Iconic Appearances on Upbeat in the 1970s
The Guess Who were a legendary Canadian rock band. They penned several hits like “American Woman” and “No Time.” In the early 1970s, The Guess Who made multiple memorable appearances on the pioneering music TV show “Upbeat,” filmed in Cleveland, Ohio.
Making a Name Outside Canada
“Upbeat” was a groundbreaking program that brought top musical acts to national audiences from 1964 to 1971. The Guess Who’s performances on “Upbeat” in 1970, captured in a YouTube video, provided a glimpse of their electrifying live shows during their prime years.
What made “Upbeat” truly innovative was its distribution model. The show would be recorded on Saturdays, copied to videotape, and then distributed to TV markets across the country over 6 weeks. This allowed emerging artists like The Guess Who to rapidly gain national exposure and popularity. For The Guess Who, this was a unique opportunity to access the US music market and build a name outside Canada.
How Did UPBEAT Come About?
“Upbeat” was the brainchild of producer Herman Spero and originally hosted by Don Webster when it premiered in 1964. It paved the way for other iconic music shows like “Shindig”, “Hullabaloo”, and “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert”. The show’s legacy was so significant that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame honored it with a commemorative plaque.For The Guess Who and the multitude of legendary musicians who appeared, “Upbeat” provided an invaluable platform to showcase their talents to audiences nationwide during the 1960s and 1970s.
The Guess Who were one of the many iconic acts like “B.B. King, The Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, The Monkees, The Who, Three Dog Night” and more that “graced the TV screen from the Cleveland studios of WEWS” on “Upbeat”.
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