they're ALL good seats at The Arcada!!!)  Go to www.oshows.com for more ticket information.  Great to talk with you!  

BC:  Hey, thank you, my man ... it was good talking to you ... and we'll see you at the show.

VERY special thanks to Burton Cummings, Sam Boyd and Lorne Saifer for helping us put together this AWESOME interview ... I sincerely appreciate it ... and I think we did ya proud!!!

*****

Tomorrow in Forgotten Hits ... The Guess Who / Burton Cummings Hit List!

Burton Cummings - Part Two

Former Guess Who Lead Singer Burton Cummings will be performing at The Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois, on Friday, September 27th ... and we were fortunate enough to be able to talk to Cummings last week about the show ... and life in general. 

The concert will be a music lover's dream ... the warm-up act that night will be The Zombies, one of those GREAT bands that first touched our hearts during The British Invasion. 

We pick up our conversation here ...  

KENT KOTAL / FORGOTTEN HITS:  This show at The Arcada Theatre is going to be one hell of a double bill -- Burton Cummings ... with The Zombies as the warm-up act?!?!  That's a dream come true for a music fan.  Have you ever worked with these guys before?  
BURTON CUMMINGS:  No, I'm looking forward to that.  I hear that it's still the lead singer Colin Blunstone and it's still Rod Argent, the keyboard player ... and that's enough for me ... 'cause those are the two guys that really made the sound of that band.  The Zombies were GREAT ... they were really something!  I don't know how the harmonies will be because the other guys aren't there ... and I believe one of them died ... Paul White I think is gone ... but I know that Colin Blunstone was the lead singer with the very distinguishable voice ... he had a VERY distinctive voice and Argent was the one with the great keyboard parts.  So yes, I'm looking forward to hearing them, too.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  The bass player was actually Chris White, who is still alive and well but no longer performing with the band.  It was guitarist Paul Atkinson who died a few years ago (2004).  The group has a new album out and are booked solidly for the next year, playing all over the world to rave reviews.  The current line (besides Blunstone and Argent) consists of Jim Rodford on bass guitar, Steve Rodford on drums and Tom Toomey on guitar.  You can check out their website here:  Click here: The Zombies : Official Website  

kk:  You're going to really enjoy this theater ... it's a very intimate setting and seats maybe 900 or 1000 people but it's a GREAT place to see a concert.  (More Arcada Theatre information here: Click here: Arcada Theatre | Oshows ... good seats ... hey, they're ALL good seats ... are still available!)

BC:  Hey, that's FINE with me ... I don't worry about the size of the crowd ... as long as they're into what we're doing.

kk:  Oh, you're going to have a VERY receptive crowd to this show ... my understanding is that this is a VERY hot ticket and that's one heck of a line-up.

BC:  Good, good ... that's excellent.  I just did a show with The Buckinghams ... and I don't know how many of the original guys are still with them ... I think it's two of the original singers ... but it sounded like the records and that was really cool ... that was great to hear those songs again ... so this will be a good night.

(EDITOR'S NOTE:  Forgotten Hits Readers already know that Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna are continuing on with The Buckinghams' name.  While they do faithful renditions of all of their hits ... plus numerous other hit songs from this era ... performing to a very large and loyal following ... the original lead singer of The Buckinghams was Dennis Tufano, who is now performing as a solo artist.)

BC:  And we've been playing a lot so the show will be tight.  And we do all of the famous records. I'm not trying to shove a lot of new material down people's throats ... I really don't subscribe to that ... to that way of thinking.  I've always thought that man, it's hard enough to HAVE a hit record ... why not be satisfied to sing them for the rest of your life.

kk:  Well, the fans love 'em, that's for sure ... and this music has NEVER gone out of favor ... in all these years, your stuff has NEVER been off the radio.  The Guess Who are one of those fortunate bands that still get a ton of airplay and a good chunk of your catalog is well represented on radio.  This isn't the case with many of the artists of that era ... some are lucky to get one or two of their hits played on the radio today and MOST artists don't even get that ... but The Guess Who's material still holds up very well and gets a lot of airplay ... certainly here in Chicago anyway.

