Fifty-five years ago, the Guess Who topped the charts with a song medley that would become one of their signature hits. The song, “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature,” appeared on the Canadian rock band's breakthrough album American Woman. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 9, 1970, remaining there for three weeks, and became a classic rock anthem. The two-part hit was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.
The first part of the song originally appeared as the B-side to the song “American Woman.”
“Out comes ‘American Woman,’ the longest song to ever be number one at the time,” Guess Who founding member Randy Bachman told Best Classic Bands in an interview. “The other side, ‘No Sugar Tonight,’ which I wrote alone, was the shortest.”
Bachman wrote “No Sugar Tonight” after he witnessed a couple arguing on a street in San Francisco.
“She slams the door, and she then says, ‘Baby, when you get home, you ain't getting no sugar tonight,’” Bachman told Goldmine magazine in 2024 . “And I go, ‘Wow, that one thing says it all.’ And I went and wrote this song. It was kind of racy when I wrote it because you know what it means. I had to clean it up. “
‘No Sugar Tonight’ was paired with a second song to make a single
Clocking in at just over two minutes, “No Sugar Tonight” was too short to be a single on its own. It was paired with fellow Guess Who band member Burton Cummings’ “New Mother Nature” and was released as a separate single in March 1970.
“We put it together with 'New Mother Nature’ because it’s only really half a song ... [it] was very short,” Bachman told Goldmine. “And we wanted to do what The Beatles did with ‘A Day in the Life.’ Put my song, then Burton's song, and then back to back.”
In a 2023 interview on the Professor of Rock podcast, Bachman explained the songwriting process. “When Burton and I would get together, we'd play each other a song, and I would see that he would like the beginning of my song or the hook, but the rest bored him,” he shared. “Then he'd play me a song, and we would take the parts that really excited each other and put them together.”
“Well, we each had written a song, and it was very weird because we're trying something different,” Bachman continued. “I said, ‘Let's put the two songs together, you know, you don't need to write a middle eight for mine, I don't need to write a hook for yours, let's put them together, we'll have our own ‘Day in the Life.’ So we start with ‘No Sugar,’ then ‘New Mother Nature.’ I said, ‘Then guess what, ‘in the end they could overlap each other.’”
“It was really fun, and it ended up being like a cool suite of putting two songs together,” Bachman added.
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Bachman left the Guess Who at the height of the band’s fame in 1970, while Cummings left in 1975 to pursue a solo career. The two recently reunited for a reunion tour.
As part of his solo act, Cummings had a cheeky introduction for the Guess Who medley. During a 2025 show in New Jersey, he told the audience, “This next song reminds me of the old Doublemint gum commercial because it’s ‘Two, two, two songs in one.” He then went into the “No Sugar Tonight" and “New Mother Nature" medley, according to New Jersey Stage.
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