Being the son of a famous rock star can be daunting for a young musician. It can also be liberating if one chooses to take a different musical approach. That’s exactly what Tal Bachman did. The son of Randy Bachman, co-founder of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the singer/songwriter found his voice when he wrote and recorded his self-titled debut album in 1999 that included the effervescent power pop hit “She’s so High.”
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Stepping Out of the Shadow
Although he had dabbled with musically professionally in his early 20s, Bachman was studying political philosophy at Utah State University in 1995 when his academic musings snapped him back into a musical reverie. His musical style went against the tide of the grunge and indie rock movement of the time, but he was persistent in the face of music industry rejection.
Then in the late ’90s his fortunes changed. As he explained on the Boom 97.3 video series Behind the Vinyl back in 2018, Bachman had been rejected by labels all over the world. Then he wrote a simple ballad called “If You Sleep,” the demo for which landed at EMI Music Publishing, which then led to interest from Columbia Records, which was part of Sony Music.
“I was thrilled,” Bachman said on Behind the Vinyl. “I felt like I suddenly went from I couldn’t get anywhere to now I was sitting in the offices and talking to these people. And so the way this song came about is I thought, ‘I’ve gotten these guys’ attention. It seems like they want to make a deal, but I don’t actually have a deal yet. I gotta write another song that will seal this deal. I got to come up with something.’”
A Boost of Inspiration
Having gotten married young and already being a father, Bachman felt pressure to find his footing fast. Musically, he was inspired after hearing Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy” in a mall. He thought it sounded great on the mall’s stereo system, and he decided to play around with the chords at his home in British Columbia. He changed the key and came up with the main melody in the chorus.
“I had kind of a lousy title, nothing really interesting or provocative,” Bachman recollected on Behind The Vinyl. “And I thought, ‘This has got to be a slam dunk. I should come up with some title that’s provocative [that would] make you want to listen to it.’”
The lyrics were an inspired by a real-life experience. He told MTV News in 1999 that he looked back a time in high school when he was trying to “bribe the hottest girl in our high school to go out on a date with [my stepbrother]. So as the conversation between me and what I thought was this godly, exalted woman progressed, I began to feel more and more uncomfortable and awkward, and so I just remember that feeling … I don’t want to say fear, but just kind of being in awe of her.”
She’s blood, flesh and bone
No tucks or silicone
She’s touch, smell, sight, taste, and sound
But somehow I can’t believe
That anything should happen
I know where I belong
And nothing’s going to happen, yeah
‘Cause she’s so high
High above me
She’s so lovely
She’s so high
Like Cleopatra
Joan of Arc
Or Aphrodite
Da-da-da-da-da
She’s so high
High above me
Inspired by the falsetto leaps he heard in music from The Beach Boys and The Beatles, he decided to do the same thing on the word “high” in the song’s chorus. “I tried to do everything I could do to just make it as impactful as possible as I was coming up with this thing,” Bachman told Behind the Vinyl. “By the end of that day, I had it.” He added the inspiration for the song’s historical references to Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Aphrodite came from the ELO song “Can’t Get It Out of My Head,” which invoked Robin Hood, William Tell, Ivanhoe, and Sir Lancelot.
Sealing the Deal
The musical and lyrical combination heard in the demo for “She’s so High” landed Bachman a deal with Columbia Records. Bachman recorded the song and his debut album with Bob Rock (of Metallica and Mötley Crüe fame) in Maui, Hawaii with some additional recording work done in Vancouver, British Columbia. The song’s guitar sounds feature a combination of Bachman playing his father’s ’62 Stratocaster and a 12-string guitar. There is also surreptitious slide guitar and keyboard playing mixed in as the song contrasts lilting verses with impassioned choruses.
“She’s so High” became the album’s first single and did well in different markets around the world. It went Top 10 in Australia and New Zealand, hit No. 30 in the UK, No. 3 in Canada, and reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. It also went to No. 1 on the Adult Top 40 airplay chart here. Bachman would tour with Bryan Adams and Barenaked Ladies as well as on his own. The song currently has 58 million views on YouTube and has topped 300 million plays on Spotify.
Although the album did not produce another song with the same appeal or staying power as “She’s so High,” the single remains one of the late ’90s most memorable pop songs. Bachman released one more album, Staring Down the Sun, in 2004, and he has performed intermittently since then, mostly in Canada. He has also performed the song live with his father in recent times such as at BTO’s appearance at the Churchill Music Park Festival in August 2022. Taylor Swift brought Bachman onstage to perform it with her in September 2011 with an arena full of fans singing along.
Looking back on the song, Bachman told Shakedown News in 2017, “I’m really pleased that it did so well. It was an awesome time for me. It’s a big thrill to jump into cars and go into grocery stores and your song is playing. People start singing along. And they don’t even know it’s you. I was really pleased.”
The song is still fondly remembered by fans.
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Featured image via @TalBachman on Instagram
