He continued playing it and the other band members returned to the stage and joined in, creating a jam session in which Cummings improvised the lyrics.

"[12] Jim Kale, the group's bassist, explained his take on the lyrics: The popular misconception was that it was a chauvinistic tune, which was anything but the case.

The fact was, we came from a very strait-laced, conservative, laid-back country, and all of a sudden, there we were in Chicago, Detroit, New York – all these horrendously large places with their big city problems.

[10]Bachman expressed the view in 2014 that it was "an anti-war protest song", explaining that when they came up with it on stage, the band and the audience had a problem with the Vietnam War.

[11] It is a commonly held myth that The Guess Who were invited to play at the White House on July 17, 1970, shortly after the song's release.

This full-band writing credit happened only one other time on a Guess Who single, with their 1973 top 20 Canadian hit "Follow Your Daughter Home", albeit with a different line-up.

The music video (directed by Paul Hunter) featured actress Heather Graham (who starred in The Spy Who Shagged Me).

In 1999, the Guess Who joined Kravitz and his band for a live performance of "American Woman" at the MuchMusic Video Awards.

[70][71] It was featured in Sam Mendes's film American Beauty, performed by main character Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey).

It was heard during the ending credits of the Witchblade TV film (2000), starring Yancy Butler and based on the Top Cow comic book series.

American Woman was featured in the second installment of the Austin Powers film trilogy, The Spy Who Shagged Me, with Heather Graham dancing provocatively whilst it played.