In 1974, Bachman-Turner Overdrive released their iconic smash single “Takin’ Care Of Business.”
You’ve likely heard the classic rock radio staple at countless NBA and NFL games or on TV in “The Wonder Years,” “The Simpsons,” “The Sopranos,” “Arrested Development,” and commercials.
However, the timeless track didn’t materialize overnight. In fact, it was originally called “White Collar Worker” and lingered in singer Randy Bachman’s proverbial drafts folder for six years, left over from his stint with The Guess Who.
Then, lightning struck.
“One night I’m driving to a gig in Vancouver and a guy comes on the radio station,” Bachman told the New York Post in an exclusive interview. “He says ‘Hi, this is Daryl B and we’re taking care of business.’”
Bachman wrote the title down and made the band play the song on the spot — unprepared and unrehearsed (!) — that night.
Yes, the memorable call and response “Takin’ care of business/Every day/Takin’ care of business/Every way/Takin’ care of business/It’s all mine/Takin’ care of business/And workin’ over time” was improvised.
“The crowd went crazy,” Bachman smiled. “We recorded it two weeks later and that’s what you hear.”
Over a half-century later, the wily 80-year-old frontman is still going strong touring with Bachman-Turner Overdrive including shows at Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino Music Box on Friday, Sept. 13 and Staten Island’s St. George Theatre on Friday, Sept. 20.
These days, Bachman shares the stage on the road with his son Tal.
Still, it’s just like the whole band — which included three of his brothers who have since passed — is onstage with the father-son team.
“We have a lot of film of my brother Robbie playing drums and Fred Turner singing and everybody else,” Bachman explained. “So we’re touring just like the whole band is there and we’re playing that way as well.”
And while the classic rockers play all the songs you know and love — including “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” “Let It Ride” and of course, “Takin’ Care Of Business” — Bachman still finds the time to cram in a tribute to his time with The Guess Who.
“I’m going to do two little medleys of stuff I wrote in The Guess Who. Stuff like ‘These Eyes,’ ‘Undun,’ ‘No Time,’ ‘No Sugar,’ ‘American Woman,’ to show where I came from.”
Plus, they also mix in Tal’s 1999 hit “She’s So High.”
“Everybody loves that song,” Bachman gushed.
On top of that, the band regularly receives emails from fans requesting obscure BTO gems like “Shotgun Rider” and ‘Welcome Home,” which they’re happy to perform.
As Bachman says, his favorite song to play live is “whatever you want to hear. Come to our show, you’ll see them all.”
If this sounds like the dream classic rock concert for you, we’ve got everything you need to know and much, much more about how you can see Bachman-Turner Overdrive “take care of business” on their 2024 tour.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive tour schedule 2024
A complete calendar including all tour dates, venues, and links to the cheapest tickets available can be found here:
Heart tour 2024
Midway through Heart’s nationwide ‘Royal Flush Tour,’ Bachman-Turner Overdrive will join Anne and Nancy Wilson for four concerts in Bachman’s native Canada.
This will be a reunion of sorts for the classic rockers; way back in the ’70s, Heart opened for BTO on tour.
“We’ve known the Wilson sisters forever,” Bachman told us. “They’re like opposite twins. One’s (got) dark (hair), one’s blonde. One sings great, the other plays guitar great.”
If you want to see the groups join forces, here’s where and when BTO is opening for Heart:
Wondering where else Heart is going on tour? You can find their complete 2024 tour calendar here.
Randy Bachman New York City guitar auction
On May 29-30, Bachman is auctioning almost 200 guitars of his at New York City’ Hard Rock Cafe and online at juliensauctions.com.
“It’s time to share them,” Bachman noted. “It’s time for the children to leave home and I hope somebody adopts them.”
He’s selling some historic six-strings, too.
“I’m parting with the big one, my 1959 Les Paul Standard that is the sound of ‘American Woman’ and ‘No Time’ and it’s a solo at the end of ‘Let It Ride.’”
More information about Bachman’s guitar auction can be found here.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive set list
The band rocked Medford, MA’s Chevalier Theatre on March 9.
According to Set List FM, here’s what they took to the stage that night (yes, including quite a few Guess Who songs as well as his son Tal’s ’90s hit).
01.) “Roll On Down the Highway”
02.) “Rock Is My Life, and This Is My Song”
03.) “Shakin’ All Over” (Johnny Kidd and the Pirates cover)
04.) “These Eyes” (The Guess Who cover)
05.) “No Time” (The Guess Who cover)
06.) “Not Fragile”
07.) “Four Wheel Drive”
08.) “Lookin’ Out for #1”
09.) “Stayed Awake All Night”
10.) “American Woman” (The Guess Who cover)
11.) “No Sugar Tonight” (The Guess Who cover)
12.) “Undun” (The Guess Who cover)
13.) “She’s So High” (Tal Bachman cover)
14.) “Let It Ride”
15.) “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”
16.) “Hey You / All Right Now / Rock’n Me / You Shook Me All Night Long / Honky Tonk Women / Can’t Take My Eyes Off You / Bang A Gong (Get It On) / Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye / Highway To Hell / Hey You”
17.) “Takin’ Care of Business”
Bachman-Turner Overdrive new music
At 80, Bachman is showing no signs of slowing down.
“Right now, I’m mixing 18 songs,” he told us. “BTO Live at Budokan in Japan 1976. I just got the tapes. They’re amazing. It was at the end of a 95-day tour.”
Prior to the Budokan show, BTO toured the States with Bob Seger for roughly 65 days. Then, they went to England where their opening acts were Thin Lizzy and Slade. Next was Germany with Scorpions. Finally, they went to Japan for six dates and the last three were at the Budokan Live.
“I just got the tapes a year ago and I’m listening to them now. We were playing like Led Zeppelin and we were so good. We should be done in maybe a month or two.”
More than anything though, the effusive singer is happy modern technology will allow him to clean up previously unusable audio.
“In those days, if you broke a string, the song was over because your guitar was out of tune,” Bachman explained. “Now I can take that and Auto-Tune the guitar to finish the rest of the song because it might have been a really good performance where I play some stuff I never would have normally played. So I’m having a real fun time going through it all.”
While this nearly 50-year-old release may seem out of left field, Bachman was quick to explain the band’s decision to drop a live album from the Jimmy Carter era.
“Radio stations are starting to play live albums by classic rock bands because it’s slightly different than what’s normally on the radio,” he noted. “There’s a different tempo. Artists have been playing (these songs) for 20 years, (and they) might change a little bit here and there.”
Bachman-Turner Overdrive members
After over 50 years in the biz, there’s bound to be plenty of turnover in the band.
To get an idea of what to expect at live shows, here’s who you’ll see onstage at BTO shows these next few months.
Randy Bachman lead vocals, lead guitar
Tal Bachman lead vocals, guitar
Mick Dalla-Vee bass, rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Brent Howard rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Marc LaFrance drums, backing vocals
Tal should be familiar with the band; he’s been tagging along with BTO for years.
“When you have kids, you take them with you,” Bachman explained. “They came to every rehearsal. That’s where Tal learned to play drums at two years old to ‘The Immigrant Song’ by Led Zeppelin.”
“Then guitars, then piano, then bass.”
The full “Takin’ Care of Business” story
If you thought you heard the full “Takin’ Care Of Business” story earlier, well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
As Bachman told us, it goes way back to when rock ‘n roll started.
“There were a lot of songs that were just goofing around like “Sha La La Get A Job” and “Yip Yip Yip” all kind of funny things. If it rhymed and had a good beat, everybody loved it. Still, every once in a while a story song would come out like Johnny B. Goode,” he recalled.
“Chuck Berry tells a story about a guy who learned to play guitar. He lives in a cabin made of earth and wood and he was trying to be good. And then the Beatles had ‘Paperback Writer.’”
That brings us to August 1967. BTO is recording in New York at at Scepter Records which was owned by Florence Greenberg and Paul Canter, who managed Dionne Warwick. In the studio, Greenberg’s son Stanley engineered The Guess Who’s second album.
“He was blind,” Bachman told us. “We were amazed by this blind guy twist(ing) the knobs with good ears.”
What was unusual about the gifted Greenberg though was that he would wear a white button-down shirt, a tie, a wool jacket, and wool pants, no matter the weather.
And that particular summer was scorching; Bachman remembers it being “like 95 degrees with 95% humidity.”
“I’d say ‘Stanley, why are you dressed like that?’ He’d say ‘I want to be like George Martin, the producer of The Beatles.’”
Fair enough. But Bachman had one more question. He wanted to know why Greenberg left every night at 10.
“‘Well, I got to go home,’” Greenberg told Bachman matter of factly.
“‘Don’t you live here? In New York? Your mother owns the whole building!” Bachman retorted.
Turns out Bachman lived on his own, took the bus home and left at the same time every day to walk to Grand Central Station.
This was Bachman’s lightbulb moment.
“I said ‘I want to write a song about you because you’re always wearing a white, buttoned down collared shirt with a tweed tie. And I’m gonna call it ‘White Collar Worker and it’s going to be just like Paperback Writer but about you,’” Bachman remembered.
That night, Bachman followed Greenberg home at 10.
Greenberg counted his steps all the way to Grand Central.
“He counts 355 steps and says ‘Don’t talk to me. I’m counting,’” Bachman smiled as if he were there again.
“Then, we get to an intersection, we stop. There’s a bird tweeting that helps him know he can walk across the street. He walks across, turns left, and walks another 150 steps. We end up at Grand Central Station, and it’s about quarter after ten at night. It’s deserted. Everybody’s at a show. They’re all going to be getting out soon though. It’s going to be a zoo but now the streets are empty.”
Bachman didn’t feel the inspiration just yet.
“I say there’s nothing to write about here,” he complained to Greenberg. “I want to write about a day in the life of you, a white-collar worker. You come to New York every day on the train but there’s nobody here!”
Now, scrambling, Bachman quizzed Greenberg on the way into work.
“He said ‘I take the 8:15 into the city,’ Bachman said.
“I said, ‘Oh, wow. What happens?’ He said, ‘I think all the girls are doing makeup because I can smell hairspray and perfume. So they’re all trying to look pretty. They’re on the train. They don’t care.’ And I’m like ‘Oh, there’s a song there.’”
We’re still not quite there yet, folks. “Takin’ Care Of Business” really didn’t happen overnight.
“So I write a song called ‘White Collar Worker’ and it starts out ‘they get up every morning from the alarm clock’s warning, take the 8:15 into the city‘ but when it gets to my hook I stop and we all sing ‘WHITE COLLAR WORKER!’ just like ‘Paperback Writer,’” Bachman laughed.
“I play it for the band again and they go, ‘Wait a minute, you got to change that hook. You got to get rid of ‘White Collar Worker.’”
Three years later, Bachman left The Guess Who after “American Woman.” He tried to put “White Collar Worker” on BTO’s first album but his band kept telling him the same thing:
“We love the verses, change the chorus.”
Cut to 1973. Vancouver. Bachman hears a radio DJ say “Takin’ Care Of Business.” He has a show that night.
As you know, the rest is history.
The greatest moment from Bachman’s career
Now over 60 years (!) into his storied rock career, Bachman has had innumerable incredible moments onstage and off.
One stands out, though.
“I think it was somewhere in the early 2000s,” he recounted about the July 2003 hootenanny. “The world was shut down by SARS. Everybody was terrified and had to wear masks. Then it was over, but nobody believed it was over. So the Rolling Stones came to Canada and said, we’re going to put on a SARS Fest outside of Toronto in Barrie, Ontario at a big racetrack like Woodstock.”
The lineup was stacked. The Rolling Stones and Bachman’s The Guess Who were joined by AC/DC, Tom Cochrane, Rush, Justin Timberlake, and Kathleen Edwards to name just a few of the iconic acts on the bill.
Near the end of the massive extravaganza, Bachman was thrust in the spotlight.
“I was on a 12-foot stage (and) there were a half a million people there and I’m playing ‘American Woman,’ ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,’ Let It Ride’ and ‘Takin’ Care Of Business.’ I look out and the entire horizon is people” he grinned.
“In the middle of ‘Taking Care Of Business’ I say, ‘clap your hands’ and one million hands clap. My daughter was about eight at the time. She was at the side of the stage. I asked her ‘what did that look like?’ She said, ‘A giant packet of McDonald’s French fries.’”
Classic rockers on tour in 2024
A surprising number of stars that dominated the charts in the ’70s and ’80s are back on the road this year.
Here are our five favorite acts you won’t want to miss these next few months.
• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
• Bob Dylan with Willie Nelson and Robert Plant
Want to see who else is out and about? Check out our list of the 52 biggest classic rockers on tour in 2024 here to find out.
This article was written by Matt Levy, New York Post live events reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the latest tour announcements from your favorite musical artists and comedians, as well as Broadway openings, sporting events and more live shows – and finds great ticket prices online. Since he started his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed Bruce Springsteen and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to name a few. Please note that deals can expire, and all prices are subject to change.