Not many bands who sing about mac and cheese can claim to have sold over 15 million records.
But Barenaked Ladies has never followed a predictable path to fame. Unsigned to a major record label for years, the band found a steadfast and loyal following in its fans.
From early concerts wearing welding goggles to writing the theme song to a hit tv show to posting homemade performance videos during a pandemic, Barenaked Ladies may have done many things on the road to fame.
But none of them were predictable.
What About That Name?
The origin stories of so many bands can be traced to school days. Barenaked Ladies are no different. BNL, as they're known to their fans, started as the duo of Ed Robertson and Steven Page, who were school classmates while living in Scarborough, Ontario in the 1980s. Their parents may have listened to Bob Dylan, but Robertson and Page were interested in more lighthearted music.
They imagined a band that would sing songs about soup or wear welding goggles on stage. And the name of that imaginary fun-loving group? Barenaked Ladies.
Barenaked Ladies became real a few months later, when Robertson booked their first gig: a food bank benefit show at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto in October of 1988.
When the duo proved a hit with the audience, despite not rehearsing until five hours before the concert, they kept the name.
This online exhibition uses third-party applications including Spotify and YouTube. Check with your organization’s web administrator if you are unable to access content from these channels in the exhibition.
Listen: If I Had $1000000
At first, Barenaked Ladies played mostly covers at performances. But they soon moved into songwriting, often drawing inspiration from the humorous parts of life.
Their first indie tapes included songs that would become their trademarks, like "If I Had $1000000" and "Be My Yoko Ono." Now quintessential to their brand, their cultural references, like eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (aka Kraft Dinner), set them apart from other groups.
Listen for the many food references in this song, including a nod to the Canadian love of Kraft Dinner.
If I had a million dollars we wouldn't have to eat Kraft dinner
— Barenaked Ladies, "If I Had $1000000"
But we would eat Kraft dinner
Of course we would, we'd just eat more
And buy really expensive ketchups with it
That's right, all the fanciest dijon ketchups
Listen:
Booking BNL in Toronto
Hear how Yvonne Matsell, a noted booker of music acts in Toronto throughout from the 1980s to the 2000s, helped to get Barenaked Ladies their first few gigs in the city and some of their unusual ways they devised to attract an audience to their shows.
This online exhibition uses third-party applications including Spotify and YouTube. Check with your organization’s web administrator if you are unable to access content from these channels in the exhibition.
Recorded for Heritage Toronto, 2019.
View TranscriptYvonne Matsell: Hi, my name is Yvonne Matsell and I've been a booker of numerous clubs in Toronto, and I have had a history with many Canadian acts.
So the first couple of people who came to see me were two guys from a band called Barenaked. Ladies. And I booked them at the student hangout at Albert Hall’s, which was, you could do anything down there.
And it was pretty crazy.
So I booked Corky and the Juice Pigs and these two guys, Steve and Ed.
And they wore fezes and shorts and played acoustic guitar. And they were funny. And I'm thinking, no, this is not what I see for, you know, for this new club.
And then Mitch Potter wrote for The Star at the time called me and just said, “You know, Yvonne, I just heard the tape and they're really good. You should let them…take a listen to the music.”
So they came back and they brought me a demo and I thought, wow, this is pretty cool, you know?
So I thought I'd give them a try. I ended up giving them three months’ residency because they had an audience. They were starting out. The residency started to build up their crowd. I mean, the first couple of times they played, they literally were playing to moms and dads, but anyway, it turns out they ended up packing the room. Every body was interested in them.
They did smart things like play outside on the streets before the show. And it was like the pied piper bringing in people.
So it was really clever thinking on their behalf and they were really good, really excellent musicians.
Courtesy of The Flyer Vault
Local Shows & National Tours
Ed Roberton and Steven Page's early shows at bars in Toronto's Kensington Market and at the Horseshoe Tavern solidified their love of playing together and crowds went wild for their on-stage antics and unusual costumes.
