“One of my favourite songs”: The Who anthem Roger Daltrey compares to Elvis Presley
There is a fine line between a healthy balance of pride and outright conceit. I like to think Roger Daltrey straddles this line quite contentedly. While The Who singer is more than willing to pick holes in the band’s catalogue, usually targeting Pete Townshend’s sprawling concepts, he has no issues with comparing himself to the King of rock ‘n’ roll, Elvis Presley.
Famously, Daltrey, Keith Moon and John Entwistle were somewhat dubious of Townshend’s ambitious Life House rock opera. The guitarist pitched the idea as a follow-up to Tommy in the late 1960s, but after a hellish and stressful few months, during which the band nearly broke up, Life House was abandoned.
In the Life House fallout, the band pushed some of the scraps of recorded material into Who’s Next. The 1971 release is often considered The Who’s masterpiece, but it also contains Daltrey’s least favourite song in the catalogue, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’.
While he can’t be too displeased with his vocal performance across the album, singing the same songs year after year for half a century can take its toll. “That’s the only song I’m bloody bored shitless with,” he told Rolling Stone in 2018. “I don’t know why, but I’m being honest.”
Undoubtedly, there are other Who tracks he’d be happy not to hear again, but at least the others he “can approach like [he’s] singing for the first time”. He offered an explanation: “I don’t know what’s happening there psychologically. Maybe it’s the song, but I never seem to be in the same pocket where I’m singing it for the first time.”
With Daltrey’s least favourite Who track established, we arrive at a more cheery topic: his favourite. Tragically, drummer Keith Moon passed away in September 1978, just over a year after Elvis Presley’s death. Moon’s death had a monumental impact on the band, with many fans feeling that, like Led Zeppelin without John Bonham, The Who should have thrown in the towel.
Nevertheless, The Who persevered, reimagining their stylistic outlook as the ’70s came to a close, with Kenney Jones on percussion. In 1981, The Who released their first studio album without Moon, Face Dances. As the band moved on, mourning its beloved drummer, Daltrey also rekindled his formative fascination with Elvis Presley.
In ‘You Better You Bet’, the album’s lead single, Daltrey channelled his childhood hero in his vocal performance. “A wonderful, wonderful song,” Daltrey told Uncut in 2015. “The way the vocal bounces, it always reminds me of Elvis.” The singer wasn’t totally satisfied with Face Dances as an album, adding, “In some ways, I’d like to go back and re-record a lot of the songs on Face Dances.” Still, he reaffirmed, ‘You Better, You Bet’ is still one of my favourite songs of all.”
Delving into the band’s spiralling consistency following Moon’s death, Daltrey felt they made the incorrect decision when hiring Kenney Jones. “Don’t get me wrong, a fantastic drummer,” Daltrey said, “but he completely threw the chemistry of the band. It just didn’t work; the spark plug was missing from the engine.”
Listen to The Who’s ‘You Better You Bet’ below.
