Born 83 Years Ago Today In Canada, He Wrote Some Of Classic Rock's Biggest Hits

As a rock star chameleon who played in several bands, including two of the most enduring and successful of the 1960s and the 1970s, Randy Bachman is at least partially responsible for numerous classic smashes, having written and played guitar on so many of them. The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive founder Bachman was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on September 27, 1943. Bachman's rock 'n' roll journey began in the 1950s as a guitarist for Canadian band the Silvertones, which evolved into Chad Allan & the Reflections, then Chad Allan & the Expressions, and the Guess Who? before finally settling on the Guess Who. 

Finding some level of popularity in the U.S. and Canada in the mid-1960s as a covers act, the Guess Who came into their own — and started to sell a lot more records — when they focused on songs written or co-written by Bachman. Here's how the guitarist and songwriter, celebrating his 83rd birthday today, became the guiding creative force between two chart-topping classic rock stalwarts.

In 1966, the Guess Who reached the Canadian Top 40 with a Randy Bachman original, "And She's Mine," kickstarting the band's path to international fame. Three years later, Bachman and bandmate Burton Cummings had penned three Top 10 U.S. hits –"These Eyes," "Laughing," and "No Time" –while Bachman's solely composed "Undun," a rock song from 1969 that sounds even cooler today, peaked at No. 22.

The Guess Who hit the '70s running with the timeless No. 1 double A-side "American Woman" / "No Sugar Tonight"; Bachman had a hand in the writing of the former, and he fully wrote the latter. Not long after the success of "American Woman," Bachman abruptly departed the Guess Who and, with some of his brothers and old cohort Chad Allan, led Brave Belt, which later became Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

Less freewheeling and style-agnostic than the Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) was a hard-charging rock band with a palpable sense of fun. BTO subsequently scored six Top 40 hits in the U.S. in the mid-1970s, all of which Randy Bachman wrote or co-wrote, and many became classic rock radio staples, including "Let It Ride," "Takin' Care of Business," and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet," a hit that snagged the No. 1 spot for just one week.