Takin' Care of Business
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Takin' Care of Business” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Bachman-Turner Overdrive | |||||
| Album | Bachman-Turner Overdrive II | ||||
| Released | December 1973 | ||||
| Recorded | 1973 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | ~4:54 | ||||
| Label | Mercury | ||||
| Writer | Randy Bachman | ||||
| Bachman-Turner Overdrive II track listing | |||||
|
|||||
"Takin' Care of Business" is a song written by Randy Bachman and first recorded by Canadian rock group Bachman-Turner Overdrive for their 1973 album Bachman-Turner Overdrive II. In 1990 a movie with the title Taking Care of Business (known in some parts of the world as "Filofax") starring Jim Belushi used the song in its soundtrack.
Licensed as the theme to Office Depot commercials and re-recorded by many bands (including a famous cover by The Chipmunks)[citation needed], this song is one of the most recognizable in Classic Rock.
Randy Bachman had written what would later become "Takin' Care of Business" while still a member of The Guess Who. His original idea was to write about a recording technician who worked on The Guess Who's recordings. This particular technician would take the 8:15 train to get to work, inspiring the lyrics "catch the 8:15 to the city." The standard uniform worn by technicians at the studio was a white collared shirt, which gave Randy the name "White Collar Worker."
The guitar riff Randy had arranged for the song was blatantly that of The Beatles' "Paperback Writer." When Randy first played this for Burton Cummings, Burton declared that he was ashamed of him.
Sometime later Randy was driving and listening to the radio when he heard that particular radio show's catch phrase "Takin' Care of Business." After this he rewrote the lyrics to "White Collar Worker" with a new chorus and the title "Takin' Care of Business." Along with this he wrote a new guitar riff, which was simply a I-VII-IV progression, played with a shuffle. (though the I-VII-IV progression is quite common, the riff became quite famous) The was recorded by Bachman-Turner Overdrive for their second album Bachman-Turner Overdrive II. It would reach #12 on Billboard and arguably become B.T.O.'s most well known song.
During his Every Song Tells a Story concert, which was recorded and released on DVD and VHS, he tells the story of how he came up with this song.
The song has been used as an advertising campaign for companies such as Office Depot, whose business target consists largely of small business owners. The song was also used for many years in advertisements for Officeworks, an Australian chain of office supply stores which bear much similarity to the US Office Depot stores. In New Zealand, mobile operator Vodafone has used the song in a series of advertisements for their business-oriented mobile plans. Many have noticed the irony of this, as the song focuses on being lazy; the song focuses on life of an unemployed musician, namely "work[ing] at nothing all day" an tongue-in-check calling it "taking care of business".
The song has been used in a number of movies including the James Belushi/Charles Grodin movie of the same title and A Knight's Tale.
In 2004, Bachman rewrote the song into a Christmas version titled "Takin' Care of Christmas," which was released on a Holiday CD of the same title. [1]
In addition, Randy Bachman of BTO uses the opening section of the song as the theme music of his CBC Radio One show, Vinyl Tap.
In his television show The Tom Green Subway Monkey Hour, Tom Green sings the song dressed as Elvis Presley whilst visiting Japan.
During the NASA space shuttle mission STS-115, the song was played at the start of day 5 for Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean.
The song played in several episodes of Australian soap Opera Neighbours between 2003 and 2006. The most recent use was in a scene where Robert Robinson lured his father, Paul into a mineshaft.
The song was used in the popular Australian Film 'Kenny' as the main theme song.
Among the many teams to use the song during sporting events, the New York Mets played the song after victories during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Their division rival Atlanta Braves used the song during their run of 14 consecutive division titles.
The opening riffs and melody to the song bears similarity to David Bowie's 1973 song Watch That Man from the Aladdin Sane album. No links between the artists or songs have been as of yet identified.
External Uses Currently being used in OfficeWorks commercial.