Comedy became the band's calling card and they were soon invited to open for another music comedy group, Corky and the Juice Pigs, on a national tour.
As the gigs began to grow, so too did the band. In 1990, Robertson and Page recruited brothers Jim and Andy Creeggan, followed shortly by Tyler Stewart on drums.
Watch: A DIY Music Video
Too broke to record a music video of their own, the band crammed themselves into the Speaker's Corner box at MuchMusic headquarters on Queen Street West and performed a live version of "Be My Yoko Ono", a song from an early demo tape. National television coverage helped both with sales of their demo tapes and new gigs across Canada. But the band still didn't have a record deal.
This online exhibition uses third-party applications including Spotify and YouTube. Check with your organization’s web administrator if you are unable to access content from these channels in the exhibition.
Long before selfies and YouTube, Speaker's Corner, a self-recording video booth placed outside the MuchMusic studios, allowed anyone to record a short video of themselves. Watch the Barenaked Ladies cram themselves into the booth to make MuchMusic history with their short version of "Be My Yoko Ono" followed by their more formal debut at MuchMusic singing their classic "If I Had $1000000". Please note: This third party video does not provide closed captions.
View Transcript[A cover graphic appears for Speaker's Corner followed by a close-up shot of four men in a small space]
Male Voice 1: Hi, we’re the Barenaked Ladies.
Barenaked Ladies [Singing]: Speaker’s Corner. Speaker’s Corner. Go and try your luck.
Male Voice 1 [Speaking]: We’re a little too cheap to make our own video.
Barenaked Ladies [Singing]: Be my. Be my. Be my. Be my Yoko Ono.
Be my. Be my. Be my. Be my Yoko Ono.
Male Voice 2 [Speaking]: Remember, it’s intimate and interactive.
Barenaked Ladies [Singing] If I had a million dollars. I’d build a tree fort in our yard.
A Bruce Cockburn Tribute
In late 1991, BNL released their first “official” music video, but it wasn't for one of their songs. The video was for "Lovers in a Dangerous Time", a song from Kick in the Darkness, a tribute album in honour of Canadian music icon Bruce Cockburn.
With over 22 gold and platinum-certified albums, Cockburn is a multi-genre artist: equally at home playing folk, jazz, or rock. Born in Ottawa, Cockburn moved to Toronto in the late 1960s to become a professional musician with the band The Flying Circus but found success as a solo act, as both a singer-songwriter and guitar player. Cockburn's early albums were largely folk: he appeared at the 1967 Mariposa Folk Festival, an annual festival where other famous Canadian musicians like Gordon Lightfoot had performed.
By the 1980s, Cockburn's music had become more political and issue-focused. His 1984 song "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" reflected global concerns about the Cold War and the threat of nuclear war.
The video, filmed in Scarborough was funded by MUCHFact, a grant for Canadian recording artists to produce music videos. The funding, sponsored by media company CHUM Limited, was closely affiliated with MuchMusic, the music channel that had helped Barenaked Ladies introduce themselves to the world through the Speakers Corner box.
BNL's cover of the song and its video rocketed up the Canadian music charts, reaching the Top 40. It was the first time one of the band's songs had made the charts. Months later, the video also won a 1992 MuchMusic Video Award, further cementing BNL's new status as pop stars.
Watch: Lovers In A Dangerous Time
In the music video for the Barenaked Ladies' cover of Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers In A Dangerous Time", you can see glimpses of early 1990s Scarborough in the background. Scarborough is the hometown of band members Steven Page and Ed Robertson.
This online exhibition uses third-party applications including Spotify and YouTube. Check with your organization’s web administrator if you are unable to access content from these channels in the exhibition.
Official video for Barenaked Ladies' "Lovers in a Dangerous Time", music and lyrics by Bruce Cockburn. Please note: This third party video does not provide closed captions.
