"Runnin' Back to Saskatoon" is a popular

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 song written by Burton Cummings

Burton Cummings

Burton L. Cummings, OC, OM is a Canadian musician and songwriter.He was the lead singer and frequent keyboardist for the Canadian rock band The Guess Who...

 and Kurt Winter

Kurt Winter

Kurt Winter was a Canadian guitarist and songwriter, best known as a member of The Guess Who.After starting his career with Winnipeg bands The Fifth, Gettysbyrg Address, and Brother, Winter joined The Guess Who in May 1970, along with co-guitarist Greg Leskiw, replacing Randy Bachman...

.

The song was recorded

Sound recording and reproduction

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

 by the Canadian rock group The Guess Who

The Guess Who

The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...

 on May 22, 1972 for the album Live at the Paramount

Live at the Paramount

Live at the Paramount was the first live album released by Canadian rock group, The Guess Who. It would be their only live album until their reunion in 1984. It was recorded live on May 22, 1972 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington...

, and is also included on the 1974 album The Best of the Guess Who, Vol. 2) as well as several other compilation albums for the band.

The single release spent three weeks on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 charts peaking at #96 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 during the week of October 28, 1972. The song peaked at #9 on the Canadian music charts.

Places mentioned in the song are Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Moose Jaw is a city in south-central Saskatchewan, Canada on the Moose Jaw River. It is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina. Residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javians. It is best known as a retirement and tourist city that serves as a hub to the hundreds of small towns...

; Broadview, Saskatchewan

Broadview, Saskatchewan

Broadview is a community in Saskatchewan along the #1 highway, the Trans Canada Highway, east of the provincial capital city of Regina. The local economy is based mainly on agriculture.-History:...

; Moosomin, Saskatchewan

Moosomin, Saskatchewan

-Climate:-Moosomin in popular culture:* The Guess Who has a song called "Runnin' Back to Saskatoon"; it also mentions Moose Jaw and Moosomin.-Notable people from Moosomin:...

; Red Deer, Alberta

Red Deer, Alberta

Red Deer is a city in Central Alberta, Canada. It is located near the midpoint of the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor and is surrounded by Red Deer County. It is Alberta's third-most-populous city – after Calgary and Edmonton. The city is located in aspen parkland, a region of rolling hills...

; Terrace, British Columbia

Terrace, British Columbia

Terrace is a city on the Skeena River in British Columbia, Canada. The Kitselas people, a tribe of the Tsimshian Nation, have lived in the Terrace area for thousands of years. The community population fell between 2001 and 2006 from 12,109 with a regional population of 19,980 to 11,320 and...

; Medicine Hat, Alberta

Medicine Hat, Alberta

Medicine Hat, known to locals as "The Hat", is a city of 61,097 people located in the southeastern part of the province of Alberta, Canada. It is enclaved within Cypress County along with the nearby Town of Redcliff, although neither is part of the county....

; Saskatoon

Saskatoon

Saskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....

 and Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

.

The song was covered by Pearl Jam at Credit Union Center in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on Sept. 19th 2011 during their PJ20 Anniversary tour. Eddie Vedder admittedly messed up the lyrics to the song during the first run through of the song in the performance. In order to redeem the band and appeal to the Saskatoon crowd, the band played the song once more before the end of the concert. This time, they invited a fan from the crowd to sing the correct lyrics.