The Guess Who: No Time

When I was doing last week’s tribute to “Daylight Savings Time,” I originally considered using The Guess Who’s “No Time” for my Thursday Repeats and Threepeats feature; however, I decided to go with a song that’s title began with the word “time” to match my other features.

The Guess Who recorded and released “No Time” twice with slightly different arrangements and mixes. The original version appeared as the lead track for the 1969 album “Canned Wheat.” This version is faster, is longer, sports a unique intro, has different guitar parts, and the vocal mix is different from the later version.

The earlier recording was not released as a single from “Canned Wheat,” as RCA chose “Laughing,” which radio also flipped and played “Undun,” giving The Guess Who a double-sided hit. Unhappy with the original versions of these two cuts, the band rerecorded “Laughing” and “Undun” at Phil Ramone’s A&R Studios for the single release. The album includes the updated versions and not the originals taped earlier at RCA with the rest of the cuts on “Canned Wheat.”

Later in 1969, the band re-recorded “No Time” for their next album: “American Woman.” The shorter version was picked to be the debut single of the album and the new mix proved to be popular with radio and the record buying public.

“No Time” was released in December 1969 and charted at #5 in early 1970. Most people will agree that the mix on this version is superior; however, the original has some interesting guitar work from Randy Bachman. Speaking of Bachman, the “American Woman” album was his last with The Guess Who before he formed Brave Belt with former Guess Who lead vocalist Chad Allen. Brave Belt later morphed into Bachman-Turner Overdrive.