Guess Who Trivia

When I was growing up in Winnipeg in the 1960s The Guess Who was the most popular rock band in the City. In the late 1960s and early 1970s they went on to international success.

When I first heard the band, they called themselves Chad Allan & the Reflections. I first saw them perform in 1964 when my father took my brother and me to a father and son luncheon they played at. I remember that the bass player, Jim Kale, wasn’t there for some reason.

A Long Hard Road

The Guess Who started out in 1962. By the time they achieved international success in 1969, they had already released 19 singles and 4 1/2 albums. The half album was a special promotional album with The Guess Who on one side and a band called The Staccatos on the other.

I heard somewhere that while The Guess Who was not the first Canadian based rock band to release an album; they were the first to release a second album. I haven’t been able to confirm this. If so, they were likely the first Canadian based rock band to release a third album as well.

False Starts

Before they became successful, The Guess Who had some minor hits internationally and thought they had it made, only to find the fame slip away. In 1965 they released “Shakin’ All Over” which went to number 1 in Canada and number 22 in the United States. While this didn’t lead to any further success in the U.S., it did establish them as a nationally recognized band in Canada.

Several years later, in 1967, they had a minor hit in Britain with “His Girl”. This too turn out to lead to nothing.

The Name

The group originally use the name “Chad Allan & The Reflections” as a homage to the British group “The Shadows”, who were a major influence on their early sound. In 1964, another group called “The Reflections” had a hit with “Just Like Romeo & Juliet”, so the band had to change their name. They were just about to release “Shakin’ All Over”, which both they and their record label thought could be a big success.

In 1964, it was very difficult for a Canadian based rock band to get onto the radio in Canada. Radio stations wouldn’t even listen to records put out by Canadian bands. To give the group time to come up with a new name, and fool the radio stations into playing their new record, the record label released the record with ‘Guess Who?” in place of the group name. They asked people to guess who the group really was. They hinted that it was a group that was already famous.

The song was a hit. They picked new name, “Chad Allan and the Expressions”, but the name Guess Who stuck, and when Chad Allan left the band in 1966, they adopted “The Guess Who” as their official name.

“Shakin’ All Over”

“Shakin’ All Over” was important not only for The Guess Who, but was also for the Canadian rock music industry. In 2006, producers named a documentary film about Canadian rock music in the 1960s “Shakin’ All Over”  in recognition of its importance. Strangely enough, while the documentary did mention The Guess Who’s success in the late 1960s, it didn’t mention their early success with “Shakin’ All Over”. Anyone who didn’t know the story behind the name must have wondered what it had to do with 1960s Canadian rock music.

In 1965, the British band The Who were relatively unknown in North America. When touring, some people in the audience thought they were the same band that did “Shakin’ All Over”. They added the song to their act to keep those people happy.

Chad Allan

Chad Allan started the Guess Who and was the original lead singer. In 1966, he decided that he didn’t want to tour any more and so he left the group. Burton Cummings  , who had joined the band on keyboards earlier, took over as lead singer. The band changed its name and went on to great success.

Several years later in 1970, Randy Bachman also left the band. He and Chad Allan started a band called Brave Belt. Again, Chad Allan decided to leave the group. The band changed its name to Bachman Turner Overdrive  and went on to great success.

Although Chad Allan missed two opportunities for big success, many fans remember him fondly.