The Who- Tommy @55- Pete Townshend 5-13

Off the top of my head, I can think of several of rock history’s biggest sellers that were born out of sheer desperation for fear of losing a record contract, including Queen A Night at the Opera, Frampton Comes Alive, Journey Infinity, and The Who Tommy. Of those, Tommy was the first, and possibly the most significant, of that esteemed lot. Main Who songwriter Pete Townshend believed that he had written his best song ever in 1968’s “I Can See for Miles”, something that would separate The Who from the pop British Invasion bands such as the Small Faces and Herman’s Hermits, and elevate Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon to elite status alongside the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Cream.

“I did ‘I Can See for Miles’. It didn’t hit in the UK. It did hit in the States, it did quite well. But I always thought it was going to be my global #1. And it wasn’t. It was just another number charting our slow decline.” Find out from Pete Townshend, here In the Studio the week of May 13, how The Who launched a Hail Mary pass by the name of Tommy  fifty-five years ago, fundamentally changing the course of rock history. -Redbeard