If you're a fan of classic 1970s classic rock, the band The Guess Who was a familiar fixture on Top 40 radio. After nearly a decade toiling away with modest success in its native Canada, the band led by Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman had their first hit in the U.S. with the #6 hit These Eyes. The band cranked out a dozen Top 40 hits through 1975, with another dozen or so singles hitting lower on the charts. While the band doesn't get much airplay on classic rock radio channels in 2023, tunes like American Woman continue to be covered and performed by others.

But the post-hit era history of The Guess Who is as crazy and confusing as any band in the classic rock era. And it explains why The Guess Who is now releasing new music with a group whose only original member is the drummer.

As was often the case when a rock band became successful in the 1970s, The Guess Who had some personnel issues. Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings began fighting and Bachman exited the group, eventually forming the successful group Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Cummings continued as the band's lead singer and primary songwriter along with Kurt Winter. A number of musicians cycled through the band over the next few years and by the time the group broke up in October 1975, Cummings and drummer Peterson were the only connection to the band's glory years.

But that's when things gets a little weird. In 1977, two years after the band broke and five years after he left the group, founding bassist Jim Kale asked Cummings for permission to use the band's name for a one-off concert. Cummings agreed, but Kale discovered that no one had ever trademarked the band's name and he did so. And other than a couple of high profile reunion concerts, Kale has blocked Cummings and Bachman from using the band's name. Instead opting to license it to others, most recently to a group headed by original drummer Garry Peterson.

That decision has had several consequences. Its forced Cummings and Bachman to tour and record under the name Bachman-Cummings. It's also meant that since the band touring and intermittently recording as The Guess Who sounds nothing like the band most fans remember, the group has mostly faded from the cultural zeitgeist.

The King is the latest single released under The Guess Who name and to its credit, it does have a mid-1970s sound to it. Inexplicably, it mostly sounds like second string Yes, which makes for an odd listening experience. Written by Derek Sharpe (who has been part of the group since 2008), the track has this prog-light vibe, with nothing that would remind you of The Guess Who. It's not a bad song, but honestly, releasing under the band's name doesn't do anyone any favors. It's not going to please fans of the band's glory years and if a listener is into the new sound, they're likely to ignore it thinking that this just some rehashed classic rock lineup.

A new album is apparently also on the way and while I wish them well, I also wish I could go see a Guess Who lineup with the people who made me love the band in the first place.






Have feedback or more information about this page? Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Also, subscribe to my free, daily Too Much TV newsletter at toomuchtv.substack.com

For all of the talent of the 1960s and 1970s singer-songwriter movement, it didn't produce very many great albums. Carole King's Tapestry is an obvious one. Perhaps something from James Taylor or Neil Diamond. But even the best of that generation were a lot more successful cranking out hit singles than albums that hung together creatively and thematically.

Iconoclassic has just released one of the rare exceptions to that rule and the fact you probably aren't familiar with the album or with the solo career of Carole Bayer Sager is a near crime.

Sager was still a student at New York's High School Of Music in 1966 when she co-wrote "A Groovy Kind of Love" with Toni Wine. The song reached #2 on the Billboard Top 100 and it became a #1 hit 22 years later when Phil Collins released his version.

That song kicked off an impressive songwriting career, that has included songs such as "Nobody Does It Better," "Don't Cry Out Loud," "I'd Rather Leave When I'm In Love," "When I Need You," "Come In From The Rain," "Midnight Blue," "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)," and "That's What Friends Are For." And along the way she won an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, a Grammy Award as well as The Johnny Mercer Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

She also tried her hand as a solo artist, although with mixed commercial success. But now her third and final (so far) album is now being rereleased forty years after its original debut and it's one that has rightfully been described as the "Sgt. Pepper of singer/songwriter albums."

Sometimes Late At Night came at a pivotal time for Sager. She had recently begun a relationship with composer Burt Bacharach (who she would later marry) and the duo collaborated on this album. The songs are an exploration of the arc of a relationship through a woman's perspective, with each track blending into the next to create a seamless wave of emotions. The tracks take you on a journey in the same way that any classic concept album does. But despite its range, it never feels like a forced effort to make everything fit together into a hackneyed overarching theme.

The album included Sager's lone Top 40 solo hit - "Stronger Than Before" - but what really makes the album something special are the murderer's row of collaborators. Michael Jackson contributed so much to the duet "Just Friends" that he was given a co-production credit. Neil Diamond collaborated on the track "On the Way to the Sky." And there were other contributions from Melissa Manchester, Peter Allen, Marvin Hamlisch, David Foster, and Bruce Roberts.

The production by veteran Brooks Arthur is impeccible and he assembled a who's who of musicians, including Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro of Toto, Richard Page of Mr. Mister and Pages, Lee Ritenour, Ian Underwood and Jim Keltner.

This reissue includes the entire original album, along the original single versions of both "Stronger Than Before" and "Easy to Love Again" which feature additional instrumentation and unique endings. There is also about twenty minutes of commentary from Sager and Bacharach that was taken from a radio-only promo released along with original album.

