The Who: 40 most essential songs
As Roger Daltrey turns 80, we're taking a look at the Who's best tracks
Music Features Who
The Who is one of a handful of classic rock acts that persevere in the 2020s but it hasn’t been an easy road for either Roger Daltrey or Pete Townshend, the band’s two surviving members. The past 60 years have been filled with loss and scandals that have been as instrumental as their many triumphs in creating the band’s pugnacious character.
As Roger Daltrey celebrates his 80th birthday, we are offered an opportunity to celebrate that long, complicated legacy with a list of forty essential tracks from the Who. Even at this length, it’s not possible to capture all of the band’s best moments; since this was written with Daltrey in mind, such Pete Townshend-fronted songs as “Eminence Front” are not here. Despite that handful of absences, the songs here do convey the richness of the Who’s catalog and the depth of their influence.
49 Comments
I am not at all a The Who expert but Magic Bus at #40 seems odd. Maybe because all I’ve ever listened to is the Live at Leeds version.
It feels very low, especially with some of the definitely lower tier late 70’s and early 80s work that is ranked above it.
Magic Bus was always a beer-and-bathroom break for me at their live shows.
Magic Bus and Boris the Spider were their two most I don’t care songs when I saw them live
“Beer and bathroom break” songs are essential for many a band’s sets. That would be an excellent list to put together actually.
For many that would be a playlist of Keith Richards songs. Which, I can say having put together such a playlist, is really quite enjoyable when you get into the groove.
Entwistle wasn’t the biggest fan of the song either, given it’s simplistic and repetitive bass line.
“Bargain” at 30 seemed odd to me too.
“Bargain” is amazing, and I also would’ve rated it higher. Especially if this is a Roger Daltrey centric list, his vocal performance is stellar in that song.
Who are you has to be in the top five just because. The low key guitar solo.
The Seeker is awesome but rock band/guitar hero ruined it for me. I heard it too many times.
Behind Blue Eyes….Limp Bizkit made it so horrible I didn’t even want to hear the original version ever again.
If there’s ever been a demonstrated need for the Cover Police, Limp Bizkit’s cover of Behind Blue Eyes is it. Someone should have stopped them.
LB held the title for a while and then Five Finger Death Punch happened.
I never understood why a band like Limp Bizkit especially would omit the heavy part of that song. What a twist, but not in a good way.
Seriously, it’s the only part that begins to make sense for that band. Travesty all around.
The desecration of The Real Me by W.A.S.P. is the step too far for me.
I did not know until this day that existed, and I’m going to go on pretending I don’t.
That is NOT more enticing.
Kinda weird to skew this specifically to Roger Daltrey when it’s titled The Who’s most essential 40 songs. I was about to write about some of the omissions and weird choices (the complete lack of any Entwistle material, the absence of “Eminene Front” and other Townshend sung songs) but reread the intro and understood. Still seems kinda weird- I would’ve gone with a Roger Daltrey specific list that included stuff from his solo albums.Here’s a handful of great Daltrey performances from The Who discography that were left out here: “How Many Friends” “In A Hand or Face”, “Christmas”, “Too Much of Anything”, “The Punk and the Godfather”, “The Dirty Jobs” “Cry If You Want”
Again showing my Live at Leeds bias (I really don’t listen to anything else by the Who mostly because I’m a Gen X’er and have had a lifetime of “classic rock” from FM radio and mostly because Live at Leeds is incredible), but I would have thought Summertime Blues would be on here too given its importance in bridging the gap from early pre-Beatles rock and roll to punk. Of course other 1960s bands did 1950s stuff but the lunatic arrangement we get on Live at Leeds is for sure a punk pre-cursor and ahead of its time…
Hello fellow Gen X’er! I love classic rock and The Who is one of my favorite bands! I don’t see any covers or live tracks on the list, so that might be why they omitted Summertime Blues. They are great at their covers, and especially in live performances, but I probably also wouldn’t include any in a list of essential songs. But that’s me.
It’s an odd choice if only because Townshend was the main creative force for the band. Still, the list does capture their essential stuff. Won’t Get Fooled Again is my all-time favorite song.
I’ve often been fascinated by the Daltrey-Townshend relationship. Daltrey is one of those rare rock band singers who didn’t even write the lyrics for the songs, so there’s an odd tension and power in his interpretation of Townshend. But omitting the Townshend songs leads to some gaps in a list of the most essential Who songs. Probably not any of their most well known work, but there are some very important songs that gets omitted from a Daltrey centric list either because it’s personal stuff that Townshend wouldn’t let him sing, or even that Daltrey refused to sing.
Back in the day I always wondered if Pete would murder Roger before Sting murdered Stewart, or the other way around. Der Stingel apparently really really really hated the way Copeland would explode into riffs and rolls on his own.
It’s been very touching to see their relationship nowadays, and for about the last 25 years or so (since Entwistle passed). I don’t think they are or ever will be best friends, but it certainly seems like they’ve settled into an odd couple type relationship and are appreciative of each other. I thought it was kind of cute that Townshend played the guitar on most of Daltrey’s latest solo album.
