The 1970s hit Pete Townshend described as “the best pop song ever written”
Pete Townshend is perhaps about as holistic a musician as you can get. Not only does he bring an abundance of dynamism and charisma as the frontman of The Who, but he also exudes a central element of complete musicality in his guitar playing and creative focus. This changed not only the course of rock music in the 1960s and ’70s but the entire landscape as a whole.
Even more intriguing is the fact that the musician rarely dishes out praise, and when he does, it’s delivered with a clear sense of purpose and precision. Considering that he has criticised largely popular outfits like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin in the past, it often leaves a lot of bewilderment about what the musician deems genuinely worthy of listening to.
Although it may not seem like it at times, Townshend does have a handful of favourites, both in terms of musicians and albums, including The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, which he once deemed “poetic” and the ultimate tour de force of musical “genius” Brian Wilson. Taking it a step further, he once detailed his appreciation for Wilson, explaining: “I love him so much it’s just terrible”.
Although he enjoys the sounds of the band’s magnum opus and many other rock and alternative projects that emerged during that time, one other group captivated his attention, despite the fact that the band in question generally doesn’t seem to fit within his repertoire when it comes to cherished favourites. Surprisingly, however, the band is ABBA, and the song he enjoys the most is ‘SOS’.
This fact only makes more sense when considering that, when the song was first released in 1975, it was played absolutely everywhere, meaning that even the most hard-headed heavy metal aficionado likely came around to its irresistible Swedish groove. Townshend was no different. “‘SOS’ is the best pop song ever written,” he once told The Independent. “It has all those Swedish folk elements that tap into whatever elemental musical self we have”.
At the time, it was all that his father listened to, and the unmistakable notes of the pop anthem filled the house, leaving Townshend with no other option than to let it infiltrate his bones, for better or worse. Thankfully, he ended up enjoying the song so much that, in his mind, it became the best pop song ever written, so maybe it was for better after all.
The musician would end up growing attached to a number of pop classics around this time and in the following years, like Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall, but nothing would ever come close to the feelings invoked in the mid-1970s by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Thankfully, Townshend was in for a treat anyway. A few months later, the band released ‘Mamma Mia’—you can only imagine the joy this brought to an unsuspecting pop-loving Townshend.
