Six Who-related albums were released in 1975.
It is open to debate which year was the best for The Who. You could go with 1964, when they had their first hit single with “My Generation.” You could go with 1969, when they released Tommy and performed at the Woodstock Festival. Or 1971, when they released their Who’s Next album, featuring signature songs such as “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Baba O’Riley” and “Behind Blue Eyes.”
But their busiest year had to be 1975, when six (!) Who-related albums and two Who-related movies were released.
The current year marks the 50th anniversary of that year — as well of the 60th anniversary of the group’s first album, The Who Sings My Generation, which was released with minor differences as My Generation in the U.K.
It is also the year of what the band is calling its final North American tour, which comes to The Prudential Center in Newark on Aug. 19, and Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Aug. 23.
Elton John with members of The Who in the movie “Tommy.”
I am currently working on a project in which I post videos for my favorite Who songs, one per album, to Facebook, daily and chronologically. While doing that, I marveled at what happened in 1975, and decided to take a closer look here, in timeline form.
January-March: John Entwistle tours heavily with his band John Entwistle’s Ox in Europe and North American.
February: Entwistle releases his Mad Dog album (credited, technically, to John Entwistle’s Ox).
March: The “Tommy” movie is released, with Roger Daltrey in the lead role and Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon making appearances. The movie’s soundtrack is also released, with contributions from The Who, individually or collectively, on some but not all tracks.
Elton John’s “Pinball Wizard,” from the soundtrack, receives heavy radio airplay, but since it is not officially released as a single in The United States, it does not make the Billboard charts. It was released as a single in the U.K. (in 1976), though, and made the Top 10 there, and is still, according to Wikipedia, the only cover of a Who song to do so.
The Who, incidentally, do not play on the single. John used his own mid-’70s band, though Townshend, Entwistle and Moon are shown playing instruments in the movie’s “Pinball Wizard” scene. (watch below)
March: Moon releases the only solo album of his career, Two Sides of the Moon.
Roger Daltrey in “Lisztomania.”
July: Daltrey releases a solo album, Ride a Rock Horse.
October: The Who releases a studio album, The Who by Numbers.
October: The Ken Russell-directed film “Lisztomania,” about Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, comes out. Daltrey plays Liszt.
October-December: The Who tour heavily in Europe and North America. There is no New Jersey show, through they do perform at The Spectrum in Philadelphia on Dec. 15. The band continues to tour, on and off, behind the The Who by Numbers album through October 1976, and return to the New Jersey area for a show at Madison Square Garden, in March 1976.
November: “Squeeze Box,” from The Who by Numbers, is released as a single, and becomes a Top 20 hit. With its rootsy sound, it also makes it into the upper reaches of the country charts!
November: The “Lisztomania” soundtrack album is released, with keyboardist Rick Wakeman (in between stints in the band Yes) in charge and Daltrey singing on four songs.
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