Top Canadian Bands
Canada is proud of many singers and bands and mentioning all will make for a huge list. Some of the
most famous music bands in the country are RUSH, The Tragically Hip, The Steppenwolf, the Band, and The Guess Who, among other talented performers.
Formed back in 1968 in the Toronto’s neighborhood of Willowdale,
RUSH is the all-time best Canadian rock band. Originally, members of RUSH were: Geddy Lee, front-man, lead vocalist, keyboardist and bassist, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer John Rutsey. Six years after its formation, the band accepted drummer and lyrics writer Neil Peart in Rutsey’s place and took its first tour in the United States. The bands debut album, Rush, was released on the market in July 1974. It was a pleasant medley of heavy metal progressive rock with hard rock, and the band is true to the style to this day. Rush’s latest album is Snakes & Arrows (2006).
The Tragically Hip is the second most famous hard rock band in Canada. The band was formed in 1983 in Kingston,
Ontario, by guitarist and lead vocalist Gordon Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay’s. the discography of Tragically Hip includes twelve studio albums, two live albums, and forty-six singles. The band has won fourteen Juno awards in its collection and its latest album is We Are the Same (2009).
Number three on the list is a Canadian-American rock band going by the name
Steppenwolf, which is also a novel by Herman Hesse. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1967 by guitarist Michael Monarch, vocalist John Kay, keyboardist Goldy McJohn, bassist Rushton Moreve, and drummer Jerry Edmonton, following the dissolution of
Toronto-based blues & rock band The Sparrows. Steppenwolf’s third single “Born to be wild” was the song which rocketed the band to world
fame. Steppenwolf’s latest album is Heretics & Privateers, released in 2001.
The Band is the fourth most popular music formation in
Canada. The band’s history can be divided in two periods: the first is spanning from its creation in 1967 to 1976 and the second – from 1983 to 1999. During the first period, The Band consisted of four Canadian musicians: Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko and one American, Levon Helm, each of them playing several different instruments. In 1976, the group broke up and got back together in 1983, without one of its founders, Robbie Robertson. In 2008, The Band received the Grammy's lifetime achievement award, and its latest studio album is jubilation (1998)
The Guess Who is the fifth most popular music band in the country. The band was formed back in 1965 in Winnipeg, Manitoba and achieved international fame in the late 1960s with the evergreen hits American Woman, These Eyes and Share the Land. American Woman made The Guess Who the only Canadian band with a No 1 hit on the American charts. One of the band’s latest live shows was at the closing ceremony of the Pan American Games in Winnipeg in 1999, which was followed by a tour in Canada and the United States in 2000.
Nickelback is an alternative rock band formed in 1995 with lead vocal Chad Krueger. They debuted in 1996 with the album Curb, yet their main stream success came in 2001 with Silver Side Up. The single “How You Remind Me” reached the 1st position on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, while the next hit single, “Too Bad” hit the top of the Mainstream Rock Chart.