BTO's Early Successes

Though based in Vancouver after 1972, Bachman-Turner Overdrive built its career mainly in the US, appearing as an opening act and then, by late 1974, as a concert headliner on the strength of a high-powered stage show and the hit singles 'Blue Collar,' 'Let It Ride,' and 'Takin' Care of Business'. The single 'You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet' sold more than a million copies in 1974 and was followed by the popular 'Roll On Down the Highway,' 'Hey You,' 'Take It Like a Man,' Lookin' Out for Number One,' and 'Down the Line'. Describing the group's music, Larry LeBlanc wrote: 'They've merged a hard-edged Memphis country/rock instrumental sound with the sweaty 1956-7 rock and roll and the hardness of the earliest days of British Mod. Overall, it's an unabashedly commercial hard-rock framework' (The Music Scene, Nov-Dec 1974).

The band's Canadian appearances began with a national tour in 1975, that included concerts at the Pacific Coliseum, the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), and other stadiums and arenas. The band also toured Europe (1975) and Japan (1976). Other albums issued by Mercury were Not Fragile (SRM-1-1004); Four Wheel Drive (SRM-1-1027) which became a platinum selling album during the first week of its release; Head On (SRM-1-1067); Freeways (SRM-1-3700); BTO Japan Tour Live (SRM-1-3703); and the compilation The Best of BTO (So Far) (SRM-1-1101).

The band received several Juno Awards beginning with most promising group (1974); in 1975 and 1976 they were named group of the year; they received Junos for best album of the year, three years in a row ((Bachman-Turner Overdrive, 1974;Not Fragile, 1975; and Four-Wheel Drive, 1976) and received single of the year for ('You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet', 1976), etc. Its first five LPs, and the The Best of BTO, each sold more than 100,000 copies in Canada and 500,000 in the USA. Total sales internationally exceeded an estimated 20 million.