BC:  Well, here's the thing ... I'm 65 now ... I'm going to be 66 in December on New Year's Eve ... and I've said this a million times in interviews and it's SO true ... every time I can go out there and still sound like the records, it's SO special to the audience ... because they've had THEIR changes in their lives, too ... they may have sometimes lost a child or lost a partner or they've moved or been divorced or something joyous has come along ... we've all been through so many changes ... and EVERYBODY's life changes in a year ... every year when I go out and sing these songs one more time it is that much more special because the fans are growing older with me and their lives are longer and it just makes it more special.  Every year I find younger people in the audience again ... people that weren't born until LONG after these records were cut, and they're mouthing every word when I'm singing ... and that's really VERY flattering to me because I WROTE most of the stuff, ya know!  I know classic radio has been very kind to me and to my songs and my voice ... I mean, I hear the stuff all the time.

kk:  The concert line-up of The Zombies and Burton Cummings is one heck of a double-bill ... but we've also seen some odd pairings in the past.  A couple of years ago we went to a show that featured America and Jethro Tull ... two acts that would seem to be at opposite ends of the musical spectrum.  But I'll never forget one of the STRANGEST pairings I've ever seen ... and that was seeing a show that YOU did back in the day during the early solo years where Burton Cummings opened up for Alice Cooper!!!  How weird did THAT have to be for you?  (Especially after the whole "Glamour Boy" thing!!!)

(EDITOR'S NOTE:  "Glamour Boy", while not a big hit here in The States, was a #11 Hit back home in Canada.  In it, Burton takes a musical swipe at some of the Glam-Rock / Theater Rock that was going on at the time ... more specifically artists like David Bowie, The New York Dolls and ... well ... Alice Cooper ... although never actually mentioning ANY of them by name.)

BC:  Opening for Alice Cooper was an exercise in professionalism. The first few rows were always painted up like Alice, some of them carrying tomahawks and axes, and I'm out there singing "Stand Tall" … but eventually the band I had won over a lot of audiences.

kk:  As I mentioned earlier, I saw several of your solo shows in the '70's ... and "Stand Tall" still ranks as one of my all-time favorite songs.  You continued to record and release some GREAT solo albums but many of these never seemed to make it beyond the Canadian market.  US fans had to settle for a couple of "Greatest Hits" collections to get any idea as to the type of new music you were making.

  


kk:  Some of your music is completely out of print now ... we can't even get it.  I like to consider myself as having a pretty complete collection yet I'm still missing things that I would love to get my hands on.  In fact, in preparation for this interview, I just recently picked up the Live at "Massey Hall" release and the "Above The Ground" CD.  These aren't things that have been heavily promoted here in The States ... and it's apparently already too late to pick up something like "Sweet Sweet" and "Heart".  Do you have any new material coming out that we should know about?   
BC:  Well, both of these albums are currently planned to be re-mastered and re-released so hopefully they'll be available again relatively soon.  I've also got a brand new DVD series called "Ruff" ... R-U-F-F ... and Volume One is just about ready to go.  (Here it comes, folks … it'll be out in a few weeks, well ahead of Christmas.) It's even better than I'd hoped. It's volume one of what could be a dozen or so volumes. We have almost 13 years of digital video. We graduated from tape years ago, and now it's endless hard drives.  Lillian Sarafian, my videographer, has followed me with a camera for over a decade ... about the last thirteen years ... so much so, that we started calling her the "life capturer" … and capture she has … ALL this great stuff ... back stage, on the plane, on stage, off stage, in hotel rooms, in tour buses ... tremendous stuff.  From multi camera shoots at Massey Hall to the streets of New York City, to the streets of my home town of Winnipeg, to rehearsals and sound checks at the beginning of the century to a glimpse into so very personal events and places in my life. Soul is bared several times in Volume One. Pretty strong viewing in spots … pretty strong … beautifully assembled and edited by Lillian Sarafian, and all our post production audio was done at Blue Moon Studios, in Agoura Hills, California. The main sound engineer was Joe Vannelli, brother of Gino Vannelli, a fellow Canadian singer.  So, if you can imagine, now we've got thirteen years of archives, including rehearsals and sound checks ... stuff that fans never get to see.  Real "fly on the wall" stuff.  So we're putting all of that ... plus a lot of the stuff from Massey Hall, which was shot with eight cameras and edited ... together into one place.  It's called "Ruff" and volume one is coming ... it's wonderful.  We're planning a whole series of these and she's done a wonderful job and I'm kind of co-producing it with her.  

Also, my book of poetry ("The Writings of B.L. Cummings") is almost ready to go ... and that's going to have about the first fifty poems in it ... it'll be a very nice package on that.  But I have yet to make a dummy copy … run a real one and assemble it and hold it in my hand to see how it affects me. It has to be absolutely perfect. I don't take the poetry lightly. I'm not really overly concerned whether people like it or hate it, or say loudly that they "just don't get it" … don't write the poetry to impress ... I write it to make myself smile … or think. Period.

