The Who - Greatest Hits & More [Album]

Polydor / Universal Records

To my count, the Who have released in excess of eight greatest hits albums over the years, in various forms and guises. That isn’t to mention the plethora of compilations which accumulate decades of studio albums into varied track listings and recordings. So with a dubious outlook, I carefully opened the post to reveal what I hoped would not be a standard 19 track greatest hits, but instead two CD’s were present, one of which took my interest immediately. This would be the ‘...more’ aspect of the ‘Greatest Hits & More’ release.

I won’t spend my time waffling on about the Who’s history, because it is vast, impressive and generally speaking, it is common knowledge. I would rather turn my attentions to the musical aspect of this release, as this is where I'm most interested. Let us for a moment forget any achievements or background of the band and take purely on face value the release in front of me. CD 1 – 19 tracks of classic The Who, mostly predictable and what I would have expected. The good news is, all of my personal favourites are on there, so we are already in thumbs up territory. CD 2 however is a far more exciting prospect, with 16 tracks of various live recordings spanning from the 1960’s, up to present day. Already my eyes are wandering to the final tracks on both discs and I can see that they have thrown a few ‘newer’ songs into the mix. That is always a problem.

It was obvious from the start that I would be favouring the greatest hits CD and on a sunny afternoon (which are few and far between), this CD was the perfect soundtrack to my day. I played it through three times, with the only need to move from my chair was to eject the CD at track 16, as soon as ‘You Better You Bet’ started, indicating the arrival of new material which I had no interest in entertaining. I never understand how bands can put their latest single or newer songs which clearly have never been ‘hits’ on these albums? That is an decision which should be filed under ‘no need’. That is the only criticism I can give to The Who. They’ve done their best work and should live their lives happy on the back catalogue. Fans don’t want, or expect for that matter, new music and would be perfectly content without this – same applies to gigs, but that is for another discussion.

Now, the real gem is with the second disc, as I previously mentioned. Beginning with ‘I Can’t Explain’ live at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium back in 1971, track after track of favourites come and go, with extended versions of tracks often used. Of course, this means we get to also hear the work of Keith Moon in true force, which dominates every track he features on. I was suspicious how good the audio quality would be, as I didn’t want a bootleg, back of the arena recording, but the band have clearly gone through hours of recordings to select only the purest and finest quality tracks.

‘Behind Blue Eyes’ is a stand out song and everything about the performance feels perfect, from the rumbling bass, to the vintage guitar finger movement on the fret board courtesy of Townshend. This rolls effortlessly into a 1976 set from Swansea, which begins with ‘Pinball Wizard’ that again highlights the early musicianship of such a flagship band. It is no wonder that their influence still reigns supreme today with upcoming artists.

The 1965 version of ‘My Generation’ also makes an appearance on this disc and really completes the package, however I was desperately longing for a version of 'Love Reign O’er Me', which strangely is not used at all. I know from experience that there are few 1970 era performances around and you only need to scan YouTube to realise this. No doubt this was explored and clearly there wasn’t strong enough audio for any of these, but it is a personal disappointment for me not to hear this.

The release also comes complete with a booklet containing a brief history of the band, as well as a variety of glossy photos from across the eras. This is certainly a set which would benefit many Who fans, however the main draw would be the ‘...more’ CD. Nevertheless, listening to this encouraged me to get my vinyl deck out and spin some vintage The Who music for the rest of the afternoon. Good times.