The Guessing Game

Fort Lauderdale Magazine: So tell me… how did an 18-year-old kid from Winnipeg become the front man for The Guess Who?
Burton Cummings: Their lead singer wanted to go back to university. He was a pretty good singer and played guitar and piano. They were looking for somebody else, and I was just a young guy on the way up in another band but they liked the way I sang. This was back in the days before any of us had any gold records. So we were doing these songs on the hit parade every week. I sang hard, and I happened to be at the right place at the right time.

FLMag: And you sang with the band at their peak time, so that was perfect for you.
BC: Oh, absolutely. The real bonus was when I got into The Guess Who, Randy Bachman and I became a writing partnership.

FLMag: And that voice…It’s one of the smoothest and most precise in music history. Everything is enunciated so perfectly, like no other rock singer.
BC: Oh my goodness, my hat size is going to go up from all these compliments. Thank you very much.

FLMag: You don’t need any other instruments than your voice. It’s that good.
BC: Thank you very much. My mother had records that were 78s actually, way before 45s, that she would always play. This was before I was even going to kindergarten. I already knew the magic of records as a little kid. If I put the needle down and played the song I loved, when it was over, I knew I could pick up that needle and put it back to play that song from the beginning again exactly the same way. I heard great vocalists from the time I was a kid. So that crept into the singing for sure.

FLMag: Was this accomplished all on your own or did you study voice?
BC: I sang in a church choir for about three years and that was a little bit of training. In high school, I auditioned and got the lead tenor role in the operetta Trial by Jury and in H.M.S. Pinafore. Those two years in doing the lead roles in an operetta would be considered vocal training because it was a tough job. It also gave me the feeling of performing in front of a big crowd of 2,000. I was still a kid so that was a really big experience.

FLMag: So that was really your only form of training?
BC: Absolutely. And it wasn’t just the vocals, but I had to memorize tons of dialogue. Tons of long speeches and training in every way. Put it this way: It was show biz.

FLMag: The song “American Woman” was the very first song by a Canadian band ever to hit #1 on the Billboard 100 chart in 1970. That was THE song to sing. It was also the first to become a platinum album in sales of 1 million copies. That’s insane.
BC: I wrote the lyrics and sang the song. We started touring the States extensively, then came back to Canada to do a few shows. I was looking at the audience and the girls looked a little bit different. The girls in Canada didn’t seem like they wanted to grow up as fast. Whereas in the States, the girls seemed to want to grow up faster; they seemed to wear more makeup younger and earlier. Back in Canada, we saw the Canadian girls for the first time in a while. I’m thinking to myself onstage while I’m making this song up and Randy is playing the great guitar riff. I started singing what came into my head, and I’m looking at the women and the difference in the girls and what was in my head was “Canadian women, I prefer you,” but what came out of my mouth was “American woman, stay away from me.” And that was how it was born. It was never meant to be political.

FLMag: I never thought of it that way. I just enjoyed the song for the music and the words as well. I knew there had to be an explanation for it but everybody just loved the song. It became so popular.
BC: It’s also a very infectious guitar riff. There are a lot of reasons why that record was such a big hit and the timing was definitely part of it. And then, Lenny Kravitz re-recorded it and it was a big hit for him with a new generation of listeners. And here’s some irony for you: Lenny writes his own songs but the biggest hit of his career is “American Woman.” It’s really and truly had a lot of mileage.

FLMag: Another one of my favorites is “These Eyes.” It was played 2 million times on the radio and that’s another pretty amazing fact.
BC: “These Eyes” was a hit for us and then it was a hit for Junior Walker and the All-Stars on the Motown label the very same year. That’s certainly a testimony to the strength of the song.

FLMag: Was it difficult for you to break into the United States from Canada?
BC: We got lucky because the song “These Eyes” broke in Windsor, Ontario, which is right across the river from Detroit. So when it was played in Windsor a lot, people heard it in Detroit and from there it broke into the rest of the United States. I’m still thankful.

FLMag: The band was not inducted into the American music Hall of Fame but was to the Canadian music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Walk of Fame and the Canadian Hall of Songwriters. But never here in the States.
BC: Well, I don’t lose any sleep about the Hall of Fame in Cleveland because it’s not really rock and roll anymore. I have an album coming out that is also featured in colored vinyl, which we never had in the old days. I have lived long enough in show biz and am still performing and very proud of that. I’ve never had colored vinyl before, so this is really a trip for me.

FLMag: You broke away from The Guess Who in 1975 to begin a solo career. How did it feel going solo after being with the #1 band for so long? Did you feel you could relate better with your fans or was it terrifying for you?
BC: It’s scary. I had watched what happened with Neil Young. Neil Young came from Winnipeg too; we all knew each other as teenagers in competitive bands. And then Buffalo Springfield got very big and we were all thrilled for Neil because we knew him in the older days. When Neil left Buffalo Springfield, he had tremendous success. I saw his first few solo albums out in the market and thought, “Well, The Guess Who was going in a direction I didn’t like anymore, so I figured I would throw my hat in the ring as a solo guy.”

FLMag: Your success continued.
BC: The gold record for “Stand Tall” was played over 2 million times on the radio, so that was a very hefty way to start a solo career.

FLMag: I imagine with that voice, nothing was terrifying.
BC: You know what’s the nicest thing I hear these days? People are telling me that I still sound like that guy on the records and the same as when I was on the radio. That’s something I think every singer wants to hear as [time] moves on.

FLMag: Is it true that the performing arts center in Winnipeg was named in your honor?
BC: Yes, it’s a beautiful theater and I went there as a kid. It’s more than 100 years old and it’s a heritage building. I’m thrilled to have my name associated with it.

FLMag: Have you been in touch with the band since your solo career?
BC: Not too much. Now I’m back in the States singing my own songs that I wrote and recorded. So far, we’ve done 18 or 20 shows in the [U.S.] for the first time in a long time. People were so happy and excited to see the real guy who did the songs back in the States, I’m thrilled.

FLMag: Well, best of luck to you. It was wonderful speaking to you.
BC: Thank you very much for your time today.

FLMag: Stay healthy from now until then.
BC: Absolutely, I will take my vitamins [laughs].

WHAT: Burton Cummings of the Original ‘The Guess Who’ 60th Anniversary Tour
WHEN: February 8 at 8pm
WHERE: Broward Center for the Performing Arts
TICKETS: browardcenter.org