And I'm probably going to do another album with the same band.  You know, I have more than enough songs for this and I've REALLY picked the songs carefully for this so it's not like I'm scrambling to do an album ... I have MORE than enough songs so we'll see what happens.  
Right now we're focusing on the book of poetry and "Ruff" and I'm flying to Toronto tomorrow to take part in a very special thing this weekend ... it's a big march in Aide of The Women's Cancer Foundation" and the big hospital downtown ... I think it's the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in downtown Toronto has put together a very nice fund-raising event and the women ... I don't know HOW many thousands of women are marching ... ten miles or something ... and after the ten mile march, they're coming to the big center where myself, I'll be performing along with another performer ... it's a big, nice event this weekend in Toronto so I've been busy all summer.

(EDITOR'S NOTE:  The concert Burton is talking about took place on September 7th and, from what I understand, was a great success.  He performed with Johnny Reid and got great reviews ... and raised quite a bit of money for Women's Cancer Research.)

BC:  And then, of course, we're coming to your area and we're playing all around there and then a few more one-man shows including another one in Philadelphia ... so it's been a very busy time for me.  Ya know, I'm a pretty busy guy for 65!  

kk:  And all of this was probably a whole lot easier when you were 25 or 35 as opposed to 65, right?  (lol)  
BC:  It was a WHOLE lot easier when I was 21 'cause I had never even thought about running out of energy but I still love the two hours on spent stage ... it's just that the other 22 hours get a little bit tougher when you're 65.  But you know, people tell me that I still sound the same and that's the most important thing ... they're still saying I sound the same ... and as long as I hear that, I'm gonna keep going for a while.    

kk:  You really do ... I've watched a lot of the youTube clips and we've run some of these on the website ... and I've got to say that you still really look and sound great.  
BC:  We did a show with Steve Miller last year and he's over 70 ... and he's out there rockin' and there's 14 and 15 year old kids out there singing along with every word ... they could be his GRAND kids ... but they're rocking along with him ... so I see new evidence of older entertainers.  Gordon Lightfoot ... well into his 70's now ... and he's still out there.  Tony Bennett ... 900 years old and HE'S still out there ... what is he, 87 or something? ... and he still does a hundred shows a year.  So I think of myself right now as I've still got a long way to go yet.   

kk:  Seriously, who would have ever thought ... I remember when we were growing up and it was that whole "Don't trust anybody over 30" thing.  I remember back in the mid-'60's when The Beatles were all the thing and then all of a sudden Frank Sinatra had a #1 Record with "Strangers In The Night" and we all thought "What's HE doing on the charts?!?!?  He's ANCIENT!!!"  And he was like FORTY at the time!  (EDITOR'S NOTE:  Actually, he was 51)  But to us, he was ANCIENT!!!  Seriously, as a kid of 21, who EVER thought that you'd still be doing this at 65 ... and that there'd still be an audience for it!  And now you've got somebody like McCartney going out and still doing two-and-a-half and three hour shows to sell-out audiences all around the world!
BC:  Well, McCartney did The Hollywood Bowl and apparently sang 37 songs!  Holy God!!!  I do TWENTY and I'm pattin' myself on the back!  And he's got five or six years on me!  I'll tell you, it's not so much the age as keeping yourself in shape to hit the notes.  And I sing a lot at home, pick up a guitar or I'll sit at the piano and I'll sing a bunch of songs and I think that's the main thing ... I still keep doing it, ya know.  Hopefully for another long time yet!   

kk:  And it's great to hear that you're still writing, too ... still coming up with new material.  A lot of artists give up on that so it's nice to hear that you're still writing new material, too.  
BC:  Yeah, I still write songs all the time.  I don't schlep them together ... if they come together quick, that's fine and if not, I move on to something else.  I haven't change my mode of operation too much since the early days ... since the '60's and '70's ... haven't really changed the way I create songs very much at all.  It's just that the world around me has changed.  I'm still a musician first and foremost ... I still spend ungodly amounts working on my library.  I've got almost a terabyte of music now ... almost 180,000 MP3's ... so I've built a world-class library of music and I spend a LOT of time doing that. Mostly listening to classic stuff.     

kk:  So who do you listen to?  Do you mostly listen to the older stuff or do you keep up with the current trends?  
BC:  I listen to EVERYTHING, really and truly ... I just finished compiling ALL of the stuff by David Crosby from when he was with The Byrds and without The Byrds ... I still listen to a lot of Fats Domino 'cause that really inspires me ... he was a huge influence when I was first starting out ... I just found a new remastering of "The Wall" ... the entire thing with a third bonus disc ... I'm listening to a lot of classic jazz.  I just watched that AMAZING documentary on Ginger Baker called "Beware Of Mr. Baker" ... phenomenal!  And that spurred me into going out and finding EVERYTHING by Cream ... everything that Cream had ever done.  I'm listening to Stan Getz, Val Waldren, to Paul Chambers and John Coltrane and David "Fathead" Newman ... a lot of jazz stuff ... a lot of early Ray Charles, before he was a star ... I listen to everything ... absolutely everything.  Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans ... just TONS of stuff ... I really am a music junkie.   

