The only album by The Who to reach number one
Judging by almost every possible metric, The Who remain one of the most successful bands over the last 60 years. Despite not releasing a significant pile of music in recent decades, they can still perform at stadiums across the land, and the group’s old releases continue to strike a chord with new generations who are beginning their relationship with rock ‘n’ roll.
However, there is one area where The Who falls short, which is the charts. Although almost everything they’ve released has been successful and sold well, they’ve never had a single track reach number one in the United Kingdom or the United States. They’ve done marginally better with albums but still only have one chart-topping record to their name.
While they are now indifferent to the charts and likely wouldn’t care if their next album landed at one or two, their failings did previously cause them frustration. After writing ‘I Can See For Miles’, Pete Townshend was convinced The Who finally had a best-selling single on their hands, but after it didn’t live up to expectations, he gave up chasing hits.
Looking back on their unfortunate chart record with Rolling Stone, Townshend said: “We were [once] knocked off the top by some comedian [Joe Dolce] whose song was called ‘Shaddap You Face’… There was another song that was number one coming up to Christmas in the UK that I think knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts. I can’t remember the exact context… it went, ‘Grandad, we love you…’ I remember thinking, ‘Jesus, this stuff just shouldn’t be in the charts!'”
However, in 1971, they finally got a taste of what life was like perched at the top of the tree when Who’s Next reached number one in the United Kingdom. Before this point, they’d had three LPs in the top five, including Tommy, which landed at second. They’d later finish in this place on two more occasions with Quadrophenia and Face Dances.
Regarding their singles collection, they were narrowly pipped to the top spot and were forced to accept the runner-up medal with ‘My Generation’ in 1965 and ‘I’m A Boy’ the following year. Although they crafted multiple more classic tracks after this period, it’s been over 40 years since any of their singles entered the top ten in the UK.
While Who’s Next is their only album to break the curse, Townshend initially envisaged the LP as a concept record called Lifehouse. However, after growing disillusioned with the idea, he scrapped the notion. Although many songs survived the culling, the guitarist instead opted to make a more traditional rock album.
The Who only having a singular number one album in their arsenal shows that charts aren’t as important as they seem and are no indicator of whether a piece of work will stand the test of time. If The Who were presented with an opportunity to have more chart-topping records in exchange for a weaker musical catalogue, they’d not even consider the offer.
