About
The Barenaked Ladies are a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. The band quickly developed a cult following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release ever to be certified gold in Canada. Their debut with Reprise Records, Gordon, featuring the singles “If I Had $1000000” and “Brian Wilson”, was released in 1992.
Initially a duo of Ed Robertson and Steven Page, as of 2018, the band is composed of Robertson, Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, and Tyler Stewart. Jim’s brother Andy was a member between 1989 and 1995. Page left in 2009, reducing the group to a quartet.
The band’s style has evolved greatly throughout their career, and their music which began as exclusively acoustic quickly grew to encompass a mixture of a wide array of styles including pop, rock, hip hop, rap, etc. They are most commonly billed as an “alt-rock” band. The band’s cult following translated into immediate success with Gordon in Canada, but it was not until the band’s 1996 live album Rock Spectacle and their 1998 fourth studio album Stunt, that they achieved major success in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The band is known for their live performances, highlighted by comedic banter and free-style rapping between songs. They have won multiple Juno Awards and have been nominated for two Grammy Awards. The group has sold over 15 million records, including albums and singles, and were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in March 2018. “One Week” remains the band’s most successful single. Other well-known singles include “It’s All Been Done” (which was used as the theme song to the animated series Baby Blues), “Pinch Me”, and “The History of Everything” (the theme song to the sitcom The Big Bang Theory). In 2003 they sang the theme song for Odd Job Jack.