This is a similar dynamic to Oasis during their heyday: with Noel Gallagher writing all music and lyrics to their big hits in the 90’s and early 2000s. (Later on, Liam would contribute his own songs, some of which charted in the UK).
I know it’s meant to focus on Daltrey, but it’s hard to say these are essential when you leave out so many amazing Entwistle tracks: My Wife, Boris the Spider, Success Story, Heaven and Hell to name just a few. I’d also add more from Quadrophenia, namely Sea and Sand, Bell Boy, and the cut tracks Four Face and Joker James. All of these feel essential to the Who’s stacked oeuvre.
Omitting My Wife is just bizarre.
“The Kids Are Alright” has always been my favorite, it just feels lyrically subversive over the top of a pretty standard 60s group sound.I don’t know how “Eminence Front” is missing from this list!Does anyone remember Pete’s solo rock opera album from the late 80s, The Iron Man? It was based on the same Ted Hughes novel that the movie The Iron Giant was. Anyway, they promoted the hell out of the fact that it had a brand new Who song (“Dig”) and I think that’s probably the only reason it sold anything in the US. I didn’t think the song was bad, and probably better than a lot of the other 80s Who stuff in this list, but that album got roasted by the critics even with amazing players like John Lee Hooker and Nina Simone playing parts.
_I don’t know how “Eminence Front” is missing from this list!_People forget!
Didn’t know until now that “We’re not gonna take it / See me / Listening” were ever broken up into separate tracks. I have to think they lose most of their punch when not played together.Also I’m pretty sure the Long Live Rock line is “we WEREN’T the first band to vomit in the bar, and find the distance to the stage too far.” Kind of the point, celebrating the essence of rock and roll. Another nitpick, Behind Blue Eyes calls out the narrator’s lack of a conscience, not consciousness.
I’ve often heard it on radio or seen it presented on compilations as just “See Me, Feel Me”, most often omitting the “We’re Not Gonna Take It” part that is most narratively connected to Tommy. I only ever hear that part when I listen to the album.
I generally listen to XM and they typically run the three together, like the ending trio on Floyd’s Dark Side, so that’s what I’m generally used to.
I’ve taught at the university level for about 25 years and one of the most common mistakes I see in student essays is mistaking “conscious” for “conscience.” It drives me up the wall…
I really like Eminence Front from the 80s. It sounds like it was made for Miami Vice, it actually was used in Miami Vice, and the subject matter is sooooo Miami Vice. But the synthesizer intro is amazing and the mood is pleasantly dark. It feels like the most modern of the Who’s work, but people wanted the older stuff I suppose.
I remember first hearing on GTA: San Andreas’ K-DST radio station, and thinking, what, that doesn’t sound like The Who.Good song, but.
The Who Sell Out has a few gems that most folks don’t know, or forgot. Opens with Armenia City in the sky. I play that for classic rock fans and they cant identify that this is The Who. Love that song. Also Rael 1,2 are quite unique
“Christmas” from Tommy is a great Daltrey performance and a great overall Who song. Love the weird “AH, ah, AH, ah…” part.
Magic Bus? Heloooooo?
Interesting list…personally, I would have put “Love Reign O’er Me” much higher, as it is a nearly perfect song (and Daltrey’s vocal is just astounding, really showing his range). But these sorts of lists are always personal, so you’ve done you and that’s fine. I’ve been listening to “Sell Out” lately and it is just such a great record, definitely one that gets a bit lost as everyone seems to key on ones more like “Who’s Next”. On “Sell Out” they really showed that they could do pop very, very well…I mean, the song “Odorono” is just such a perfect pop song. Oh, and here’s a fun thing to try…listen to that, then immediately listen to “Way Down Here Without You” by the power-pop stalwarts Superdrag. It will sound…familiar. (they are both on YouTube)
♫ I woke up in a doorway a policeman knew my name,He said you can sleep at home tonight if you can get up and walk away,I staggered to the underground and a breeze blew back my hairI remember throwing punches around and preaching from my chairWell Who Are You ♪I love those lyrics.
*Soho doorway.
“Who Are You” can come across like a novelty song if you don’t pay attention to the lyrics and just focus on the chorus. The song is fantastic. I really love the third verse that is usually omitted from radio/compilation edits: “I know there’s a place you walkedWhere love falls from the treesMy heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees
I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still receive your kiss
How can I measure up to anyone now
After such a love as this?”
Every week I listen to Johnnie Walker’s Sounds of the Seventies on BBC Radio 2. Recently a listener sent in his story of meeting Townshend (and Paul Cook and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols) in a club in London. Later that night the incident related in those lyrics occurred.
Sounds awesome.
Brilliant claim to fame.
*Soho doorway….
So many better tracks out there in my humble… Sparks, Eminence Front, My Wife, Boris the Spider, The Punk and the Godfather, I’m One, Bell Boy, Doctor Jimmy… Who live staples back in their glory years.
My favorite Who song is The Underture from Tommy.