View Transcript♪Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by
You never get to stop and open your eyes
One day you're waiting for the sky to fall
The next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
These fragile bodies of touch and taste
This vibrant skin, this hair like lace
Spirits open to the thrust of grace
Never a breath you can afford to waste
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime
But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time♪
New Year's Eve 1991
A few short months after the band’s first-ever music video, the band was scheduled to play at Nathan Phillips Square for Toronto's New Year's Eve festivities to ring in 1992. However, city officials, supported by Mayor June Rowlands, deemed their name to be politically incorrect and cancelled the performance.
They weren't allowed to play in front of Toronto’s City Hall in 1991, but Barenaked Ladies did pose for Toronto Star photographer Mike Slaughter in Nathan Phillips Square.
But, as the adage says, there is no bad press. Toronto newspapers featured the story about the cancellation of the New Year's Eve performance. The band went from selling 400 cassettes of their music a week to 14,000 cassettes overnight.
Photograph by Mike Slaughter, courtesy of Toronto Star Photo Archives
Courtesy of Warner Brothers Media
Gordon
In 1992, the band released Gordon, their debut full-length album that was – despite their own critique of its cover art – a smashing success.
In its first 24 hours, it sold over 80,000 copies and stayed at the top of the charts for eight consecutive weeks.
The album contains some of the band's most classic songs, such as "Be My Yoko Ono", "Brian Wilson", and "What a Good Boy".
It's not easy to be hyperactive, brooding, and whimsical all at once, but the Barenaked Ladies do just that.
— Jon Pareles, "Gordon" Album Review, The New York Times, 1992
Watch: Kevin Hearn of BNL
The Barenaked Ladies gained a new band member in 1995: Kevin Hearn. Raised in North York, Hearn was familiar to the band from his work with Corky and the Juice Pigs as well as Rheostatics. Hearn became an instrumentalist for the band, performing on keyboards and guitar, following the departure of Andy Creeggan.
Born and raised in Toronto, Kevin Hearn's life has been filled with music from a young age, first as part of school and later as a musician in numerous groups throughout the city.
Although BNL remains a major part of his life, Hearn is also an accomplished solo artist who has worked with music luminaries such as Lou Reed and Gord Downey. His 2020 solo album, Calm and Cents, was nominated for a JUNO for best instrumental album of the year.
This online exhibition uses third-party applications including Spotify and YouTube. Check with your organization’s web administrator if you are unable to access content from these channels in the exhibition.
Hear Hearn describe his own musical upbringing in Toronto as a student at St. Michael's Choir School, performing at Massey Hall and Roy Thompson Hall in his youth. Video produced and directed by Blake Hannahson for Heritage Toronto.
View TranscriptKevin Hearn: I lived in a house up in North York, with my three brothers and two sisters and our parents. Our house was full of music and my grandmother would always ask me to sing Born Free by Andy Williams, which was a song my mom always played. She’d say “Oh, he has good pitch”.
And I remember St. Michael’s Choir School, they came to the school one day to recruit students. And I told my mom I want to go to that school. If I can have music around me all the time, that’s where I want to be.
We studied sacred music. We had to sing in the choir on Sundays at St. Michael’s Cathedral and we would also do our annual Christmas concerts at Massey Hall. So I started learning a lot about performing. They would teach us how to shine our shoes, how to walk out on stage in order.
You know I loved taking piano, but then I started discovering rock and roll and really loving rock and roll and songwriters like Neil Young and Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and the Beatles. And I remember the choir took part in the premiere performance of Mahler’s 8th Symphony in 1983 here at Roy Thompson Hall. And that was a very memorable to me because the power of the music really opened my ears to the beauty and power of classical music, and I think appreciation for both was a really important and healthy thing for me as far as developing as a musician.
(singing) Come, come, the sky is grey. I know we’ll find a way.
I had been playing with different groups in the Toronto music community, the Look People, the Rheostatics, Corky and the Juice Pigs. So the Barenaked Ladies would come to shows by the Rheostatics or the Juice Pigs and they saw me play. And they asked me to do a two-month tour with them. And this was in 1995 and after that tour, they asked me to join full-time.
