Takin' Care of Business
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"Takin' Care of Business" is a song written and first recorded by Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Licensed as the theme to Office Depot commercials and re-recorded by many bands (including a famous cover by Alvin and The Chipmunks), this song is one of the most recognizable in Classic Rock.
The lyrics of the song extoll the virtues of being a professional musician, comparing the rock and roll lifestyle to the workaday world:
- And if your train's on time
- You can get to work by nine
- And start your slaving job to get your pay
- If you ever get annoyed
- Look at me I'm self-employed
- I love to work at nothing all day
Musically, the work is marked by a stomping piano part that helped propel the track and differentiate it from the band's standard guitar-based approach.
Takin' Care of Business was originally a tune by The Guess Who that never got released. It was originally titled "White Collar Worker", and very similar to the Beatles tune "Paperback Writer". The chorus was very similar sounding to "Paperback Writer". At each rehearsal before recording a new album, Randy Bachman would pitch in "White Collar Worker", each time it would get rejected. In the mid 70s, when he was in Bachman-Turner Overdrive, C.F. Turner needed Randy to sing the last set of a gig, Randy created Takin' Care of Business on stage. Takin' Care of Business reached to 12th spot on the Billboard charts. Since then, Randy has left BTO for a solo career and touring with the Guess Who. At many Guess Who concerts, lead singer Burton Cummings would introduce the song as now being a Guess Who song.