Barenaked Ladies

By fusing witty humor with a broad blend of folk and pop/rock, the Barenaked Ladies first built a strong following across Canada and later achieved wider global recognition. Their 1992 debut full-length Gordon included the tracks “Be My Yoko Ono,” “If I Had a $1,000,000,” and “Brian Wilson,” reached the top of the Canadian charts, and established the group as the country’s leading pop act. The 1998 release Stunt propelled them to major commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to the number-one single “One Week,” climbing to number three on the Billboard 200 while entering the U.K. Top 20. Additional high-charting sets arrived with Maroon in 2000, Everything to Everyone in 2003, and Barenaked Ladies Are Men in 2006, and the band ultimately collected seven Juno Awards. After co-founder Steven Page departed, vocalist Ed Robertson kept the ensemble moving forward, refining its sound while maintaining its core audience; the resulting albums, among them All in Good Time (2010), Grinning Streak (2013), and Silver Ball (2015), regularly appeared in the upper reaches of the Rock Albums chart. The sixteenth long-player, Detour de Force, surfaced in 2021, and In Flight followed in 2023.

Robertson and Page formed the band in the late 1980s as an acoustic duo, performing on college campuses and opening for comedy ensembles. Between numbers they began trading humorous remarks to keep listeners engaged, a tactic that helped define the group’s signature blend of comedy and music. After those campus tours the lineup expanded into a full band with the addition of bassist Jim Creeggan, keyboardist Andy Creeggan, and drummer Tyler Stewart. Early cassette releases grew the local following, yet 1991’s Yellow Tape stood apart, becoming the first independently issued tape to attain platinum certification in Canada. Toronto mayor June Rowlands deemed the band’s name offensive to women and barred them from a planned 1991 New Year’s Eve show at City Hall; the resulting front-page story in The Toronto Star drove further sales of the tape. Record companies soon expressed interest, leading to a deal with Sire/Reprise and the release of Gordon in 1992.

While grunge dominated, producer Ben Mink guided the mellower folk-pop effort Maybe You Should Drive in 1994, whose songs “Alternative Girlfriend” and “Jane” found favor on college radio. Before work on a third album could begin, Andy Creeggan exited to study overseas, and guitarist/keyboardist Kevin Hearn of Look People joined for a joint tour with Billy Bragg before becoming a permanent member. The 1996 album Born on a Pirate Ship followed, and the band gained wider attention with a performance of its Top 40 single “The Old Apartment” on an episode of Beverly Hills 90210. American audiences responded strongly, selling out summer dates whose recordings appeared on the live set Rock Spectacle; the album became the group’s first U.S. gold-certified release and showcased its celebrated stage energy.

Issued in July 1998, the fourth studio album Stunt elevated the Barenaked Ladies to arena-level stardom in both the United States and United Kingdom. Powered by “One Week,” it entered the Billboard charts at number three and eventually surpassed four million copies sold. The subsequent North American tour moved into stadiums, while Hearn took a six-month break after a leukemia diagnosis; Geggy Tah’s Greg Kurstin and multi-instrumentalist Chris Brown covered his parts. Following a bone marrow transplant in October, Hearn rejoined the band at its commercial height. Maroon appeared two years later, earned platinum status on the strength of “Pinch Me,” secured two Juno Awards for Best Pop Album and Best Group, and earned a Grammy nomination. The retrospective Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits (1991–2001) arrived in fall 2001.

Everything to Everyone fulfilled the Reprise contract in 2003 and sold modestly, prompting the label to pass on renewal and returning the band to independent status. They launched Desperation Records and issued Barenaked for the Holidays in 2004, followed by the companion albums Barenaked Ladies Are Me (2006) and Barenaked Ladies Are Men (2007), then the children’s project Snacktime! in 2008. During the Snacktime! tour, Steven Page was arrested for cocaine possession; several dates were canceled, charges were later reduced to misdemeanors, and Page announced his departure in early 2009.

Now a quartet, the band formed Raisin’ Records and returned with All in Good Time in 2010, featuring lead vocals from Robertson, Hearn, and Jim Creeggan. The 2011 compilation Hits from Yesterday & the Day Before preceded the 2012 collection Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before!, which gathered unreleased demos, outtakes, live recordings, and B-sides from 1992–2003 alongside two earlier rarities. Grinning Streak, the second studio album after Page’s exit, appeared in 2013. Inspired by Robertson’s interest in pinball, Silverball arrived in 2015, reuniting the group with producer Gavin Brown and including the single “Say What You Want.” The band supported the album on the Last Summer on Earth 2015 tour alongside Violent Femmes and Men at Work’s Colin Hay, later releasing the live recording BNL Rocks Red Rocks in spring 2016.

A second Last Summer on Earth outing in 2016 paired them with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Howard Jones; onstage collaborations with the New York a cappella group the Persuasions led to a joint studio project. The resulting 2017 album Ladies and Gentlemen: Barenaked Ladies & the Persuasions, again produced by Gavin Brown, reworked earlier Barenaked Ladies material and covered the Persuasions’ 1972 hit “Good Times.” Later that year the band issued its thirteenth studio album (and fifteenth overall), Fake Nudes, whose single “Lookin’ Up” reached number 24 in Canada and entered the Billboard 200’s top 50.

Detour de Force emerged in 2021 after partial recording at Robertson’s cottage studio and completion at Toronto’s Noble Street Studios. Delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the set was produced by Eric Ratz and Mark Howard and included songwriting contributions from longtime associate Better Than Ezra singer Kevin Griffin. Ratz also produced the eighteenth studio album, In Flight, released in September 2023 and featuring the singles “Lovin’ Life” and “Too Old,” plus Hearn’s Toronto-themed tracks “See the Tower” and “The Peace Lady.”