| "American Woman" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover of the 1970 German single | ||||
| Single bythe Guess Who | ||||
| from the albumAmerican Woman | ||||
| B-side | "No Sugar Tonight" | |||
| Released | March 1970 (1970-03) | |||
| Recorded | August 13, 1969 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length |
| |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Producer | Jack Richardson | |||
| The Guess Who singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Audio | ||||
| "The Guess Who - American Woman (Official Audio)" onYouTube | ||||
"American Woman" is a song by Canadianrock bandthe Guess Who, released January 1970, from thealbum of the same name. It was later released in March 1970 as a single backed with "No Sugar Tonight", and it reached number one for three weeks commencing May 9 on both the United States'Billboard Hot 100[4][5] and the CanadianRPM magazine singles chart.[6]Billboard magazine placed the single at number three on theYear-End Hot 100 singles of 1970 list,[7] and it was listed as number five for 1970 on the RPM Year-End Chart. On May 22, 1970, the single was certified as gold by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[8] It also reached the top ten in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria, and the top twenty in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Produced byJack Richardson, the single was recorded on August 13, 1969, at RCA's Mid-America Recording Center inChicago.[9]
The music and lyrics of the song "American Woman" were improvised on stage during a concert inSouthern Ontario[10] GuitaristRandy Bachman recalled it being at a concert inKitchener,[11] although lead singerBurton Cummings said it was at the Broom and Stone, acurling rink inScarborough.[12] Bachman was playing notes while tuning his guitar after replacing a broken string, and he realized he was playing a new riff that he wanted to remember. He continued playing it and the other band members returned to the stage and joined in, creating ajam session in which Cummings improvised the lyrics.[11] They noticed a kid with a cassette recorder making abootleg recording and asked him for the tape.[13] They listened to the tape and noted down the words that Cummings had extemporized, and which he later revised.[12]
The song's lyrics have been the matter of debate, often interpreted as an attack on U.S. politics (especially thedraft). Cummings, who composed the lyrics, said in 2013 that they had nothing to do with politics. "What was on my mind was that girls in the States seemed to get older quicker than our girls and that made them, well, dangerous. When I said 'American woman, stay away from me,' I really meant 'Canadian woman, I prefer you.' It was all a happy accident."[12]
Jim Kale, the group's bassist, explained his take on the lyrics:
The popular misconception was that it was a chauvinistic tune, which was anything but the case. The fact was, we came from a very strait-laced, conservative, laid-back country, and all of a sudden, there we were in Chicago, Detroit, New York – all these horrendously large places with their big city problems. After that one particularly grinding tour, it was just a real treat to go home and see the girls we had grown up with. Also, the war was going on, and that was terribly unpopular. We didn't have a draft system in Canada, and we were grateful for that. A lot of people called it anti-American, but it wasn't really. We weren't anti-anything.John Lennon once said that the meanings of all songs come after they are recorded. Someone else has to interpret them.[10]
Bachman expressed the view in 2014 that it was "an anti-war protest song", explaining that when they came up with it on stage, the band and the audience had a problem with theVietnam War. Said Bachman: "We had been touring the States. This was the late '60s, one time at the US/Canada border in North Dakota they tried to draft us and send us to Vietnam. We were back in Canada, playing in the safety of Canada where the dance is full of draft dodgers who've all left the States".[11]
It is a commonly held myth that The Guess Who were invited to play at theWhite House on July 17, 1970, shortly after the song's release. Because of its perceivedanti-American lyrics,Pat Nixon, the wife of PresidentRichard Nixon, asked that they not play "American Woman".[14]
While most of the band'scharting songs during this period were credited to just Bachman or Cummings or the two of them, this piece was credited to all four members of the band, in keeping with the way they all first improvised it together on stage. This full-band writing credit happened only one other time on a Guess Who single, with their 1973 top 20 Canadian hit "Follow Your Daughter Home", albeit with a different line-up.