We’ve been through a lot together, we’ve achieved a lot together. And even though I venture out and do many other things when I can, that’s sort of my home base.
Learning an instrument and learning music has been proven to help develop the brain and the mind. It gives young people a way to work through feelings, a way to express themselves that they may not be able to do in another way.
Listen: Stunt
In 1998, the band released their most successful album of their career: Stunt sold over four million copies during its run on the Billboard charts, signalling a revitalized popularity both at home and abroad. The lead single, "One Week", became a breakout hit, selling over five million copies.
The multiple award-winning album made the band the world's best-selling Canadian group in 1999.
The year was not without its challenges. Keyboardist Kevin Hearn was diagnosed with leukemia shortly after the album's release and spent the Stunt tour receiving chemotherapy treatments.
This online exhibition uses third-party applications including Spotify and YouTube. Check with your organization’s web administrator if you are unable to access content from these channels in the exhibition.
Courtesy of Warner Media Group
One Week
"One Week" quickly became Barenaked Ladies' most recognizable song, largely because of its quirky, almost nonsensical lyrics. Although many Canadian fans of the band were long familiar with the band's tendency to feature Canadian food in their lyrics, references to sushi and Swiss Chalet in a Billboard hit song were new to audiences outside of Canada.
Hold it now and watch the hoodwink
—"One Week", lyrics by Ed Robertson
As I make you stop, think
You'll think you're looking at Aquaman
I summon fish to the dish,
Although I like the Chalet Swiss
I like the sushi
Cause it's never touched a frying pan
A Big Bang
Several years passed before Barenaked Ladies released Maroon, a more serious and sophisticated album, in 2000. The album spawned three hit singles and reached number 5 on the Billboard charts. The band’s next big break came in 2007, during a concert in Los Angeles.
During the concert, Ed Robertson improvised a song inspired by scientist Simon Singh’s 2004 book, Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe. He later got a call from CBS producers who were working on a new sitcom – The Big Bang Theory.
Inspired by the improvised song he had heard at the LA concert, show producer Chuck Lorre asked Ed Robertson to write the theme. The inverse of writer’s block, Robertson wrote the whole song in under five minutes:
I got in the shower and the whole idea came to me in the course of a five minute shower...
I actually called my wife in and said “Can you write this down?!?” and dictated the first verse to her.
—Ed Robertson, Interview with Metro.co.uk, 2019
Although no one knew it at the time, The Big Bang Theory would become one of the most successful television shows, winning seven Emmy Awards and spawning a prequel series "Young Sheldon."
Premiering in September 2007 and in production until May 16, 2019, The Big Bang Theory lasted 12 seasons with 274 episodes, each and every one featuring the Barenaked Ladies’ earworm of a theme song.
Watch: Theme from The Big Bang Theory
Watch a special extended edition of Barenaked Ladies’ famous theme to The Big Bang Theory, featuring a behind-the-scenes look at the set and crew of this famous and award-winning CBS sitcom.
This online exhibition uses third-party applications including Spotify and YouTube. Check with your organization’s web administrator if you are unable to access content from these channels in the exhibition.
Courtesy of CBS. Please note: this third-party video does not provide closed captions.
View Transcript♪Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started, wait
The earth began to cool, the autotrophs began to drool
Neanderthals developed tools
We built a wall (we built the pyramids)
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries
That all started with the big bang! Hey!
Since the dawn of man is really not that long
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song
A fraction of a second and the elements were made
The bipeds stood up straight, the dinosaurs all met their fate
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The oceans and Pangea, see ya wouldn't wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same big bang!
It all started with the big bang!
It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will cause the stars to go the other way
Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it won't be hurt
Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang!
Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating how we're here, they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy (Descartes or Deuteronomy)
It all started with the big bang!
Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big bang!♪
Hall of Famers
Although founding band member Steven Page left the group in 2009, Barenaked Ladies continued to record albums and tour throughout the 2000s and 2010s.
In 2018, the band's original quintet lineup was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame during the JUNO Awards in Vancouver, British Columba, the first time in almost a decade all five members were together again on stage.
Photo by Ryan Bolton
BNL in 2020
Although Barenaked Ladies had planned to spend 2020 on tour, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic put any hope of touring on hold. Under lockdown in their homes, the group continued to perform together even though they were physically apart. Syncing up with each other using video conferencing tools, the band posted new versions of some of their most famous songs online, encouraging viewers to stay home and safe during the pandemic.
Watch: Pinch Me
In support of Global Citizen, a movement of engaged citizens who are using their collective voice to end extreme poverty by 2030, the Barenaked Ladies recorded several #SelfieCamJams during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. They recorded this version of "Pinch Me" a hit from their 2000 Maroon album with slightly modified lyrics to reflect the lockdown.
This online exhibition uses third-party applications including Spotify and YouTube. Check with your organization’s web administrator if you are unable to access content from these channels in the exhibition.
Courtesy of the Barenaked Ladies. Please note: this third-party video does not provide closed captions.
View TranscriptEd Robertson: Well, hello good people of the internet. It's time for another Selfie Cam Jam. We recommend you check out the good work that Global Citizen is doing. You can go to GlobalCitizen.org/coronavirus and see if you can help out. We're going to keep bringing you these selfie cam jams as we try to get through this isolation with all of you. We are isolating but we are not isolated. Reach out to your friends. Reach out to your family. The only way to get through something like this is together. Enjoy.
Kevin Hearn: Ready Jim? Ready Ty? Here we go with "Pinch Me".
♪[Singing] It's the perfect time of year
Somewhere far away from here
I feel fine enough, I guess
Considering everything's a mess
There's a restaurant down the street
Where hungry people like to eat
I could walk but I'll just drive
We're not supposed to go outside.
Like a dream you try to remember but it's gone
(Pinch me) Then you try to scream but it only comes out as a yawn
(I'm still asleep) When you try to see the world, beyond your front door
(Please God) Take your time, is the way I rhyme gonna make you smile
(Tell me) When you realize that a guy my size might take a while
(I'm still asleep) Just to try to figure out what all this is for
It's the perfect time of day
To throw all your cares away
Put the sprinkler on the lawn
And run through with my no clothing on
Take a drink right from the stove
And change into some warmer clothes
Climb the stairs up to my room
Sleep away the afternoon
Like a dream you try to remember but it's gone
(Pinch me) Then you try to scream but it only comes out as a yawn
(I'm still asleep) When you try to see the world, beyond your front door
(Please God) Take your time, is the way I rhyme gonna make you smile
(Tell me) When you realize that a guy my size might take a while
(I'm still asleep) Just to try to figure out what all this is for
Pinch me, pinch me, cause I'm still asleep
Please God tell me that I'm still asleep
On an evening such as this
It's hard to tell if I exist
If I pack the car and leave this town
Who'll notice that I'm not around
I could hide out under there
I just made you say "underwear"
I could leave but I'll just stay
All my stuff's here anyway
Like a dream you try to remember but it's gone
(Pinch me) Then you try to scream but it only comes out as a yawn
(I'm still asleep) When you try to see the world, beyond your front door
(Please God) Take your time, is the way I rhyme gonna make you smile
(Tell me) When you realize that a guy my size might take a while
(I'm still asleep) Just to try to figure out what all this is for
Try to figure out what all this is for
(Pinch me) (I'm still asleep) Try to see the world beyond your front door
(Pinch me) (I'm still asleep) Try to figure out what all this is for ♪
Dive Deeper
Official Website of Barenaked Ladies
Paul Myers, Barenaked Ladies: Public Stunts, Private Stories. Toronto: Touchstone Books, 2003.
Talk to the Hand: Live in Michigan (2007), DVD