The Guess Who
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50 free The Guess Who trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Guess Who put Canadian rock on American radio. A band from Winnipeg turned an onstage jam into 'American Woman' and followed it with a run of singles that classic rock stations still lean on. Their story has a name that began as a record-label prank, a songwriting partnership that split at its peak, and a decades-long argument over who owns the band. This quiz covers the songs and the stories behind them, from the Wheatfield Soul breakthrough to 'Undun', 'Laughing', 'No Sugar Tonight' and 'Running Back to Saskatoon'. It also follows Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman into their later careers, the reunions, the films and cover versions that kept the music alive, and the changing lineup, up to the pair reclaiming the name. It suits classic rock fans, Canadian music lovers and pub quiz hosts building a 1970s round. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Guess Who's 'American Woman' riff was born on stage in Ontario while Randy Bachman was doing what?
Retuning after a broken string
Retuning after a broken string, Bachman hit on a riff he wanted to remember and kept playing it. The band jammed along, and a fan's bootleg tape saved the words Burton Cummings made up on the spot.
Q 02Which American rock star's 1999 cover of the Guess Who's 'American Woman' for an Austin Powers film won him a Grammy?
Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz dropped the famous guitar solo, later telling Randy Bachman he couldn't get the tone. His slower version won the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.
Q 03Which actor, as Lester Burnham, performs the Guess Who's 'American Woman' in Sam Mendes's 1999 film American Beauty?
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey won the Best Actor Oscar for playing Lester, an advertising executive in the grip of a midlife crisis. American Beauty took five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Q 04The Guess Who performed at the White House for which US president's family, leaving 'American Woman' off the set?
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon's wife Pat was long said to have vetoed the song as anti-American. Burton Cummings later said dropping it was the band's own idea, and the ban story was a publicity stunt by their manager.
Q 05Burton Cummings says the Guess Who first jammed 'American Woman' on stage at what kind of Ontario venue?
A curling rink
A curling rink in Scarborough called the Broom and Stone is the setting Cummings gives for the jam, on a night when the band played two shows. Randy Bachman puts the concert in Kitchener.
Q 06Randy Bachman took the title of the Guess Who's 'No Sugar Tonight' from a woman he saw scolding whom in California?
A tough-looking biker
A tough-looking biker, one of three who had unnerved Bachman on the street, was told off by a tiny woman for leaving her alone with the kids. Her parting threat gave the song its title.
Q 07Burton Cummings learned which instrument from scratch to play the solo on the Guess Who's 1969 hit 'Undun'?
Flute
Flute fingering matched the saxophone Cummings already played, so the band bought one at a music store and he taught himself the part. Randy Bachman calls 'Undun' his favourite of his Guess Who songs.
Q 08Which American disc jockey talks on the Guess Who's 1974 top ten single from the album Road Food?
Wolfman Jack
Wolfman Jack ad-libs in his on-air voice through the tribute, and he joined the band to perform it on The Midnight Special. On other nights Burton Cummings did the impression himself.
Q 09Which veteran band headlined the 2003 Toronto benefit where the reunited Guess Who played to roughly 450,000 people?
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones suggested the show to revive Toronto's economy after the SARS outbreak and closed it with a 90-minute set. It was the largest outdoor ticketed event in Canadian history.
Q 10The Guess Who's 1969 hit 'Laughing' soundtracks director Todd Phillips's camera-test clip for which 2019 film?
Joker
Joker lead Joaquin Phoenix appears in character as the DC Comics villain in the test footage, which Phillips shared on Instagram with the song as its soundtrack.
Q 11Which 1969 ballad, soon covered by Junior Walker, gave the Guess Who their first US top ten hit?
These Eyes
These Eyes reached number six in the US and sold a million copies, though the band had feared the gentle ballad strayed too far from their rock roots.
Q 12A Canadian label credited a 1965 single to 'Guess Who?' hoping buyers would link the mystery act to which pop movement?
The British Invasion
The British Invasion was in full swing, so Quality Records hinted that famous English stars were recording incognito. DJs kept using the joke credit, and the group had to adopt it as a name.
Q 13Which Bachman–Turner Overdrive anthem did Randy Bachman begin as 'White Collar Worker' while still in the Guess Who?
Q 21Which Muppet abandons a karaoke 'American Woman' in a viral video, then learns the Guess Who song is Canadian?
Sam Eagle
Sam Eagle, the Muppets' resident patriot, stops mid-song in protest at the lyrics. Finding out that the anthem he picked comes from Canada upsets him even more.
Q 22Which song, a 1960 UK chart-topper for Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, gave the future Guess Who a Canadian number one?
