While BTO was still playing smaller venues in support of its first album, Bachman was driving into Vancouver for a gig and listening to the radio when he heard local DJ Daryl B's catch phrase "We're takin' care of business".

[2] Recalled Randy: "When we finished the song that night, people kept clapping, stomping, and shouting 'takin' care of business' over and over.

The new lyrics also take a self-ironic glance at the idea of glamorous rock stars who do not really need to work, contrasted with working-class men, in a vein that prefigured Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" a decade later.

But Turner handed them back, saying Randy should sing the lead as it would give himself a needed vocal break when the band performed live.

According to this version of events, Durkee had only a few minutes to spare, and, quickly conferring with Randy Bachman, he scribbled down the chords (on a pizza box), and, without listening to the song beforehand, recorded the piano part in one take.

[7] Cash Box called it "hard rock with a strong blues base ," stating that "Randy Bachman's lead vocals are perfect and the group's music is unbeatable.

In 1980, Kurtis Blow did a cover of Takin' Care of Business on his self-titled debut album, with Mercury Records.

During his last few years of life, Elvis Presley adopted "Taking Care of Business in a Flash" as a motto, abbreviated as TCB and associated with a lightning bolt.

[citation needed] In an interview with Larry London of Voice of America, Bachman commented that Elvis had recorded a version of the song but that it would probably never be released.

It has also appeared on many television series such as The Wonder Years, Quantum Leap, That 70s Show, American Dad!, The Simpsons, The Sopranos, King of the Hill, My Name Is Earl, Parks & Recreation, Arrested Development, Cold Case, Men of a Certain Age, Supernatural, and Hawaii Five-0.