The album is accompanied by a 24-page booklet, which features photos, memorabilia, and a 5,600-word essay which draws on fresh and previously unpublished interviews with Carole Bayer Sager, Burt Bacharach, Melissa Manchester, and the late Brooks Arthur.

You likely haven't heard this album before. But if you're a fan of the genre, that's a mistake you can correct right now.

Sometimes Late At Night By Carole Bayer Sager hits stores on Friday, February 3rd, 2023.

The Complete Track Listing:

1) Prologue
2) I Won't Break
3) Just Friends
4) Tell Her
5) Somebody's Been Lying
6) On The Way To The Sky
7) You And Me (We Wanted It All)
8) Sometimes Late At Night
9) Wild Again
10) Easy To Love Again
11) Stronger Than Before
12) You Don't Know Me
13) Reprise
14) Conversation with Carole and Burt, Part 1 (from The Carole Bayer Sager Radio Special with Burt Bacharach, Boardwalk promotional LP NBS-002, 1981)
15) Stronger Than Before (Single Version) (Boardwalk single WS8-02054, 1981)
16) Conversation with Carole and Burt, Part 2 (from The Carole Bayer Sager Radio Special with Burt Bacharach, Boardwalk promotional LP NBS-002, 1981)
17) Easy To Love Again (Single Version) (Boardwalk single NB7-11-118, 1981)
18) Conversation with Carole and Burt, Part 3 (from The Carole Bayer Sager Radio Special with Burt Bacharach, Boardwalk promotional LP NBS-002, 1981)

Have feedback or more information about this page? Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Also, subscribe to my free, daily Too Much TV newsletter at toomuchtv.substack.com

Like a number of bands in the 1970s, Ram Jam started out almost as an accident.

Lead singer Bill Bartlett's first band was the late 1960s group Lemon Pipers, which was formed by a group of Ohio-based college students. They developed a reputation as a solid live band, once coming in second to the James Gang in a 1967 "Battle Of The Band" in Cleveland. The following year, they signed a deal with Buddah Records, which decided to add the group to its "bubblegum rock" roster. 

The two resulting albums (both released in 1968), were an odd mix of lightweight rock singles written by Paul Leka and Shelley Pinz, and longer hard rock-oriented tracks written by the band members. Despite the creative tensions, the band scored a #1 hit single (Green Tambourine) and two Top 50 hits (Rice Is Nice, Jelly Jungle). 

By the following year, the Lemon Pipers had left Buddah and dissolved. Bartlett, keyboardist Robert G. Nave, and bassist Steve Walmsley formed a band named Starstruck and began recording demos. One of the tunes was a track Bartlett based around a 90-second Lead Belly song. Black Betty was released on the band's TruckStar label and had some regional success. Starstruck had already broken up at this point and two producers built a band around Bartlett, reworked the track and released it under the name Ram Jam.

The band consisted of Bill Bartlett (guitar and lead vocals), Howie Arthur Blauvelt (bass), Pete Charles (drums), and Myke Scavone (lead vocals). Blauvelt had previously played in several bands with Billy Joel, including The Hassles.

Black Betty became a platinum-selling track that topped out at #18 on the Billboard Top 100 Singles chart. The accompanying album - 1977's Ram Jam - went to number 34 on the albums chart.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ram came out a year later and the title was a play on James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Unfortunately for the group, the album and several singles failed to chart and the band's run was over. Although producers Jeffry Katz and Jerry Kasenetz have released an album and a flurry of singles over the years since under the band name. Although none of the original members participated.

While the album is woefully short of anything resembling a hook-filled single, it is a solid example of late 1970s heavy metal - comparable to a lesser KI$$ or Warrant album. If that's your jam, it's well-worth listening to.

As for the band's post-recording years, both Bartlett and Scavone remained in the music business on some level. In 2015, Scavone was recruited to play in the reformed Yardbirds in a reunion tour led by Jim McCarty.  Howie Blauvelt died in 1993 at age 44, and Pete Charles died in 2002 at age 49.





Have feedback or more information about this page? Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Also, subscribe to my free, daily Too Much TV newsletter at toomuchtv.substack.com

Black Broadway is a new concert special that celebrates iconic stage performances made famous by Black artists and features the best of the current generation of Black Broadway stars. Performing classics from The Wiz, The Color Purple, Company, Porgy & Bess, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and more, the cast is joined by multiple guest conductors and a choir of students from HBCUs Howard University and Morgan State University. All are accompanied by the American Pops Orchestra, founded by Music Director Luke Frazier.

Filmed on October 5th, 2022, at Howard University’s Cramton Auditorium, Black Broadway: A Proud History, A Limitless Future premieres on Tuesday, February 28th, 2023.

(All photos courtesy PBS, 2023)































































Have feedback or more information about this page? Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Also, subscribe to my free, daily Too Much TV newsletter at toomuchtv.substack.com