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[27] | 2× Platinum | 160,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[28] | Gold | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
| "American Woman" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Standard non-US artwork | ||||
| Single byLenny Kravitz | ||||
| from the album5andAustin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me | ||||
| B-side | "Fields of Joy" (live) | |||
| Released | May 10, 1999 (1999-05-10) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length |
| |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Producer | Lenny Kravitz | |||
| Lenny Kravitz singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Lenny Kravitz - American Woman (Official Music Video)" onYouTube | ||||
American singer-songwriterLenny Kravitz covered "American Woman" for the soundtrack ofAustin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. It was released as a single in May 1999 and was later included on the reissue of Kravitz's 1998 album5. Kravitz's version, which he produced himself, is slower and softer than the original, without the signature guitar solo; he later said to Randy Bachman that the reason why he skipped the lead guitar part was "I couldn't get the sound. I couldn't get the tone."[31]
The cover reached the top 20 in Australia, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, and Spain, as well as number 26 in Canada and number 49 on the USBillboardHot 100. The music video (directed byPaul Hunter) featured actressHeather Graham (who starred inThe Spy Who Shagged Me). In 1999, the Guess Who joined Kravitz and his band for a live performance of "American Woman" at theMuchMusic Video Awards.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 42nd Annual Grammy Awards | Best Male Rock Vocal Performance | Won[32] |
UK and European CD single[33]
Australasian CD EP[34]
| Chart (1999) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[35] | 14 |
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[36] | 26 |
| Canada Rock/Alternative (RPM)[37] | 2 |
| Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[38] | 16 |
| France (SNEP)[39] | 88 |
| Germany (GfK)[40] | 78 |
| Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40)[41] | 2 |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40 Tipparade)[42] | 8 |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)[43] | 59 |
| New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[44] | 12 |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[45] | 19 |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[46] | 59 |
| USBillboard Hot 100[47] | 49 |
| USAdult Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[48] | 18 |
| USAdult Pop Airplay (Billboard)[49] | 23 |
| USAlternative Airplay (Billboard)[50] | 7 |
| USMainstream Rock (Billboard)[51] | 3 |
| USPop Airplay (Billboard)[52] | 17 |
| Chart (1999) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[53] | 71 |
| Canada Rock/Alternative (RPM)[54] | 10 |
| US Adult Top 40 (Billboard)[55] | 79 |
| US Mainstream Rock Tracks (Billboard)[56] | 14 |
| US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)[57] | 96 |
| US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)[56] | 24 |
| Chart (2000) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Adult Top 40 (Billboard)[58] | 87 |
| US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)[59] | 96 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[60] | Gold | 35,000^ |
| United States | — | 655,489[61] |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref(s). |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | May 10, 1999 | Virgin | [62] | |
| June 21, 1999 | [63][64] | |||
| United Kingdom | August 30, 1999 |
| [65] |
"American Woman" has been covered by a number of artists. In 1982, Swisshard rock bandKrokus included a cover on their albumOne Vice at a Time.[66]Butthole Surfers released a cover version on a bonus 5" vinyl single included with their 1985 home video releaseBlind Eye Sees All. The 2002 DVD reissue uses the same version as background music for the bonus photo gallery. They also made a drum-heavy experimental remix version of this recording, which appeared on their 1986 albumRembrandt Pussyhorse.[67]Anal Cunt recorded agrindcore version for their 1995 albumTop 40 Hits.[68][69]
The Memphis alternative rock band, Muddy Magnolias, borrowed the title and referenced the main riff in the song's bridge, but their "American Women" is otherwise a different song.
The song was featured inSam Mendes's filmAmerican Beauty, performed by main character Lester Burnham (played byKevin Spacey).[70]Sam Eagle (voiced byEric Jacobson) performed akaraoke version of this song in aMuppets viral video, until he stops in protest of its lyrics, and finds that it is a Canadian song even more upsetting. It was used in the trailer for the 2012HBO filmGame Change. A version sung by an older man at a karaoke bar (Harper Roisman) was used in the filmThe Cable Guy (1996). It was heard during the ending credits of theWitchblade TV film (2000), starringYancy Butler and based on theTop Cowcomic book series. "American Woman" was featured in the second installment of theAustin Powers film trilogy,The Spy Who Shagged Me, with Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) dancing provocatively whilst it played. The song was featured in the second episode ofDue South's first season, "Diefenbaker's Day Off".Kelly Clarkson recorded a cover version of the song as a theme song from theParamount Network TV series,American Woman.
This song was originally written and performed at a curling club in Waterloo, Ontario, which at that time brought in bands. The club has since closed and became a Home Hardware Store on Weber St. near University Ave. Not far from Laurier University. There is a commemorative plaque inside the current store memorializing this event.
We were playing out in Scarborough, at this curling arena called Broom and Stone.
It was jammed onstage one night in Mississauga, Ontario, we were playing at a club called the Broom & Stone which was actually a curling rink and doing two shows that night. Between the two shows, I was outside bartering with this kid, he had some old Gene Vincent records that I wanted to get for my collection and tried to strike up a deal with this guy. The next thing I know, it's time to start the second show and the other three guys have gone back on stage and I hear them start this riff ... I said to this guy, Oh my God; I'm supposed to be on stage man, I've got to run, I'll see you later about these Gene Vincent records. I run inside and run up onto the stage and just grab a microphone and singing whatever came into my head; it was all stream of consciousness at the moment stuff ... all that stuff about war machines and ghetto scenes, colored lights can hypnotize... it was all just spur-of-the-moment. And nobody would have ever heard it again but there happened to be a kid bootlegging the show that night. This was way back in the 60's and he had a cassette machine, and those machines were a relatively new invention at that time. But this was 1968, forty-five years ago. We noticed this onstage as the night went on and he still kept recording. So we motioned to our road manager, go get that tape, go get that tape! He got the cassette tape and we listened to it later and heard this jam about American Woman stay away from me. So we actually kind of learned it from that tape, otherwise nobody would have ever heard it again. So talk about a Cinderella story. And that was a monstrous hit record for us; it was number one on Billboard for three weeks. So it was all an accident, I guess the music gods were smiling on us. The music gods probably sent that kid with the cassette machine.