kk:  I've heard that you're quite a Bobby Darin fan.  We once did a month-long series on Bobby for the website that picked up the endorsement of his family and his fan club ... and doing that turned ME into quite a Bobby Darin fan, too.  I discovered so many things that he did beyond the hits that I was never fully aware of.  
BC:  HUGE Bobby Darin fan ... and he left us so young ... he was only 37 and look at the legacy he left.  He made about twenty five movies and God knows how many albums ... tremendous ... tremendous piano player, tremendous writer ... I mean he really knew how to swing with an orchestra.  He was incredible   And I listen to a lot of Georgie Fame, too. I like Georgie Fame very, very much. And he's still going ... and he rocks!  So I like a lot of the survivors ... the guys who are still going and have kept it going after all this while.   

kk:  And quite honestly this depth of variety and openness to exploring different musical styles has to have influenced you as a songwriter and a performer ... your library of songs, your writing style has taken on SO many different genres over the years that, as a listener, I love the fact that you kept yourself open to so many different influences because we as listeners were able to reap the benefit from that.  
BC:  I was lucky, VERY lucky to have been able to get with a guy like Bachman ... in '66 and '67 ... before we had the hit records, we were playing each other EVERYTHING.  Randy was the first one that turned me on to Georgie Fame and I got him more than mildly interested in The Doors.  We were "ying and yang" to each other ... ya know, he was religious and he had a wife and kids already ... and I was out doing acid with the crowd ... and yet we fed each others opposites ... and I think that's why it worked so well ... for a while anyway.  We were listening to everything and between the two of us, we had such eclectic tastes ... and he turned me on to a lot of early Bo Diddley stuff and I was listening to the west coast experimental band put together by Frank Zappa and then we kept playing each other all this stuff that each other hadn't heard and it was GREAT learning with a guy like Randy and that's why our stuff has stood up, I think, because it was influenced by so many different areas.  EVERY kind of music.  I was just at Amoeba Music the other day, the one in Hollywood, which was recently, by the way, voted online as the #1 Record Store in the World ... on Planet Earth ... and I was just there the other day and I found all kinds of imports from Japan with the OBI strips still on the sleeve and I'm finding stuff there all the time that I don't have in my collection, so it's still a matter of learning for me.  Still to this day, at age 65.   

kk:  And let's face it, there aren't that many record stores left these days!  
BC:  No, there really aren't ... and that's one of the things that makes Amoeba so great, because it's really got the LA market cornered now and you can find ANYTHING there.  If it's been released, you can pretty much find it there.  It's a great place for a collector.  I know a lot of traveling musicians that come to LA only a couple of times a year and the first place they go, if they're any kind of a collector, is to Amoeba Music.  
Click here: Amoeba Music | The World's Largest Independent Record Store   

More Burton Cummings tomorrow ... EXCLUSIVELY in Forgotten Hits.

But first ... 

Just a few of the musical styles Burton Cummings has explored over the years ... 

From the hard-rocking, almost Aerosmith-sounding "Heartbroken Bopper" (a #26 Hit in 1972) ...



... to the '20's / jazzy sound of "Your Nashville Sneakers" (from the same LP, "Rockin'") ...



... to some heart-wrenching country (convincing enought that it actually charted on Billboard's Country Chart back in 1979.)

BURTON CUMMINGS

Two weeks from tonight we'll be going to see Burton Cummings, performing live at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, IL, and, from what I understand, this is a VERY hot ticket. 

Complete ticket information here: 
Click here: The Arcada Theatre  

As a life-long Guess Who and Burton Cummings fan, it truly was an honor to have the opportunity to talk with Burton this past week about not only the up-coming show, but life in general.  

KENT KOTAL / FORGOTTEN HITS:  Burton Cummings!  In Los Angeles?!?!  
BURTON CUMMINGS:  Yes, in L.A. ... I live here now ... I still have a place on Vancouver Island ... but I'm here most of the time ... in Los Angeles. 

We kicked around a couple of ideas as to how to do the interview ... either by phone or via email ... and, when all was said and done, we did a little bit of both.  Turns out Burton is a bit of a "blogger" himself and regularly updates his own website and Facebook page with first-hand, hand-written news!  (He's also a bit of a night owl ... so he spends a fair amount of time online.)    

