It’s not a surprise to me that today’s featured artist never had a #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. But I’m including The Who in this series because it is a surprise that only one of their songs even reached the top ten. And that they never scored a #1 hit in their native UK, either.
In general, The Who just hasn’t had the staying power of other classic 60s and 70s rock bands. Despite being very influential on a whole generation of musicians, they seem to have faded in the general consciousness.
Continuing my look at the albums released in 1973, I’ll now cover records with which I’m either passingly or not at all familiar.
Initially, I expected to put The Who’s Quadrophenia in the latter category. I remember my high school friend’s were big Who fans, and this was an album they loved, but I never really got into the band. I loved ‘The Kids Are Alright‘ (still do) and the Who’s Next album, but the “rock operas” Tommy and Quadrophenia never stirred me a bit.
I’ve featured only one Who song on this blog over the past ten years — ‘The Kids are Alright,’ a song I truly love. But as I noted way back then (Song of the Day #81, if you can believe it!), I’m not much of a Who fan in general.
I also mentioned in that post that I am a fan of the band’s fifth studio album, 1971’s Who’s Next. Enough to put it at #9 on my list of best albums from that year.
I’ve never been much of a Who fan. In high school, many of my friends were very much into them but in the battle of the 70s bands, I gravitated much more toward Pink Floyd.
I do enjoy the Who’s Next album (it’s the only one I own) but I can’t say I reach for it very often. I’ve never gotten into Quadrophenia or Tommy. In short, they are pretty much a non-entity to me.
Meet Me In Montauk 