''Canned Wheat'' is the fifth studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

rock band

the Guess Who The Guess Who was a Canadian rock band formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1965. The band found their greatest success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, under the leadership of singer/keyboardist Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman, wit ...

, released in September 1969. It peaked at number 91 on the ''Billboard'' Pop Albums chart. Two of the band's hits were taken from the album: " Laughing" and " Undun". The album also includes the original version of " No Time" which would later be re-recorded for their ''

American Woman "American Woman" is a song by Canadian rock band the Guess Who, released January 1970, from the album of the same name. It was later released in March 1970 as a single backed with " No Sugar Tonight", and it reached number one for three weeks ...

'' album and released as a single. The album is regarded as a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

classic.

Production

The band was sent to record the follow-up to '' Wheatfield Soul'' at

RCA Studio A RCA Studio A is a music recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee, built and founded in 1965 by Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Harold Bradley as an addition to the RCA Victor Studio the company established seven years prior. Together these two s ...

in New York City. As per company policy at the time, RCA recording artists were required to use the company's own studios. ''Wheatfield Soul'' was cut independently and before the band signed with RCA. The band and their producer Jack Richardson felt that the sound at RCA was inferior to that of the independent A&R Studios, where ''Wheatfield Soul'' was recorded. They duly recorded ''Canned Wheat'' at RCA and secretly re-recorded two of the strongest numbers "Laughing" and "Undun" nearby at A&R. To prove the point that the RCA studio was unsuitable, A&R dubs of "Laughing" and "Undun" were sent to RCA. When RCA released "Laughing" and "Undun" as a two-sided single and it began to hit the charts, RCA wanted an album put out as soon as possible. There was no time to re-record the rest of the material, so ''Canned Wheat'' was released, as recorded at RCA studios, yet including the "Laughing" and "Undun" versions cut at A&R.

Release history

''Canned Wheat'' was first issued as RCA Victor LSP-4157 in 1969. It was reissued in the RCA "Pure Gold" budget line series as ANL1-0981 in 1975 and reissued again by budget label Pickwick by arrangement with RCA as ACL-7067. In addition to the standard two channel

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

version a four-channel

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic, also called quadrasonic or by the neologism quadio ortmanteau, formed by analogy with "stereo" sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are po ...

mix was also issued on the

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic-tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, ...

format in 1971. RCA first reissued the album on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

in 1988. It was then remastered and re-released on CD by

Buddah Records Buddah Records (later known as Buddha Records) was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's foundin ...

in 2000 and included two bonus tracks. The first run of Buddah CD pressings accidentally replaced the song "Species Hawk" with "Miss Frizzy". This was corrected on the second run and the pressings with "Miss Frizzy" are collector's items now. Both songs ("Silver Bird" and "Miss Frizzy") are featured on the 1976 album '' The Way They Were''.

Track listing

All songs written by

Randy Bachman Randolph Charles Bachman ( ; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. He was the writer and singer of several hit rock songs, ...

and

Burton Cummings Burton Lorne Cummings (born December 31, 1947) is a Canadian musician and songwriter. He is best known for leading the Guess Who during that band's most successful period from 1965 to 1975, and for a lengthy solo career. Cummings has been induc ...

except where noted. ;Side one # " No Time" – 5:15 # "Minstrel Boy" – 3:18 # " Laughing" – 3:05 # " Undun" (Bachman) – 4:17 # "6 A.M. or Nearer" (Bachman) – 5:24 ;Side two #

"Old Joe" (Cummings) – 3:07 # "Of a Dropping Pin" – 3:42 # "Key" – 11:24 # "Fair Warning" – 1:44

2000 re-issue bonus tracks

"Species Hawk" – 3:33 '' ome copies mistakenly include "Miss Frizzy" – 5:06'

# "Silver Bird" – 2:43

Personnel

;The Guess Who *

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, flute, harmonica *

– lead guitar, sitar, backing vocals *

Jim Kale Michael James Kale (born August 11, 1943) is a Canadian rock musician, best known as the original bassist for the rock band The Guess Who. He was also a member of the band Scrubbaloe Caine. In 1987, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall ...

– bass, backing vocals *

Garry Peterson Garry Denis Peterson (born May 26, 1945) is a Canadian-American drummer. Peterson was originally a "child prodigy" drummer, backing many popular acts in the 1950s, but is best remembered as an original member of The Guess Who. He served as the ban ...

– drums, backing vocals ;Production * Jack Richardson – producer *John Woram – engineer

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1969 albums The Guess Who albums Albums produced by Jack Richardson (record producer) RCA Victor albums Buddah Records albums