Click here: Burton Cummings

Click here: Burton Cummings | Facebook

BC:  Yeah, I do some of that ... I'm an insomniac ... I don't sleep ... so I spend some time online ... actually, I do a lot of that.

kk:  I recently interviewed Al Kooper and he told me that he only sleeps about three hours a night ... and that's all he CAN sleep ... so the rest of the time he's up workin' on stuff, lookin' for something to do.

BC:  Well, they say that short naps are better ... I wish that I could go to sleep like some people ... it's eleven thirty at night or eleven o'clock and night and they say "Well, I think I'll go to sleep" and then they just lay down and go to sleep!  But I've NEVER been able to do that ... even when I was a little kid, I couldn't do that!

kk:  And I'm sure it's very different when you're up playing music all night, too ... I mean you're on such a high once the show is over that you're really not READY to just lay down and go to sleep.  There's got to be some time to unwind after a big show.

BC:  And that's really it ... I mean since really very early on ... even as a teenager ... I was in a band ... and that's where that whole cycle began.  You play at eight o'clock at night and, now that I'm older, sometimes even later ... now we have shows where I don't even go on until ten o'clock at night ... so by midnight or twelve thirty, you're really not ready to go to sleep ... so you end up ... really ... upside down from being in show business.  Because your work night starts at about eight or nine or ten at night and then you're upside down.  

kk:  You've been doing both solo shows ("Up Close and Alone" with just you at the piano) as well as shows with a full band.  (We'll get to see Burton backed by The Carpet Frogs at The Arcada Theatre on September 27th).  Obviously, you have to prepare differently for each of these kinds of settings.  Even the material presented has to change based on the musical back-up and surroundings.  What are the personal joys for you as a performer in each of these environments?  
BC:  We have a lot of shows coming up ... some are one man shows and some are with the band.  The band is tremendous ... we've been playing together for over ten years now with the same core of guys so it's pretty tight ... and they all sing well ... and you know, I've always been a stickler for that ... so we're doing justice to the records I think.  But you're right ... I do shows both ways now, some with the band and some with just me up on stage all alone with a piano.  I did a couple of solo shows recently right in Manhattan and I was a little nervous, all by myself you know, but the reception was tremendous.  It's a COMPLETELY different show than with the band ... you can't be sitting alone at a piano singing "American Woman", you know ... it's not that kind of a deal ... so the one man show is completely different ... it's just me at the piano and I did a hundred minutes in New York and it seemed to work ... everybody was quite pleased.  

kk:  It definitely did ... I've seen some of the clips on YouTube and, of course, I have the CD from a couple of years ago ... and it's a very entertaining show.  

Click here: Amazon.com: Up Close & Alone: Music

... a MUST for any music collection

kk:  I think it's great that you can DO both types of shows and, fortunately, you've got the depth of a catalog that allows you to do that sort of thing.  
BC:  Yeah, you know my manager ragged on me for YEARS to do that one man show and I fought him on it 'cause for a long time, I just really didn't want to do it ... and finally in the '90's, we did it and I did some corporate shows, you know, meaning private functions more for parties and events, not with tickets for the public but I always kind of found it a little bit shallow ... more boring ... not I guess "boring" but shallow, but I've come to realize over the years that that's what people LIKE about it ... is the "bareness" ... just a guy, sitting alone, and when I explain the situation ... I mean I do some pretty famous songs, like "These Eyes" and "Laughing" and even "Share The Land" ... and I do those alone at the piano and I kind of explain to people that this is how they sounded at home when they were being written, you know, before they became records ... and what went into writing some of these songs ... and in many instances ... in MOST cases ... I'm finding that that's enough for most people ... so that's thrilling for me to know.  If I can hold people's attention all alone with just a piano, it's thrilling for me know at this stage of my life.  

kk:  Well, it's gotta be thrilling for you to get that sort of reaction with just the piano and the voice, but one thing that I've learned over the years is that when you can strip the song to just the bare elements, the "nakedness" of it all, it shows how strong the material is ... now it's just you and the song, no special "sweetening" in the studio ... and it shows you just how good a song it really is.  
BC:  Yes, I think when we first clicked, Randy and I, we faithfully tried to write songs ... we faithfully set aside song-writing sessions as such, when we weren't touring.  Man, it was SO long ago that I was still living at home with my mother and my grandmother and every Saturday morning he would come over with a guitar and we would sit at my mom's piano and that's where we banged out "These Eyes", you know, and a lot of those early songs that really clicked ... "No Sugar Tonight" and stuff that we refined in the very early days ... that was all stuff that was done just sitting at home on my mom's piano.  It was so easy working with Randy that it was never like work.   

kk:  You have often thanked your Mother for forcing you to take piano lessons as a child.  I know you lost your Mother recently and I've heard that she was a very big part of your life.  How did she react to your success and your musical dreams?  Obviously she encouraged you ... but early on were there also moments of "I didn't pay for all of these damn piano lessons so you could bang out boogie-woogie rock and roll"?!?!?

