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Barenaked Ladies are a Canadian rock band formed in Scarborough, Ontario, in 1988. The group began as a duo of singer-guitarists Ed Robertson and Steven Page and expanded to a quintet with bassist Jim Creeggan, percussionist and keyboardist Andy Creeggan and drummer Tyler Stewart. Multi-instrumentalist Kevin Hearn replaced Andy Creeggan in 1995. Page left the band in 2009; Robertson, Jim Creeggan, Stewart and Hearn have continued as a quartet.

The band first achieved widespread recognition in Canada with the independently released cassette The Yellow Tape (1991), the first independently released recording to receive platinum certification in Canada. Its debut studio album, Gordon (1992), was a major Canadian commercial success. After building an American audience through touring and the live album Rock Spectacle (1996), Barenaked Ladies attained international success with Stunt (1998). The album's lead single, "One Week", reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Barenaked Ladies' music combines pop and rock songwriting with folk-derived acoustic arrangements, vocal harmonies and lyrics that alternate between humour and more serious subjects. The band's concerts are noted for comic exchanges, improvised songs and freestyle rapping. The group has won eight Juno Awards, received two Grammy Award nominations and was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2018.

History

Formation and independent releases (1988–1991)

Robertson and Page attended the same Scarborough public school but became friends as teenagers after discovering a shared interest in music. Both later worked as counsellors at Interprovincial Music Camp in McKellar, Ontario. They devised the name Barenaked Ladies while attending a Bob Dylan concert at Exhibition Stadium.

The duo made its debut on October 1, 1988, at a Second Harvest benefit at Nathan Phillips Square. With little time to rehearse, Robertson and Page filled their set with improvised songs and comic exchanges, an approach that became a continuing feature of the band's performances.

Robertson and Page recorded the cassette Buck Naked in 1989. They subsequently invited brothers Andy and Jim Creeggan, whom they knew from music camp, to join them for performances. A second cassette, Barenaked Lunch, followed in 1990. Stewart joined as drummer that year while Andy Creeggan was studying abroad; Creeggan returned in 1991 on keyboards and percussion.

The five-member lineup recorded The Yellow Tape as a demonstration tape for South by Southwest. After Canadian record companies declined to sign the band, it sold the cassette at concerts and through local retailers. Increasing demand led to commercial distribution through Page Publications, established by Page's father, Victor. The cassette became the first independent release certified platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

The band received its first Canadian top-40 hit with a version of Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time", recorded for the 1991 tribute album Kick at the Darkness. Its growing popularity also generated controversy when Toronto mayor June Rowlands prevented the group from performing at a 1991 New Year's Eve event at Nathan Phillips Square because she considered its name inappropriate. The decision received national attention and was reversed for subsequent city events.