How The Beach Boys inspired The Who’s first hit single
Even on a purely sonic level, The Beach Boys are still one of the most influential groups of the 1960s. With maestro Brian Wilson leading the charge, they helped define the shape and feel of West Coast pop, bringing a taste of the baroque to the transient world of FM radio. Countless artists have cited Wilson and his bandmates as major influences on their work over the years, including another innovative group, The Who.
‘I Can’t Explain’ was written by guitarist Pete Townshend when he was just 18 years old. It says a lot about Pete’s lifestyle during this period that he once described the song as about a young man who “can’t tell his girlfriend he loves her because he’s taken too many Dexedrine tablets”. The track was Townshend’s first single as The Who, having recently changed their name from The High Numbers. As such, it was an attempt to encapsulate the mood the band wanted to conjure in this new chapter.
Recalling the track, Townshend told Uncut: “Well, it’s that thing – ‘I got a feeling inside, I can’t explain’ – it’s rock ‘n’ roll. The more we try to explain it, the more we crawl up our own arses and disappear! I was very proud of that record. That was us, y’know – it was an original song by Pete and it captured that energy and that testosterone that we had in those days.”
According to Townshend’s 2012 book, Who I Am: A Memoir, ‘I Can’t Explain’ owes a lot to both The Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin. Discussing the single, he wrote: “We played [record producer] Shel Talmy the revised ‘I Can’t Explain’ and he booked us a session at Pye Studios to record it. Shel also brought in some additional musicians, which Kit had warned me he might do.”
One of those musicians was a session guitarist called Jimmy Page: “Keith [Moon] jovially told the session drummer who appeared to ‘scarper,’ and he did,” Townshend recalled. “Because Shel wasn’t sure I could play a solo, he had asked his favourite session guitarist, Jimmy Page, to sit in.” In an attempt to polish up The Who’s anarchic brand of rock ‘n’ roll, Talmy hired the talents of three professional backing singers. “Our band had rehearsed the song with backing vocals in Beach Boys style, but not very skillfully”, Townshend continued. “[So] Shel arranged for three male session singers, The Ivy League, to chirp away in our place.”
Talmy’s production worked wonders, earning The Who their first top ten hit in the UK. “Shel Talmy got a good sound, tight and commercial, and although there was no guitar feedback, I was willing to compromise to get a hit,” Townshend confessed. “We wouldn’t know if the gamble would pay off until after the New Year.” Thankfully it did pay off. ‘I Can’t Explain’ was followed by a string of successful singles, cementing The Who as one of the UK’s premier rock outfits.