BC:  My Mother forced me to take piano lessons. A lot of times I remember hearing all the neighborhood guys out on the street playing soccer or baseball, and I had to sit and practice piano. I didn't like it at first. At about age ten or so, I started to be able to pound out some of the hit records of the day on the radio, and suddenly I had different status at school. I'd play a bit of "Bumble Boogie" or "Runaway" at Luxton School and kids thought it was pretty cool. My mother didn't really react too badly when I dropped out of school. She was pretty good about my thinking about show business.    

kk:  So prior to hooking up with Randy had you already been writing some stuff on your own or no?  
BC:  Oh yeah, I had a band called the Deverons in Winnipeg and we had achieved a pretty good level of stardom on a local level in our home town ... we were thought of as one of the better bands in town.  And there were a lot of bands in Winnipeg ... there were well over a hundred bands, all functioning and playing ... and for a city of half a million people, that's an awful lot, ya know.  But part of the thing was the drinking age was still 21 ... so you could have these functions at schools and community clubs and even churches that had dance halls ... you could have those functions all the time without alcohol because the 18 and 19 year olds would still come.  Now that the age is down to 18 all that has disappeared.   

kk:  The story I've always heard is that you were making quite a bit of noise with your group The Deverons and Randy Bachman happened to hear tell of this wild man who was doing all kinds of crazy and obscene things with his piano ... he came to check you out ... was bowled over ... and then asked you to join The Guess Who.  (Of course I also heard that at first you jokingly turned him down, saying that you had just received an offer to join The Beatles!  lol)  The Guess Who had enjoyed quite a bit of local fame with their recording of "Shakin' All Over" with Chad Allan on lead vocals.  Were you already a fan of theirs by this point?  Had you been out to see them (or were you too busy with your own band?)  Did you know any of the guys?

BC:  The Deverons were becoming more and more popular in Winnipeg, and by 1965 we were playing pretty well every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.  There were rumors that Chad Allan was going to leave the Guess Who, even though he'd sung their hit "Shakin' All Over" … he was going back to University. One night, both the Guess Who and the Deverons played on the big show at the old Winnipeg Arena with Gerry and the Pacemakers … it was 1965 and Beatlemania was in full swing. That night the older guys in the Guess Who watched our band, and I guess they liked me as a singer. I was a harder singer than Chad and I was doing stuff like Eric Burdon, which Chad never did. Weeks after that show, I left high school, and when they heard that, they asked me to join their band. The day of that meeting I was still seventeen.   

By now I'm sure that we've all heard the story about how the record company changed the band's name from Chad Allan and the Expressions to The Guess Who when "Shakin' All Over" first came out as a single in the hopes that a disc jockey or program director might be curious enough to give that record a spin instead of throwing it in the reject pile.  The song had already been a big hit in England for Johnny Kidd and the Pirates and Chad Allan's version definitely had a British feel to it.    Perhaps thinking that the ambiguous prospect that this MIGHT be a brand new, as-yet-undiscovered British band, the record company gambled and changed the band's name on the record label to read "Guess Who" ... and, before you knew it, "Shakin' All Over" became a huge Canadian Hit ... and then three other records followed it into The Canadian Top 40.  It crossed over to become a Top 20 Hit here in The States, too.)

When Burton first joined the band, it was as the keyboard player, as Chad Allan was still onboard as the lead singer.  After a while, Allan elected to leave the band and Burton Cummings took over the lead vocals, a role he never relinquished for the next ten years.  During that time, The Guess Who placed an incredible 24 hits on the U.S. Charts, including six Top Ten Hits and one #1 Single.  (You'll find the complete Guess Who / Burton Cummings Hit List at the end of our interview.)

Before making it on their own, The Guess Who became the featured "house band" on a Canadian television show called "Let's Go", recreating hits by other artists every week ... including (coincidently enough!) "Time Of The Season"  by The Zombies, the band who will be opening for Burton Cummings at The Arcada Theatre on the 27th!

Randy Bachman has stated that working on this show really developed the band's song-writing skills, as they now had a spotlight forum every week to showcase their own material ... and out of that opportunity came "These Eyes", their first experience at international fame.

Although we all know that it doesn't really happen this way, once "These Eyes" became a hit, The Guess Who became an "overnight success".  (Forget the fact that by this point they had already been playing for literally THOUSANDS of hours trying to nail down the sound that would make them stand apart from the rest.)  However, corny as it sounds, there is no denying the fact that their lives changed literally overnight. 

