The Guess Who/Burton Cummings

Simply put, the Guess Who was Canada's biggest rock band during the B.R. (Before Rush) years, and one of the few whose hockey-player-tough sound stormed across the border and onto American charts. We've got all their hits, some hella-cool rarities, and lead singer Burton Cummings' solo highlights right here. Cummings' pint-of-hooch scream, plus Randy Bachman's savage fuzz guitar, drives "American Woman" like a NASCAR racer eight miles from the checkered flag, down two quarts of oil. Cummings lets loose with a heart-wrenching wail of blue-eyed soul in "These Eyes," leaving absolutely no doubt that "the hurtin's on me." Hippie politics meets biker gospel in their let's-get-back-to-the-country anthem, "Share the Land." And in "Clap for the Wolfman," they stomp out a bluesy tribute to famed border radio DJ Wolfman Jack, who provided the glue that held American Graffiti together. In Next Steps, we track the band from its very first hit through its lead singer's debut solo smash.

In 1965, the British Invasion was all the rage, and when Chad Allan and the Expressions (as they were then called) pounded out a two-fisted smash version of Johnny Kidd & the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over," their record company simply put "Guess Who?" on the cover, hoping to fool fans into thinking that some Brit mop-tops were behind the disc. The ruse didn't stick, but the name did. "Follow Your Daughter Home" (1973) rambles and rolls with a breezy island groove, more Buffett than Belafonte, with just a little of the Grateful Dead thrown in for spice. And former Guess Who lead singer Burton Cummings hits one out of the park with his million-selling debut, "Stand Tall," recasting him as a singer-songwriter in the Rupert Holmes/Andrew Gold mold, albeit one with a double-barreled shotgun of a voice. In Deep Cuts, the band tips its collective hat to another Burt and honors a Canadian superstar.

The waltz-tempo "Runnin' Down the Street" — written by the Guess Who's Jim Kale and Garry Peterson — owes a debt to Burt Bacharach, splitting the difference between the band's earlier hit "These Eyes" and the other Burt's "Don't Make Me Over." "Proper Stranger," from the American Woman album, hints at the diesel-powered ferocity that guitarist Randy Bachman would take with him when he exited the Guess Who later that year, ultimately to form Bachman-Turner Overdrive. And in "Lightfoot," one Canadian legend salutes another (Cummings and Gordon Lightfoot are longtime friends) with a folky tribute that's bio, homage, and valentine all rolled into one. And if you don't mind a little self-reflexive history lesson with your chunka-chunka-chunka, check out "When the Band Was Singin' 'Shakin' All Over'" for a decade's worth of Joe Sixpack rock wrapped up in just under six minutes.

Sure, Canada had rock bands before the Guess Who, but Burton and the boys were the first one that mattered, especially south of the border. And how big were they in Canada? Their 2003 reunion show attracted 450,000 people — the largest ticketed event in Canadian history. Originally named to dupe record buyers into thinking they were getting a British Invasion import, they jumped onto the charts with a killer cover of "Shakin' All Over" and returned there regularly well into the era of macramé and denim. Three decades later, their most famous songs remain classic rock radio staples and continue to win awards (as in the case of Lenny Kravitz's GRAMMY®-winning cover of "American Woman"). Who would have imagined that a bunch of beer-drinkin' hard cases from Winnipeg would still be rockin' our world? We have it all, plus the highlights of lead singer Burton Cummings' post-GW solo career, right here.