The only number one album by The Who
Since the dawn of the British Invasion, The Who became a pivotal part of the rock scene’s direction. As much as rock and roll may have started as fun party music, Townshend saw something more in the medium than mindless fun, looking to set up a scene in the listener’s mind every time he sat down to write a song. Although every one of the band’s albums became huge cultural touchstones in their time, only one of their records managed to reach the top of the charts.
Then again, the band had always flirted with mingling at the top of the charts. Since their first single, ‘I Can’t Explain’, the group was known for making songs that could get a crowd on their feet, playing songs with as much force as they did passion. While The Who could turn anything into gold within three minutes, Townshend started to tire of creating songs catering to a tiny package.
Quickly going down the rabbit hole of concept songs, Townshend would write songs that weren’t meant to be commercial, spanning nine minutes and telling a story throughout every musical movement. By the time he had written the concept for Tommy, though, the band had become musical storytellers, using their music to tell the tale of a kid who finds salvation through music.
While the album may have been hugely successful, it stalled at number two on the charts, with only the single ‘Pinball Wizard’ making a dent. As the band continued, though, Townshend was on the verge of making his next significant reinvention with the album Lifehouse.
Even though he wanted to make a project that would top his original rock opera, the band’s struggles to get the concept led to him scrapping the entire project. Relying on the songs he had already written, Who’s Next would become the salvaged album to come from those days, featuring some of the greatest songs that the band would ever create.
Without the conceptual pieces, the album would become the only one that The Who would top the charts, reaching the top in 1971. Outside of the album charts, the band would also score huge hits on their own, spawning songs like ‘Baba O’Riley’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ onto the singles charts as well.
Despite not having the building blocks of a story as initially intended, it’s easy to see where the story was going when looking at the lyrics. Considering the tone in Roger Daltrey’s voice when singing ‘Baba O’Riley’, it’s easy to picture the story of a man taking the hand of his lover in search of new lands where they can live in harmony through the power of music.
While this would be the apex of the group’s career, it would be the last time one of their albums reached the top of the charts, with their next album, Quadrophenia, stalling out at number two. Even without the adulation from the pop charts, Townshend’s mission to make the album his medium set him up as one of the biggest musical geniuses of the golden age of rock and roll.