In true Canadian form, it all "snowballed" from there ... the hits just kept on coming.  Without question, The Guess Who were TRULY in the zone at this point ... 12 US Top 40 Hits spread out over the next 3 1/2 years.  Plus 12 that went into The Top Ten in Canada during that same stretch.  In fact, there was a period there of about three or four years where The Guess Who outsold ALL of the other Canadian recording acts COMBINED!!!  That had to be some pretty heady stuff at the time. 

And then, right at the peak of this success, with "American Woman" sitting on top of both the album and singles chart,
Randy Bachman quit the band to do other things, eventually forming Bachman-Turner Overdrive and carving out his own niche in rock and roll history.  (In fact, he and Fred Turner have been touring together recently, recreating some of those great songs again.)  

Since then, Cummings and Bachman seem to have had an on-again, off-again relationship over the past couple of decades.  I was fortunate enough to see a few of their reunion shows and there is no denying that a genuine, mutual love and respect for one another comes across during those shows.  

kk:  There was some hope  a few years back of better things to come when the Bachman-Cummings Band recordings came out.  Have you guys actually tried to write together again after all these years?  One cannot help but wonder what kind of magic that might generate.

BC:  Randy and I don't really have a burning desire to write together again. For one thing, all the stuff we did years later after the Guess Who was gone, was always measured up against These Eyes and American Woman and stuff … you can't live in that kind of a shadow and not have it affect you when you try new songs … but we did some good ones together in 1987 for the Thunderbird Trax disc.    

kk:  After Randy left, The Guess Who soldiered on ... and continued to amass a great string of hits.  Did you go through a period of time where you thought, "OK, this is it ... the dream is over?" and actually considered throwing in the towel?  Obviously, this put a lot of extra pressure on you at the time, not only as a performer but as a songwriter now saddled with having to carry the band.  
BC:  After Randy's departure, we immediately got Kurt Winter and Greg Leskiw who were both very good players. For the first time, the Guess Who had two lead guitar players. The band got tougher by the time we did  the Share the Land Album. We toured more, too. And Kurt and I became co writers almost instantly. He brought Hand Me Down World and Bus Rider to the first practices he attended, and I knew immediately that fate had led me to another writing partner.   

kk:  It's funny in a way because the focus has always been on the song-writing dynamic of Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman ... and I don't mean to diminish that magic in anyway ... but my two personal favorite Guess Who albums remain to this day to be "Share The Land" and "Rockin'" ... and Randy was long gone by this point.

kk:  I would imagine that Chicago holds some special memories for you ... most of The Guess Who's early hit material was recorded here, correct?  
BC:  Chicago is VERY special to us ... we recorded "American Woman" there and we recorded "Share The Land" there and some of the biggest records we did ... "No Sugar Tonight" ... these were hits all over the world and these were all recorded right there in Chicago.  Right on North Wacker Drive, right downtown, across the street from The Opera House, there used to be a building and RCA had the 12th and 13th floor and way up 13 floors high, there was a recording studio ... and we lived in that studio for about two years.  There was a LOT of time spent in there.   

kk:  Why Chicago?  Certainly there were studios in Canada ... was this more of a Jack Richardson thing (EDITOR'S NOTE:  Richardson produced all of the band's early hits) or what?  
BC:  Honestly, it was RCA ... I mean, we were contracted to RCA and part of the contractual obligation was that we record in their studios.  And we didn't like the ones in New York because they were old ... and the microphones were old ... and the engineers were outdated ... and they had worked with Bing Crosby and Benny Goodman and guys like that ... but they hadn't kept up with the times, whereas Chicago and L.A. back then, say '69 and '70, back then RCA Chicago and RCA L.A. had much hipper guys and better studios ... they had advanced more than the old New York studios.  So, once we did a couple of albums in New York ... particularly an album called "Canned Wheat" ... it didn't sound that great to us ... so we moved from there to the Chicago studios and we did a lot of recording there.  We spent a lot of time in your city ... we would stay at a hotel called The Executive House and it was right by the river, right downtown, and we would walk along that river, right where those big Marina Towers are ... those twin towers ... and walk along the river and then turn left on Wacker and then there we were!  Every day for weeks and weeks.  I know that area very well.   

kk:  So this is a little bit of a "homecoming" for you to come back here now and do this show at The Arcada.  
BC:  Well, it is ... and I still have a lot of friends in Chicago, too ... and we spent those days ... I mean THOSE days were the absolute zenith point of The Guess Who's career.  Those best days were spent there in Chicago because we were recording those records and we thought we were in pretty good with the guys at RCA.  In fact the guys from New York RCA used to fly into Chicago to hear how our sessions were going ... so it was a pretty good time for us in Chicago.  

