| A Quick One | ||||
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| Studio album by The Who | ||||
| Released | 9 December 1966 (UK) May 1967 (US) |
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| Recorded | September–November 1966, IBC Studios and Pye Studios, London, England | |||
| Genre | Rock, psychedelic rock, pop | |||
| Length | 31:48 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Reaction and Polydor Records (UK) Decca and MCA Records (US) |
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| Producer | Kit Lambert | |||
| The Who chronology | ||||
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| Singles from A Quick One | ||||
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A Quick One is the second album by English rock band The Who, released in 1966. The American record company executives at Decca Records released the album under the title Happy Jack, rather than the sexually suggestive title of the original UK release, and due to "Happy Jack" being a top 40 hit in the US this track replaced a cover of the Holland–Dozier–Holland hit Heat Wave) which was included on the original UK version of the album .
This is widely regarded by fans to have been a pivotal album for the group, due to the departure from the R&B/pop formula featured on the band's first release. Part of the marketing push for the album was a requirement that each band member should write at least two of the songs on it (although Roger Daltrey only wrote one), so this Who album is the least dominated by Pete Townshend's writing.
The album was also the band's first foray into the form of rock opera, with "A Quick One, While He's Away", the title track of the LP, a nine-minute suite of song snippets telling a story of infidelity and reconciliation. The Who would later go on to write and record the full scale rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia.
The album was intended to be pop music, a sonic participant in the pop art movement. The cover was designed by the pop art exponent Alan Aldridge,[1] with the front cover depicting the band playing their instruments. The back cover is a black-and-white photo montage of the band members accompanied by a short personality sketch of each (infamous among Who fans for Keith Moon's humorous assertion that he was keen on "breeding chickens"). A track listing, a couple of paragraphs touting the band, an ad for their first album, and a technical blurb are also crowded onto the back cover.
The blurb reveals the recording technology of the time by announcing "This is a high-fidelity record! For proper reproduction use RIAA or a similar Record Compensator setting." The album was recorded at IBC Studios, Pye Studios and Regent Sound, in London, England in 1966 with Kit Lambert as the record producer.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 383 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | link |
| Rolling Stone | link |
Contents |
| Side One | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length | |||||
| 1. | "Run Run Run" | Townshend | Daltrey | 2:43 | |||||
| 2. | "Boris the Spider" | John Entwistle | Entwistle | 2:29 | |||||
| 3. | "I Need You" | Moon | Moon | 2:25 | |||||
| 4. | "Whiskey Man" | Entwistle | Entwistle | 2:57 | |||||
| 5. | "Heat Wave" | Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Edward Holland | Daltrey and Townshend | 1:57 | |||||
| 6. | "Cobwebs and Strange" | Moon | Instrumental, yelling from Moon | 2:31 | |||||
| Side Two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length | |||||
| 7. | "Don't Look Away" | Townshend | Daltrey | 2:54 | |||||
| 8. | "See My Way" | Daltrey | Daltrey | 1:53 | |||||
| 9. | "So Sad About Us" | Townshend | Daltrey | 3:04 | |||||
| 10. | "A Quick One, While He's Away" | Townshend | Daltrey, Entwistle and Townshend | 9:10 | |||||
| 1995 Bonus Tracks | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead Vocals | Length | |||||
| 11. | "Batman" | Neal Hefti | Daltrey, Entwistle, Moon, and Townshend | 1:37 | |||||
| 12. | "Bucket T" | Dean Torrence/Roger Christian/Donald J. Altfeld | Moon, with Entwistle, Daltrey and Townshend | 2:12 | |||||
| 13. | "Barbara Ann" | Fred Fassert | Moon, Daltrey, Entwistle, and Townshend | 2:12 | |||||
| 14. | "Disguises" | Townshend | Daltrey | 3:12 | |||||
| 15. | "Doctor, Doctor" | Entwistle | Entwistle | 2:59 | |||||
| 16. | "I've Been Away" | Entwistle | Entwistle | 2:08 | |||||
| 17. | "In the City" | Entwistle/Moon | Entwistle and Moon | 2:21 | |||||
| 18. | "Happy Jack (Acoustic version)" | Townshend | Townshend | 2:55 | |||||
| 19. | "Man With Money (incorrectly titled 'Man With The Money')" | Don Everly/Phil Everly | Daltrey | 2:45 | |||||
| 20. | "My Generation/Land of Hope and Glory" | Townshend/Edward Elgar | Daltrey | 2:05 | |||||
All songs written by Townshend except where noted.
All songs written by Townshend except where noted.
A Quick One includes the very first songs Entwistle wrote for the Who, albeit in reverse order.
"Boris the Spider" was written after Entwistle had been out drinking with Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. They were making up funny names for animals when Entwistle came up with the song. The chorus utilises vocals that influenced the vocal style of death metal singers.
"Heat Wave" is a cover of a song by Martha and the Vandellas that was very popular in the UK at the time. For the US release, "Heat Wave" was dropped and "Happy Jack" added in its place. "Heat Wave" was added back on to the album for when Happy Jack was re-issued on the 1974 double album repackaging of A Quick One and The Who Sell Out as A Quick One (Happy Jack).
"Boris the Spider" quickly became Entwistle's most popular song and was still performed live decades later; in later years, he was almost invariably sporting a spider necklace for photographs. "Happy Jack" is quirky in both lyrics and sound, but is popular nonetheless and remains a favourite of both fans and non-fans alike to this day.
One of Moon's contributions, "I Need You", was originally titled "I Need You (Like I Need A Hole In The Head)". Moon thought The Beatles spoke in a secret language behind his back, and this song was his way of getting back at them. Although Moon denied that a vocal part in the song was a John Lennon imitation, Entwistle said, in fact, that it was.[2]
"Cobwebs and Strange" was originally called "Showbiz Sonata". Entwistle claims to have written the melody, but it actually comes from a song from the UK television series Man From Interpol. Unquestionably, the drums come from Moon alone.[2]
One particularly notable track on this album is the mod/pop number "So Sad About Us". Though it is difficult to accurately gauge such phenomena, this song has likely been covered more frequently than any other song on the album. (According to Allmusic, it is "one of the Who's most covered songs").[3] The Merseys, Shaun Cassidy, Primal Scream, The Breeders, and most notably The Jam are among the many artists who have recorded studio versions of the song. Beyond the sheer number of covers, it is also one of the Who's most frequently imitated songs.
In addition to their usual instruments, each band member played an orchestral instrument as well to give a marching band effect on "Cobwebs and Strange". Moon played orchestral cymbals, Townshend played penny-whistle, Entwistle played trumpet, and Daltrey played trombone.
An early version of the Who's second album was to be titled Jigsaw Puzzle.[2] Its preliminary running order consisted of the following tracks:
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1966 | UK Chart Albums | 4[4] |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | "Happy Jack" | Billboard Pop Singles | 24[5] |
| 1966 | "Happy Jack" | UK Singles Charts | 3[4] |