BTO song singled out

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Randy Bachman says he never intended his Juno award-winning stuttering song to get any airtime. (TREVOR LUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

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Gary Bachman: target of brother's song (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

The stuttering vocals that drove Randy Bachman's You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet to the top of the charts 28 years ago have been singled out by The Stuttering Foundation.

The foundation, a non-profit group helping people who stutter, said the success and the little-known back story behind the Bachman-Turner Overdrive classic combined to earn it the title as the greatest rock song featuring stuttering vocals.

Foundation president Jane Fraser said while there have been many popular rock songs that employ stuttering, only Bachman's reached No. 1 on the charts and it was about a real person.

"People who stutter frown on that kind of thing because they think it's being done in jest, but when they learn it involves a real person it shows a human connection to the struggles faced by those who stutter."

Randy Bachman has said he wrote the song as a joke for his brother, Gary, and never intended it to be released. When the record label was looking for a song to fill out the band's 1974 third album, Not Fragile, Bachman offered a non-stuttering version of You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet. The label rejected it in favour of Bachman's original version.

The song was later released as a single and reached the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart and the Canadian RPM chart the week of Nov. 9, 1974. It also reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. The song won a Juno Award for best-selling single of 1974.

"It is, of course, an honour when someone singles out a song for an 'award' or 'recognition' of any kind," Randy Bachman said in an email exchange with the Free Press.

Bachman's brother, Gary, said he loved the song the first time he heard it and hadn't realized Randy was imitating him.

"It never crossed my mind," said Gary, who used to manage BTO before he found his niche as one of Winnipeg's most successful real estate agents. "I only learned about that from reading (Randy's) book."

Fraser said the Stuttering Foundation deliberately delved into rock music to further the public's preoccupation on stuttering following the success of the Oscar-winning feature film The King's Speech.

"We've had a lot of fun with the song," Fraser said. "We created a Facebook page. People's attitudes about the song have changed when they learn the history behind it."

The Stuttering Foundation considered several other rock songs with stuttering vocals for the title as the greatest -- Benny and the Jets by Elton John, Changes by David Bowie, My Generation by The Who -- but Fraser said none had the success or the human touch of Bachman's.

Randy Bachman said his favourite stuttering song is Elton John's Benny and the Jets, adding he'd love to do a feature during an episode of his CBC Radio Vinyl Tap program on stuttering vocals but doesn't know if there are enough songs to do a whole show.

"I'd love it if someone sent me their favourite stuttering songs," he said, adding they can be sent to randy@cbc.ca

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

I met a devil woman, she took my heart away

She said I had it comin' to me, but I wanted it that way

I think that any love is good lovin'

And so I took what I could get, mmm

Oooh, oooh, she looked at me with big brown eyes

And said

You ain't seen nothin' yet

B-B-B-Baby, you just ain't seen na-na nothin' yet

Here's something that you never gonna forget

B-B-B-Baby, you just ain't seen na-na nothin' yet

And now I'm feelin' better, 'cause I found out for sure

She took me to her doctor and he told me of a cure

He said that any love is good love

So I took what I could get, yes, I took what I could get

Oooh, and she looked at me with big brown eyes

And said

You ain't seen nothin' yet

B-B-B-Baby, you just ain't seen na-na nothin' yet

Here's something, here's something that you're never gonna fu-fu forget

B-B-B-Baby, you just ain't seen na-na nothin' yet

You need educated

Any love is good lovin

So I took what I could get, yes, I took what I could get

And then, and then, and then she looked at me with big brown eyes

And said

You ain't seen nothin' yet

Baby, you just ain't seen na-na nothin' yet

Here's something, here's something,

here's something, mama, you're never gonna forget

B-B-B-Baby, you just ain't seen na-na-na-nothin' yet

You ain't been around

You ain't seen nothin' yet

I know I ain't seen nothin' yet

I know I ain't seen nothin' yet

Baby, Baby, Baby

You ain't seen nothin' yet

The Stuttering Foundation offers a toll-free helpline in Canada at 1-800-992-9392.

The Foundation website ---- http://www.stutteringhelp.org -- has online resources, services and support to those who stutter and their families, as well as support for research into the causes of stuttering.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 6, 2011 A13