You might know many songs that include stuttering: My Sharona, Benny and the Jets, Foolin’ by Def Leppard, David Bowie’s Changes, and many more – but Bachman Turner Overdrive’s You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet is based on someone who actually stuttered – Randy Bachman’s brother, Gary. In fact, Randy recorded the song with stuttering lyrics with the idea that his brother would be the only person ever to hear it.
Randy Bachman said about the recording, “He stuttered. We thought, just for fun…. We’d take this song and I’d stutter and we’d send it to him. He’ll have the only copy in the world of this song by BTO.”
But the song never stayed in the proverbial basement. Mercury Records asked the band if they had a ‘leftover’ song for the album Not Fragile, as it lacked a potential hit song. Randy told the label, “Well, we have this one song, but it’s a joke.” He said he’d include it if he could re-record the vocals, but the record company didn’t like the new version. In fact, they insisted that the stuttering version be released. You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet became the band’s only chart-topper.
Gary Bachman said he never even knew the song was about him until he read his brother’s autobiography decades later.
He eventually found fluency through speech therapy.
In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Jane Fraser, President of The Stuttering Foundation - a non-profit organization helping those who stutter - stated that people who stutter often frown on songs that feature stuttering thinking it’s done in jest, but this song was actually about a real person - that changed people’s attitudes towards it. However, it took 37 years for the real story behind the song to come out in a Winnipeg newspaper article. And when it did, The Stuttering Foundation says they were swamped by emails and calls from Canadian people who stutter, saying they were inspired by the story behind the BTO song and Gary Bachman’s journey.
They called in to the Foundation, looking to pursue speech therapy after reading the article. One person even said that they had changed the station every time the song came on because it was too painful, until he learned the true story behind it. Then it became his favorite song.
Bachman Turner Overdrive’s You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart 50 years ago this month. And Randy Bachman is still touring around the world with his band, stuttering his way through the melody that struck a chord with the masses.
For KVCR News, I’m Shareen Awad.
