The+guess+who

This two-fer from BMG Canada features a pair of out of print Guess Who LPs: Wheatfield Soul and Artificial Paradise, both originally issued on RCA Victor in 1968 and 1973 respectively…

The set is built around the A and B sides of singles, with album cuts salted in between. This is effective in charting the band's progression from melodic popsters to hard rockers and back to the pop-inflected music that closed out their career. The highlights are scattered throughout – "American Woman," of course; "Rain Dance," with its unnerving echoes of American massacres, the funky, improvised live "Truckin' Off Across the Sky," even the goofy "Clap for the Wolfman," which came when the Guess Who were all but finished. The Ultimate Collection works well as an introduction to the Guess Who, but will not gratify anyone with more than a basic need to know. On a sonic level, the set sounds good, however.

This imported CD could serve as a blueprint for how to turn two very flawed but interesting albums into something worth buying – just maximize the virtues and let them come to the surface, and hope there are enough of them; in this case there are, albeit not by too much. Part of Canadian BMG's "Guess Who X 2" reissue series, Rockin'/Flavours marks the first official CD reissue of either of these two Guess Who albums…

Reissue of 1974's 'Road Food' & 1975's 'Power in the Music' on one remastered CD. 19 tracks including the hit 'Clap for the Wolfman'…

This two-fer compiles albums issued in 1971 and 1973, respectively, and offers all the strengths of the Randy Bachman-era Guess Who even though there are no massive hits on these sides. The band were at a creative peak in both performance and production as evidenced by such tracks as "Rain Dance," and "Life in the Bloodstream" from So Long, Bannatyne, and "Musiconé" and "Miss Frizzy" from #10.

Before the Guess Who became one of the top album rock acts of the '70s, they were a darn good British Invasion-influenced garage band. This set features the three records they made in the mid-'60s: Shakin' All Over, Hey Ho (What You Do to Me), and It's Time for the small Canadian label Quality…

Though this Canadian LP was issued under the Guess Who name, the group still hadn't quite completed its evolution from its prior incarnation as Chad Allan & the Expressions. Indeed Allan himself was still in the band during sessions for the recording, writing one of the tracks, "Guess I'll Find a Place." But a couple British Invasion covers and guitarist Jim Kale's "Don't Act So Bad" excepted, every song was written by Randy Bachman. Even more crucially, much of the material went in a decidedly harder-rocking direction than much of what the group had previously cut, with newcomer Burton Cummings injecting a new raunchiness into the material on which he sang lead vocals. "Believe Me," which is very much in the style of Paul Revere & the Raiders' fiercest sides, is the clear standout, but the moody Manfred Mann-ish "Seven Long Years" and the surly garage rocker "Clock on the Wall" are also highlights…

For Fans of The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Classic Rock! The Guess Who is a legendary Canadian band who enjoyed chart-topping hits in the late 60s and early 70s with an impressive catalogue of songs including "American Woman," "These Eyes," and "No Time." During the course of its career, the band has released 11 studio albums, all of which charted in Canada and the United States. The Guess Who is best known internationally for its 1970 album, American Woman, which hit number one in Canada and number nine in the United States, with five other albums also hitting the top ten in Canada. All in all, the Guess Who boasts 14 top-40 singles in the United States and more than 30 in Canada. The band is now gearing up to release its latest creation, Plein D’Amour. Band members Derek Sharp, Michael Staertow, Leonard Shaw, Michael Devin, and founding member Garry Peterson have crafted a collection of songs that raises the bar and continues to take it up a notch both musically and sonically.

This double set replaces both previously released RCA multi-disc overviews of Guess Who hits. As of its appearance in late 2003, both the flawed triple-CD 56-track The Ultimate Collection and 1988's excellent Track Record compilations were out of print. This release tries, and generally succeeds, as a comprehensive overview of the band's glory years. In fact, it's the only one to kick off with two pre-Burton Cummings nuggets: 1964's "Shakin' All Over" and a rare 1966 garage rocking psychedelic single, "It's My Pride." Collectors will also appreciate an early 1968 version of "When Friends Fall Out," a song re-recorded three years later for the American Woman album. From there on, this is a sturdy if unremarkable collection of fairly obvious selections, some of them, such as "Heartbroken Bopper," "Glamour Boy," and "Hang On to Your Life," reproduced in difficult to find single mixes.