‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’: how a terrible joke became a hit song
When writing a hit song, inspiration can come from anywhere. For all the tunes that talk about the love and affection between two people, there are just as many hit songs inspired by more colourful subjects, whether about sex, drugs, or even spite. While most of the tasteless songs tend to fall by the wayside on the charts, Bachman-Turner Overdrive spawned one of their greatest hits from a horrible joke.
Then again, the band member didn’t have to worry about their legacy getting tarnished. Throughout the 1970s, Randy Bachman already had been working as one of the phenomenal guitarists between The Guess Who and would score even more hits in his next act with songs like ‘Takin’ Care of My Business’.
While the band did have a penchant for massive bluesy hooks, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ was the real watershed moment for them. Featuring immaculate production and a wall of guitars blaring out of the speakers, the tune radiated bliss the minute it came on the radio, complete with a strange approach to the vocals.
When discussing putting the final track together, though, Bachman said that he wished they didn’t go through with the final vocal performance. Working on the song at his house, the demo consisted of the guitar player making a nasty jab at his brother, who had suffered from a stutter throughout his life.
Though the rock genre had been used to different stuttering in music as far back as The Who’s ‘My Generation’, Bachman said he shouldn’t have gone through with it, telling Louder, “Way back when my brother Garry… had a speech impediment. He stuttered and stammered. For the ultimate tease I wrote a song like he spoke”.
Even though Bachman didn’t intend for the song to be heard by anyone, he had to give it the time of day when their label rejected the accompanying album, Not Fragile. In search of a hit, Bachman later offered up the tune as a potential hit, backhandedly calling it “a real bad work track with an awful Van Morrison impression”.
Rushing into the studio immediately, the song would become one of the most successful tunes in the band’s discography, featuring the trademark stammer front and centre throughout every single chorus. The song would open the door for future hits, with Not Fragile spawning tracks like ‘Roll On Down the Highway’.
Although Bachman would say that he didn’t understand why the song became a huge hit, he did admit it had a silver lining for his brother’s affliction. When discussing the song’s legacy, Bachman said, “It went to number one in the States and two other countries. I was dumbfounded, particularly because as soon it became a hit, my brother stopped stammering”.
While the song certainly has earned its place in rock history, that doesn’t change its impure origins as a mean-spirited joke. Helping someone overcome their stutter may be a good by-product of the hit, but there are better ways to engage in speech therapy than to continually mock someone until they improve through sheer force of will.
