Burton Cummings of the Original 'The Guess Who' 60th Anniversary Hits Tour

Burton Cummings: His Own Way to Rock

Burton Cummings is that rare artist who transcends time, genres, and generations with a body of work that continues to resonate with fans both old and new. His voice has been rated among the finest in rock music. Burton continues at the top of his game as performer, singer, songwriter, and recording artist.

With a Winnipeg Community Centre and Performing Arts Centre named in his honor, Burton is a candidate for Canada’s most beloved rock ‘n’ roll son, yet he also enjoys a level of world-wide stature shared by only a handful of other Canadian artists.

As lead singer and songwriter for Canada’s original rock ‘n’ roll superstars, The Guess Who, Burton scored an unprecedented string of international hit singles and albums including “American Woman,” “These Eyes,” “Laughing,” “No Time,” “Share the Land,” “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature,” “Clap for the Wolfman”, “Albert Flasher” and others, all written or co-written by Burton. By 1970, The Guess Who had sold more records than the entire Canadian music industry combined before breaking up in 1975.

The group achieved a long list of firsts including first Canadian group to reach #1 on Billboard charts -- holding that spot for three weeks -- and first to earn a platinum album for U.S. sales of more than one million copies. Rolling Stonemagazine hailed The Guess Who as “one of rock’s most consistently fascinating maverick bands” with a succession of songs “that has few equals among contemporary North American groups.” Dick Clark described the group as rock innovators and ambassadors of Canadian music.

The vast Guess Who catalogue endures today with staples of classic rock and oldies radio as well as in feature films including American Beauty, Almost Famous, Cable Guy, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and Jackie Brown. “When I think back on having five million-selling records in the Top 10, one after the other, I can hardly believe it,” says Burton with justifiable pride, “I was just twenty years old and every time I turned around, I was getting a gold record. The scope and magnitude of our success escaped all of us. It really didn’t sink in until years later.”

Beginning his career as a solo artist in 1976, Burton continued his winning streak with a gold record for his solo debut single “Stand Tall,” produced by legendary hitmaker Richard Perry who numbered among his clients Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon and Ringo Starr. The choice of producer was evidence of Burton’s star power in the music industry. He followed his inaugural solo success with more than a dozen hit singles and albums including “I’m Scared,” “My Own Way to Rock,” “I Will Play a Rhapsody,” “Timeless Love,” “Break It to Them Gently,” “Dream of a Child,” and “You Saved My Soul.” Sold-out tours across Canada and the United States solidified Burton’s stature as a top entertainer. He starred in several highly rated television specials and, between 1977 and 1980, earned five Juno Awards for Best Male Vocalist and Best Album, serving as host of the annual Juno gala a record four times. Burton’s 1978 album Dream of a Child became the first quadruple platinum-selling album by a Canadian artist.

Through the ‘80s and ‘90s, Burton continued to tour and joined Beatles drummer Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band. In 1980, a starring role in the feature film Melanie with Miami Vice star Don Johnson earned Burton a Genie Award for Best Original Song as well as praise for his acting ability.

He also launched his acclaimed Up Close and Alone solo concert series featuring Burton alone onstage recounting stories behind his best-known songs and sharing personal moments from his career. A live album of the same name followed. The success of Lenny Kravitz’ cover of “American Woman” in the hit feature film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me brought renewed attention to the original Guess Who. The group reunited in 1999 for the closing ceremonies of the Pan-American Games with a television audience numbering in the tens of millions. Several high-profile North American tours followed.

As the VOICE of all the classic Guess Who hit songs, Burton has toured with his long-time band, for the past twenty-three years across North America as well as joining Randy Bachman onstage as Bachman Cummings, performing the songs from the original The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Burton’s solo career.

Described as Canadian rock ‘n’ roll royalty, a national treasure, and a living legend, for Burton Cummings there has always been one constant: he remains true to himself and his own way to rock…and continuing to perform the songs the way they were originally conceived by the artist who sang and wrote/co-wrote them.

1966 RPM Award for Best Vocal, Instrumental Group – The Guess Who

1967 RPM Award for Best Vocal, Instrumental Group – The Guess Who

1968 RPM Award for Best Vocal, Instrumental Group – The Guess Who

1969 RPM Award for Best Vocal, Instrumental Group – The Guess Who

1970 RPM Award for Best Vocal, Instrumental Group – The Guess Who

1971 Juno Award for Best Vocal, Instrumental Group – The Guess Who

1977 Juno Award for Best Vocal, Instrumental Group – The Guess Who

1977 Top New Male Vocalist – Burton Cummings

1979 Juno Award for Top Selling album (Dream Of A Child) – Burton Cummings

1980 Juno Award for male Vocalist of the Year – Burton Cummings

1987 Juno Hall of Fame Award – The Guess Who

1989 Harold Moon Lifetime Achievement Award – Burton Cummings

1993 OCAN Classic Awards: These Eyes, Break It To Them Gently, Stand Tall – Burton Cummings

1997 SOCAN Classic Awards: Albert Flasher, American Woman, Clap For The Wolfman, Laughing, No Time – Burton Cummings

1998 SOCAN Classic Awards: I Will Play A Rhapsody, I’m Scared, Fine State Of Affairs, Timeless Love, Your Backyard, Share The Land – Burton Cummings