Shakin' All Over
Shakin' All Over reached number one in Canada in spring 1965 and number 22 in the US. The Who later put a famous version of the same song on their album Live at Leeds.
Q 23Which Guess Who song was recorded twice, the faster remake on the American Woman album becoming the hit single?
No Time
Takin' Care of Business
Takin' Care of Business was shelved after Burton Cummings said its chorus sounded so much like the Beatles' 'Paperback Writer' that they would be sued. A Vancouver DJ's catchphrase later gave it a new hook.
Q 14Which singer, once a fellow teenage musician in Winnipeg, sings on Guess Who founder Randy Bachman's 'Prairie Town'?
Neil Young
Neil Young sings and plays guitar on both the fast and slow versions, which Bachman said stand for winter and summer in Winnipeg. The videos were partly shot in Young's California barn.
Q 15The Guess Who's 'Glamour Boy' was Burton Cummings's reaction to the rise of which theatrical glam-rock singer?
David Bowie
David Bowie made Cummings feel threatened, he later admitted, because looks and theatrics had started to outrank the music. After Bowie's death he took to performing the song as a tribute.
Q 16Randy Bachman's conversion to which faith left him at odds with the Guess Who's rock lifestyle before he quit in 1970?
Mormonism
Mormonism left Bachman uneasy with the band's rock 'n' roll lifestyle, and gall bladder trouble made touring harder still. He played his last show in May 1970, at the height of the band's fame.
Q 17The Guess Who's 1968 split album A Wild Pair could be bought only by mailing bottle-cap liners to which company?
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola asked for ten bottle-cap liners and a dollar for shipping. The band shared the record with Ottawa's Staccatos, who soon found fame as the Five Man Electrical Band.
Q 18Which American band covered the Guess Who's 'Running Back to Saskatoon' on stage in Saskatoon in both 2005 and 2011?
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder muddled the lyrics on one visit, so the band tried the song again before the night ended and brought a fan up to sing it properly.
Q 19Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman reunited in 1997 for a benefit after what disaster hit the Guess Who's hometown?
A flood
A flood emergency in Winnipeg brought the two songwriters together at a relief fundraiser organised by actor Tom Jackson. Two years later all four classic members shared a stage again.
Q 20Winnipeg's 1907 Walker landmark, renamed for Guess Who singer Burton Cummings in 2002, is what kind of building?
A theatre
A theatre built to be fireproof, it opened with Puccini's Madame Butterfly and seated about 1,800. The singer it now honours grew up in the city and left high school at 17 to play music.
No Time first appeared in 1969 with an extended guitar solo. The tighter remake reached number five in the US, and Randy Bachman called it the band's stab at country rock.
Q 24Which 1970 top ten hit gave its title to the Guess Who's first album made without Randy Bachman?
Share the Land
Share the Land looks ahead to a day when everyone lives together. Burton Cummings wrote it alone, and its album introduced the two guitarists hired to fill Bachman's shoes.
Q 25Which 1974 Guess Who single spent 19 weeks on the Hot 100, longer than even the chart-topping 'American Woman'?
Star Baby
Star Baby peaked at only number 39, yet it lingered four weeks longer than the band's number one. Burton Cummings wrote it in about 20 minutes, imagining a roadie's romance with a touring singer.
Q 26The Guess Who's single 'Running Back to Saskatoon' is a live 1972 recording, never redone in a studio, from which city?
Seattle
Seattle's Paramount hosted the show that became the album Live at the Paramount. The radio edit trimmed the six-minute performance to under three and a half.
Q 27Burton Cummings moved in 2017 to which Saskatchewan city, a place named in the Guess Who's 'Running Back to Saskatoon'?
Moose Jaw
Moose Jaw gets a mention alongside Moosomin, Red Deer and Medicine Hat in the song's roll call of western towns. Cummings had spent many years in Sherman Oaks, California, before the move.
Q 28Which founding Guess Who bassist quietly trademarked the band's name for himself and toured hired lineups for decades?
Jim Kale
Jim Kale found in the 1980s that the name had never been trademarked and filed for it without telling his old bandmates. Bachman and Cummings finally won it back in a 2024 settlement.
Q 29The Guess Who's first two albums were credited to which founding singer 'and the Expressions' before he left in 1966?
Chad Allan
Chad Allan took his stage name from folk singer Chad Mitchell and started the group at high school in 1958. After leaving he went back to college and later hosted a CBC music show.
Q 30Domenic Troiano, the Guess Who's final lead guitarist, had earlier replaced Joe Walsh in which American rock band?
James Gang
James Gang made two albums with Troiano in 1972. Raised in Toronto, he joined the Guess Who for their last two albums, and the jazz-rock turn he brought helped split the band.