Mercury 1004
Producer: Randy Bachman
Track listing: Not Fragile / Rock Is My Life, and This Is My Song / Roll on Down the Highway / You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet / Free Wheelin’ / Sledgehammer / Blue Moanin’ / Second Hand / Givin’ It All Away
October 19, 1974
1 week
“We were on an upward curve,” says Randy Bachman. “This was going to be our third album. We knew we had a consistency and we were getting better, as far as writing and playing, so we did have high hopes for the album. I really wanted success badly after the Guess Who.”
As a guitarist for the Guess Who, Bachman had tasted success with hits like the Number One “American Woman,” yet he left the band in 1970 after converting to the Mormon faith. After releasing a solo album, Bachman joined forces with his brother Robbie and fellow Guess Who founder Chad Allan in a new band called Brave Belt. After the release of a few albums, guitarist Tim Bachman and singer/bassist C. Fred Turner were enlisted to replace Allan, and the group changed its name to Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Initially, no record companies were interested. “I received about 25 or 26 refusals,” says Bachman, who financed the band’s first album and paid the band members a salary with royalties he earned with the Guess Who. “Once I hit the $100,000 mark, I had to tell everyone that would be their last paycheck.” Later that week, however, Bachman received a phone call from Charlie Fach at Mercury Records.
In 1973, the label released the band’s debut album, which stalled at number 70. The band’s luck changed with Bachman-Turner Overdrive 2, which was released later that same year. The album climbed to number four, thanks in part to the hit single “Taking Care of Business,” which reached number 12.
The title of Not Fragile was inspired by an album by the art-rock band Yes, who had released an album called Fragile in 1971. “We were sort of the anti-Yes,” says Bachman. “Fragile was a very delicate and symphonic and kind of classical in a way. Ours was the exact opposite. It was just blunt, hit them over the head with a guitar and drum beat kind of a thing. But it wasn’t a slam against Yes.”
Bachman intended Not Fragile to be an eight-song album with four tracks on each side, totaling approximately 20 minutes a side. That changed, however, shortly after the band played the record back to Fach. “He said, ‘I don’t hear the magical song. We’ve got the FM radio thing happening, now we’re looking for a big hit single.”‘
When Bachman told Fach that the band had only recorded eight songs engineer Mark K. Smith suggested they play Fach the guide track, which the the band used to warm up with and set various mic levels. At first Bachman was hesitant. The track was a joke, meant only for his brother. “I’m stuttering on it and the guitar is out of tune,” Bachman says. Yet Fach liked the song.
Bachman said the band would include the song on the album if he could recut his vocal, without the stuttering. “But it ended up sounding like Bill Murray doing Frank Sinatra,” says Bachman, who kept the original vocal and re-sequenced the album to make room for the track, called “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.”
Once the album was released, the track began to generate requests. “Charlie kept calling me telling me that it was receiving top 10 phone requests in Oregon and Detroit,” Bachman says. “He wanted to release it as a single, but I wouldn’t give him permission. It was the days of Led Zeppelin, when it wasn’t good for rock acts to have singles.”
Finally, Bachman agreed to give label the go-ahead to release the single. As “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” climbed the Hot 100, Not Fragile hit the summit. It was truly a triumph for Bachman, as the Guess Who had never topped the album chart. Less a month later, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” also hit Number One.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of October 19, 1974
1. Not Fragile, Bachman-Turner Overdrive
2. Can’t Get Enough, Barry White
3. Back Home Again, John Denver
4. If You Love Me Let Me Know, Olivia Newton-John
5. Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends — Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer