Julien’s Auctions, the industry leading music memorabilia auction house, announced today the Randy Bachman Collection, an exclusive presentation honouring the Canadian classic rock legend and founder of Bachman Turner Overdrive and The Guess Who. The Premier Music Icons auction will take place on Wednesday May 29th and Thursday May 30th at the Hard Rock Café in New York City and online at juliensauctions.com and will feature Bachman’s collection of nearly 200 signature guitars, instruments and gear owned by Bachman and used for songs including “These Eyes,” “Undun,” “No Time” and the song that brought the Guess Who is superstar status “American Woman,” all written and composed by Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings. In 1970, “American Woman” sold 5 million singles, more records than the entire Canadian recording industry in that year!
Following his stint in The Guess Who, in 1970, Bachman formed Brave Belt, a country-rock band with singer Fred Turner, which would become Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Bachman’s song writing prowess and Turner’s powerhouse vocals would produce some of rock and roll’s most iconic anthems, dominating Billboard charts with songs including “Let it Ride,” “Roll on Down the Highway,” “Takin’ Care of Business,” “Hey You,” and the group’s biggest hit, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet,” which topped the charts in over 20 countries. Bachman’s catalog of songs has been regularly used in television, movie, and commercials including placements inSeinfeld, The Simpsons, American Beauty, and Austin Powers 2. His most famous hit “American Woman” was recorded by Lenny Kravitz, topping the charts 29 years after the original; more recently it was performed by Kelly Clarkson as the theme song for the Paramount + TV series of the same name.
Throughout his career, Bachman has worked with and produced some of Canada’s top music artists, while collaborating with fellow guitar heroes Neil Young, Joe Bonamassa, Robert Randolph, and Peter Frampton. He was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016.
At the upcoming auction, taking center stage will be Bachman’s 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard famously known as “The American Woman Guitar,” the axe that gave birth to The Guess Who’s most famous song. Bachman first acquired this guitar in 1968 during a gig in a church basement in Nanaimo, British Columbia when an audience member offered him to play the guitar in place of his current guitar with a cracked neck. During a fateful performance at a Canadian Curling Rink after breaking a string, Bachman stumbled upon the now iconic riff. “I start to play that, and the audience’s heads snap around,” Bachman remembers of that electrifying moment. He frantically recalled the band, ordered Burt to “sing anything,” and the band wrote the song “American Woman” right there on a plywood stage hastily thrown down on top of the ice in front of a bundled-up crowd. This well-traveled storied Les Paul with a sunburst maple top was not only present at this moment of inspiration but is also the instrument heard on the 1970 album American Woman. The guitar has a conservative estimate of $200,000 – $400,000 US.
Another storied guitar heading to the auction stage is Bachman’s 1955 white Fender Stratocaster used in numerous performances, immortalized in album artwork, and used in the 1975 music video for “Roll on Down the Highway.” It served as Randy’s back-up during his B.T.O. days, recorded rhythm parts of “Hey You” and doubled with Randy’s Hard Tail ’68 Stratocaster for the beginning of “Let it Ride” (estimate: $100,000 – $200,000).
Bachman’s go-to guitar for his B.T.O. years was his 1968 Fender Hardtail Stratocasterin an Olympic white finish and used for the hit “You Ain’t Seen Nothin Yet”. This guitar has an estimate between $20,000 and $40,000. A black 1959 Fender Statocaster is also on the block estimated at around the same price.
“Randy Bachman’s music is some of the most recognizable and indelible in all of rock and roll history” said Darren Julien, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Julien’s Auctions. “Here are some of his most famous and legendary guitarsthat are not only instruments but true works of art assembled in one of the finest guitar collections that will ever come to auction.”
Start the bidding!