by Richard Skelly » Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:18 am
Early Trooper releases came out on the Legend imprint. Owned by producer Randy Bachman, Legend initially at least was distributed by MCA. Over time, MCA seemed to become the group’s label. But presumably Randy continued to receive production fees/royalties as well as publishing revenues.
Two publishing entities are noted on Two For The Show’s label: Little Legend Music and Legendary Music. I could be wrong, but Little Legend may have been Trooper’s publishing firm while Legendary was Randy’s. Or both could have been Bachman owned.
I suspect contracts came up for renewal after five years and that renegotiations foundered. Because it was around 1980 that Trooper and Randy Bachman parted ways. Maybe the group’s creative well was due to run dry regardless, but their big hits pretty well ended with Randy gone. Nor did he ever produce another successful artist. Kind of a lose-lose situation for both parties.
Two For The Show, to my ears, was the first Trooper song to show how wise they were to expand into a quintet by adding keyboardist and co-vocalist Frank Ludwig. He would later be replaced by Rob Deans. Either way, Trooper suddenly sounded bigger and nuanced.