The Guess Who - Let's Go, Volume 1: 1967-1968

I'm still making a particular focus on posting albums of BBC sessions. Unfortunately, that usually means British artists, though there are some exceptions. In the case of the Canadian band the Guess Who, I doubt they ever performed for the BBC. However, it turns out they did quite a few recorded performances for a Canadian TV show called "Let's Go." This can effectively serve as a substitute for BBC sessions, and at a similar level of sound quality.

The Guess Who had a bit hit in Canada and the US in 1965 with their cover of the song "Shakin' All Over." But, to be honest, they probably weren't ready for the big time yet. They still had to develop their songwriting skills, and they soon switched lead singers. It wouldn't be until 1969 when they had another significant hit. But still, that one hit made them pretty much the only Canadian rock act that could boast having a hit in the US. That gave them a ton of credibility. So when a weekly Canadian rock show started later in 1966, the Guess Who were a natural choice for the house band, and they got that job. 

It was a great opportunity for nationwide exposure. Furthermore, it forced the band to hone their skills. Each week, they had to play multiple hit songs by other acts, usually those that were still in the charts. So they had to hone their skills fast so they could play a wide variety of songs at a professionally impressive level. At first, they just did the covers of hits, but as time went on and their popularity grew, they were able to slip in some originals, despite none of them being hits (at least not yet).

I was able to find three album's worth of songs for this series. A bunch of the songs were released on an official album called "Let's Go," and a bunch more were released on an official album called "This Time Long Ago." Unfortunately, both albums gave almost no information on when each song was recorded. Perhaps that data was lost. I've done my best to guess in putting these songs in rough chronological order, mainly going by when the songs they covered were hits.

Those two official albums helped me a lot, but many of the songs in this series are unreleased, including the first eight on this album. The Guess Who played songs on that show every week for many weeks through the years for a couple of years, but the vast majority of the recordings were lost. The best of the surviving tapes were put on those two albums, but they missed some things here and there. The first five songs come from some YouTube clips of "Let's Go" shows that the compilers of those albums seem to have missed. The next three songs actually come from a concert bootleg. Most of that recording didn't sound good enough for me to want to listen. But for whatever reason, a few of the songs sounded much better than the others (probably due to having lighter arrangements). I've stripped them of audience noise. I think they fit in, and the sound quality is fairly comparable with the rest.

Pretty much all of the songs here are covers. Only the last two songs are originals. But the ratio of originals to covers will grow until there's a majority of originals on the last volume in this album series. With this album, you basically get the Guess Who covering a random selection of famous songs from 1966 and 1967, with a few older songs thrown in. In my opinion, one can see why this band was already considered the cream of the Canadian crop this early in their career, especially due to the vocals of lead singer Burton Cummings.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Daydream (Guess Who)
02 Don't Act So Bad (Guess Who)
03 Bus Stop (Guess Who)
04 Bring It on Home to Me (Guess Who)
05 Tossin' and Turnin' (Guess Who)
06 Funny How Time Slips Away (Guess Who)
07 Pretty Blue Eyes (Guess Who)
08 Ain't That Peculiar (Guess Who)
09 Summertime Blues (Guess Who)
10 Love Is All Around (Guess Who)
11 Light My Fire (Guess Who)
12 I'm in the Mood for Love (Guess Who)
13 Along Comes Mary (Guess Who)
14 You Keep Me Hangin' On (Guess Who)
15 When Friends Fall Out (Guess Who)
16 Of a Dropping Pin (Guess Who)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15119097/TGuessW_1967-1968_LtsGoVolume1_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I found a photo of the Guess Who performing a song on TV around 1967. (I'm assuming the jackets are heavily based on the Beatles' 1967 "Sgt. Pepper's" look.) I'm not sure if it was the "Let's Go" show or something else, but it should give you a pretty good idea what those shows looked like.