kk:  And ironically, during that same era The Buckinghams were recording in New York instead of in Chicago!  (EDITOR'S NOTE:  Ironically Burton brought up The Buckinghams later in our interview, having just done some shows with them.)  
BC:  Well, you know what ... it all depends on where you're comfortable ... what studio you get comfortable with ... and I think we were VERY comfortable in Chicago.  And you know the climate was the same for us (lol) because we came from Winnipeg ... so we knew all about cold winters!  And mind you, it's much colder in Winnipeg than it is Chicago, but we know about winter and snow and ice and that so we felt very at home in Chicago.   

kk:  Were you a bit of a studio hound back then ... spending a lot of time in the studio, analyzing every note, nit-picking this or that?  Kind of a real "hands on" artist?  
BC:  I was the most, I think ... what would the word be ... fastidious ... of us during the sessions ... and I always stayed till the very end of the mixes ... although I wasn't really credited as a co-producer, I sorta was, I guess, because I was the lead voice, so I always was concerned with the mixes.  And most of this material was stuff that I wrote or co-wrote ... so I always hung around until the very end of the mixes ... and 98% of the time, I was the only guy.  Peterson, our drummer ... he never bothered with the mixes too much ... I think he figured that I would be there speaking up for the band but there's no way I was going to just turn it over to Richardson and Brian Christian, the engineer, so I stayed right till the end always so yeah, I guess I was a bit of a studio hound ... I always loved seeing how it was done, how the mixing was done and then the EQ, all of which led me later to produce my own records.  That's how you learn.   

kk:  I remember when you did your first solo album, you were VERY complimentary to your producer Richard Perry, who is considered one of the geniuses in the studio of that time.  
BC:  Oh, he was terrific ... absolutely terrific ... you know, he had had SO many hit records so I kinda felt lucky to have my first solo record being done by a master like that.  He had already done records like "You're So Vain", which was a #1 Record all over the world. He had done a LOT of stuff ... a lot of different stuff ... everything from Tiny Tim to Barbra Streisand to that group Night from England (they were tremendous) ... Richard worked with SO many big people.  I always thought "You're So Vain" was a classic, classic record, you know ... just one of those records that stands out in your memory.  And here's a bit of trivia that a lot of people might not know ... but I think a lot of people DO know ... that the harmony on "You're So Vain" is Mick Jagger ... you can hear it if you listen to it carefully enough ... you can hear him singing along with Carly Simon.   

At this point I had to smile a little bit because I think the whole WORLD knows by now that that was Mick Jagger singing in the background on "You're So Vain" ... and most of us probably knew this the week the song was first released back in 1972!  Funnily enough, when Cummings first mentioned sharing a little piece of "You're So Vain" trivia, I half expected him to say that he bet I thought this song was about him ... so I had to kid him about it later ...  

kk:  Oh ... and see, I thought you were going to reveal that she wrote it about YOU ... after all those years of people wondering who the song was actually about ... I thought maybe it was YOU and you were finally ready to tell the world, right here in Forgotten Hits!  (lol)  
BC:  No, no, no ... (laughing) ... I hear it's about Warren Beatty ... but I don't know for sure ... but that's the rumor that I heard in Hollywood ... that it was Warren Beatty ... but who knows, man.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Carly Simon has NEVER officially revealed the source of inspiration ... but Beatty was a leading contender for years ... as was (ironically enough) Mick Jagger, who then would have been singing about HIMSELF when he harmonized with Simon!  The most recent speculation pins it on record mogul David Geffen although DOZENS of names have been thrown in the hat over the past four decades.  Apparently, however, Burton Cummings was NOT one of them!  (lol)

BC:  I gotta tell you, though, GREAT song, GREAT hook ... and, on Richard's part, a great record.  And then Richard did all those big Pointer Sisters records and he worked with SO many people ... he worked with The Manhattan Transfer ... SO many big people ... he really has cut some GREAT records through the years.    

kk:  Well, he did Ringo's biggest album, too ... and then years later you found yourself performing as part of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band.  
BC:  Yeah, Richard did all of Ringo's solo hit records like "You're Sixteen" and "Only You" ... stuff like that ... he's very, very good in the studio.  I think he's semi-retired now ... lives with Jane Fonda.

kk:  Is that right?  I did not know that!
BC:  Oh yeah, they've been together quite a while.  
kk:  Wow ... well that's interesting! 

More with Burton Cummings tomorrow in Forgotten Hits ... don't miss it!

Two personal favorites ... first up, Burton paying homage to his former partner with a little tongue-in-cheek (but absolutely stunning) arrangement of one of Randy Bachman's post-Guess Who hits ... and then another one that literally brings a tear to my eye EVERY time I hear it!  (kk)