| "Athena" | ||||||||||
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| Single by The Who | ||||||||||
| from the album It's Hard | ||||||||||
| B-side | "A Man Is a Man" | |||||||||
| Released | 1982 | |||||||||
| Recorded | June 1982 | |||||||||
| Genre | Rock | |||||||||
| Length | 3:46 | |||||||||
| Label | Polydor Records (U.K.) Warner Bros (U.S.) |
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| Writer(s) | Pete Townshend | |||||||||
| Producer | Glyn Johns | |||||||||
| The Who singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Athena" is a song written by Pete Townshend and recorded by The Who. It appears as the first track on the group's tenth studio album It's Hard, released in 1982. It was released as the first single from that album, achieving moderate chart success at #28 on the US Billboard Hot 100, but received good airplay on album oriented rock and later classic rock radio formats. "Athena" reached #40 on the UK Singles Chart.
Pete Townshend wrote this song after an encounter with actress Theresa Russell. He promptly fell in love with her, and his frustration of being rejected is contained in this song. In this context, associated with an issue with a film director, it became a subplot of the much later The Lifehouse Chronicles. Townshend initially changed the title to "Athena" to disguise who the song was really about. Roger Daltrey and Townshend share lead vocals on this song.
Despite this being the first single from the album and well-received on rock radio, The Who only played "Athena" a total of ten times on the band's 1982 tour, and has not played the song again ever since.