For a teenaged rock fan in the latter half of the ’70s, there were certain bands that you couldn’t escape if you tried. You might never buy a single record of theirs or hear them play a single note in concert, but they still managed to worm their way into the soundtrack of your high school years simply because they were always there.
Or, in the case of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, bulled their way into said soundtrack like the pair of burly, bearded bouncers that principals Randy Bachman (guitar / vocals) and C.F. Turner (vocals / bass) resembled back in those days.
At the height of the Guess Who’s popularity in 1970, Canadian guitarist-vocalist Randy Bachman left the band, resurfacing soon after as part of Brave Belt, a country-rock band he started with his brother Robbie (drums) and former Guess Who vocalist Chad Allan. Randy covered both guitar and bass on the group’s self-titled debut album for Reprise Records, but to play the songs live they need to add a member, so the group recruited their countryman C.F. Turner on bass and vocals.
After the first album and tour, with Bachman and Turner steering the group in a heavier direction during the recording of Brave Belt II, in quick succession Allan departed, leaving Turner as principal lead vocalist, and Randy and Robbie’s brother Tim joined on guitar. The group’s sophomore album, however, did worse than their debut and Reprise dropped the band. Undeterred, the quartet began demoing songs for a new album and shopping them to labels. Mercury Records liked what they heard and signed the band with one condition: they needed a new name. Thus, Brave Belt III became Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the “new” group’s self-titled 1973 debut.
Over the next three years, the Bachmans, Turner, and incoming guitarist Blair Thornton (who replaced Tim after 
BTO II) made five albums whose best-known singles dominated the charts in both the USA and Canada. Marrying heavy boogie-rock with strong dynamics and superb hooks, while featuring Turner and Bachman’s rather gruff blues-shouter vocals out front, BTO found a formula that scored them hit after hit. And they were never sly about the audience they were chasing; the lone US single off of their debut was “Blue Collar,” a C.F. Turner ode to the working man that became something of a template for the group’s songs.
Interestingly, “Blue Collar” did not make the cut for the group’s first (and still best) collection, 1976’s The Best of B.T.O. (So Far), but only because there was such an abundance of material to choose from, starting with the quartet of hits that anyone who was alive and near a working radio during the 1970s already knows by heart.
The collection opens with Randy Bachman’s “Takin’ Care Of Business,” a master class in writing a hit single, with multiple tight, powerful hooks, a singalong chorus, a dynamic mid-song breakdown, and a message any working person could relate to. Turner’s “Roll On Down The Highway” follows, hitting all of those same marks, a punchy anthem with a ringing, resonant guitar hook big enough to land a whale.
Next up, the darker, bluesier “Let It Ride” also features Turner’s growly lead vocals, elevated by propulsive acoustic-electric guitar interplay and strong harmonies. After that 1-2-3 punch, this smartly sequenced collection digs into a series of deeper tracks before finishing up with the group’s other monster hit, Randy Bachman’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” The dynamics, drive, and sticky hooks took the track to #1 in both the US and Canada; it’s been a staple of rock—and subsequently classic rock—radio ever since.
In between the latter two hits, this collection presents a series of lesser-known tracks that showcase the diversity of sounds the band explored across those first five albums. Turner’s “Flat Broke Love” and “Four-Wheel Drive” are muscular blue-collar rockers that inch the band right up to the borderline of metal, while his hard-boogie number “Gimme My Money Please” feels like it could be a ZZ Top outtake.
Both Randy Bachman’s “Stayed Awake All Night” and Turner’s “Thank You For The Feeling” are loose, rumbly party anthems with more enthusiasm than polish. The one true outlier here, Bachman’s “Looking Out For #1” is a lounge-jazz-flavored number that suggested how restless he had become by 1975’s Head On album. Two years later, the group would return with the similarly rangy Freeways, a Bachman-dominated album that led to his departure and the remaining group’s second act as simply BTO.
Over the ensuing decades, various Bachmans, Turner and Thornton have reunited in a variety of configurations. Today, with C.F. Turner’s blessing, Randy Bachman and his son Tal are carrying on the Bachman-Turner Overdrive legacy as a live act. For the new fan, The Best Of B.T.O. (So Far) is a great starting point, a stacked collection from a cornerstone band whose biggest singles and best songs have long since become embedded in the lexicon of ’70s rock radio.