Guess Who – Laughing

This was a great double-sided single… the B-side was Undun.

A hit in their native Canada, this song was written by Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings during their brief collaboration together in The Guess Who.

Their name came about when their label Quality Records released their first hit single (“Shakin’ All Over”) credited only to “Guess Who?” in an attempt to build a mystique around the band. They wanted the public to believe that this was a possible British band. The real name of the band was “Chad Allan & The Expressions,” but radio station DJs continued to refer to them as “The Guess Who.” when playing subsequent singles.

Laughing peaked at #1 in Canada and #10 in the Billboard 100 in 1969. The song was on the album Canned Wheat which peaked at #91 in the Billboard Album Charts.

For more about American Woman go read Dave from A Sound Day blog.

From Songfacts

While the team-up of Bachman and Cummings was short-lived, as Bachman split a year later citing conflicts with his Mormon beliefs, they have since reunited as either The Bachman-Cummings Band or, under the name of their backing band, The Carpet Frogs.

This song took about 10 minutes to write. Speaking with The Edmonton Journal in 1969, Bachman said: “We find that if we have to sit down and ponder, it doesn’t happen.”

Rolling Stone’s review of the album Canned Wheat sniffed that it “would be even more pleasurable if they didn’t sound a mite too much like the Airplane (instrumentally) and the Springfield (vocally and often instrumentally).”

Undun

Laughing

Laughing

I should laugh, but I cry
Because your love has passed me by
You took me by surprise
You didn’t realize, that I was waiting

Time goes slowly but carries on
And now the best years have come and gone
You took me by surprise
I didn’t realize that you were laughing

Laughing… the things you’re doin’ to me
Laughing… that ain’t the way it should be
You took away everything I had
You put the hurt on me

I go alone now, calling your name
After losing at the game
You took me by surprise
I didn’t realize, that you were laughing

Time goes slowly, but carries on
And now the best years, the best years have come and gone
You took me by surprise
I didn’t realize, that you were laughing

Laughing… the things you’re doin’ to me
Laughing… that ain’t the way it should be
You took away everything I had
You put the hurt on me

Laughing… the things you’re doin’ to me
Laughing… that ain’t the way it should be
You took away everything I had
You put the hurt on me

Oo!
Laughing…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Laughing…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Laughing, well you’re laughin’ at me
Laughing, well you’re laughin’ at me
Laughing, oh, what you’re doin’ to me, girl
Laughing, I’m a-lookin’, you’re laughin’
Laughing, I’m a-lookin’, you’re laughin’
Laughing, you’re a-lookin’, I’m a-laughin’
Laughing, laughin’ at me
Laughing, ah, but you’re a-laughin’, baby
Laughing

 

 

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

18 thoughts on “Guess Who – Laughing”

      2. The first Who song I heard as a kid was Squeeze Box so that kinda fit but then I learned…BIG difference!

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  4. thanks for the link! A good double-sided single … personally I like either of those better than “American Woman” but that one was the one which really put them on the international map.

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    1. Off topic Dave….where do you go for older Canadian charts? I usually use wiki but last night it didn’t have it. I tried a few sites but they didn’t have old music.

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      1. Yah, wikipidia is typically quite good, but not always. RPM was the official chart through the 60s- 2000, and they published weekly album and singles (as well as country, and briefly alternative rock) charts. The vast majority are archived by the Canadian government, though there are a few mysterious gaps,most notably in 1989 for a couple of months. I find I can see them by goodgling in RPM chart archives, and a long government link comes up. It leads you to a search page where you can enter the month, year and chart and the list of appropriate ones comes up. You can click on a single chart and it will show. So you can find exactly where songs or albums were and how high they got, if you have time & patience! I do so occasionally, but it can be a time consuming labor. Similarly, Music Canada has a searchable archive of gold andplatinum records for Canada, also a little tedious at times but I sometimes use that if Wiki isn’t already listing it. (In fact, I’ve edited Wikipidia to update or list Canadian certifications for quite a few acts.)

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      2. Ok…I don’t feel as bad. I was looking for the Guess Who chart history in Canada. I went to the Canadian archive but it was confusing. I would search and nothing would show…I’m going back to it and spend a little more time there.

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  5. Kinda interesting to see the single do well but the album sputter at 91!
    I’m sure Burton became ‘Undun’ at that point and wasn’t ‘Laughing’ about it!

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    1. I looked for the Canadian charts but I could NOT find a good site. I usually use Wiki but it didn’t have it.
      I was surprised at that…the next one with American Woman did much better!

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