2001 SOCAN Classic Awards: Follow Your Daughter Home, My Own Way To Rock, You Saved My Soul – Burton Cummings

2010 SOCAN Classic Awards: Sour Suite, Star Baby, Rain Dance, Dancin’ Fool – Burton Cummings

1983 Best Original Song, You Saved My Soul from the film Melanie – Burton Cummings

1971 Keys to the city of Indianapolis, IN presented by Mayor Richard Luger – The Guess Who

1983 Nellie Award, Top Musical Television Special, Going For Gold – Burton Cummings

1987 BMI America “Million-Airs” Scrolls (1,000,000 airplays) for These Eyes and Stand Tall – Burton Cummings

1987 Appointed to the Order of the Buffalo Hunt by the Manitoba Government – Burton Cummings

1990 Burton Cummings Community Centre named in his honour in Winnipeg

1999 First inductees into the Prairie Music Hall of Fame – The Guess Who

2001 Appointed to the Order of Manitoba by the Manitoba Government – Burton Cummings

2001 Burton Cummings Theatre for the Performing Arts named in his honour in Winnipeg

2001 Star on Canada’s Walk Of Fame (Toronto) – The Guess Who

2001 Honorary Doctorates of Music from Brandon University – The Guess Who

2001 Appointed to the Order of Manitoba by the Manitoba Government – Burton Cummings

2002 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award – The Guess Who

2002 First inductees into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame – The Guess Who

2003 BMI America Award for Outstanding Achievement (Airplay, Television, Film) – Burton Cummings

2005 Inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame – Burton Cummings

2009 Appointed to the Order of Canada – Burton Cummings

2011 Star on Canada’s Walk Of Fame (Toronto) – Burton Cummings

AWARDS

50 Albums Recorded

47 Singles Released

23 Canadian Gold Singles

22 SOCAN Awards

22 Canadian Gold Albums

8 Canadian Multi-Platinum Albums

6 American Gold Singles

6 Juno Awards

5 RPM Awards

3 BMI America Awards

2 Stars on Canada’s Walk of Fame

1 American Platinum Album

1 Genie Award

1 Nellie Award

1 Order of Manitoba Award

1 Order of Canada Award

1 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award

1 Honorary Doctorate of Music Degree

1 Induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame

1 Induction into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame

1 Induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame

1 Induction into the Prairie Music Hall of Fame

The lyrics… the words…as a writer they were always of paramount importance to me, no matter what kind of song was being written. With every writing partner I’ve ever had, I’ve either done all the lyrics or at least ninety percent of them. With Kurt, it would be him showing me his latest licks and chord progressions, almost “taunting” or “daring” me to sing something cool over them. With “Hang On To Your Life“, one of the first cool collaborations between Kurt and me, the only words Kurt had were the title…he kept playing those cool guitar licks that start the song off and singing that one line “hang on to your life” over and over again. I had to come up with three distinct verses.

Randy Bachman talks openly and often about how he “wrote” American Woman… Randy “wrote” a good guitar lick, but “American Woman” was never a song until those words about war machines and ghetto scenes and coloured lights hypnotizing came out of my head…one of the first real “non-love” songs Randy and I wrote was “No Time“…I think after “No Time” we were taken a bit more seriously as a band…I did the words for “No Time”…the “watch and chain” line was jokingly referring to Ronnie Hawkins’ line about “Mary Lou, she took my watch and chain…” The “killing floor” was something I’d learned about from the Electric Flag lp, a “standard listening fare” album of the times…

All the writers I wrote with sort of “left me to handle the lyrics…”

One of the best instances I can ever recall of lyrics virtually “writing themselves” was a song called “Dreams” on the last Guess Who album for RCA…Troiano had this beautiful guitar piece that descended and curled around again, a musical riff that was begging for lyrics. I sang that first line “I was lost and tossed on a misty morning by a drunken sailor and the genie in the bottle let me down…” right out of the air, and once that rhythm and length were established, the other lines almost “magically appeared”. All the lyrics in that song flowed out like little poems…

To me, the lyrics are the lifeblood of any song…people like Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Paul Simon, and Pete Townshend changed the shape of lyrics on the radio…before these guys, most of the songs were about love and crushes and broken hearts and “baby’s blue eyes and long blonde hair…” Once the gates were opened to expand subject matter to almost anything, lyrics broke free of previous chains and restrictions to become anything and everything.

Here you will find many sets of lyrics that I’ve come up with over the decades. Some have stood the test of time better than others. When one reaches middle age, it’s silly to continue writing songs from the point of view of a lovesick, naive teenager, although we see aging artists doing it all the time…

My album “Plus Signs” was all about aging…understanding it and writing about it. I have great reverence for lyrics. I write poems too, but that’s another thing entirely from song lyrics. Here, for better or for worse, are lyrics I’ve written over a period of four and a half decades.

At the very least, I hope you find some of them interesting…

Welcome to the Burton Cummings 60th Anniversary Hits Tour!

Come celebrate with us as we honor the legendary Burton Cummings and his incredible 60-year career in music. Get ready for a night filled with all of his greatest hits that have stood the test of time.

Date: Sat Sep 21 2024

Time: 7:30 PM

Location: Arlington Music Hall

Don't miss this unforgettable event at one of the best music venues in town. Grab your tickets now and get ready to sing along to all of Burton Cummings' iconic songs!

https://www.tiktok.com/@burtoncummings

Host or Publisher Arlington Music Hall