A Quick One
Studio album by
the Who
Released9 December 1966 (1966-12-09)[1]
Recorded30 August – November 1966
StudioIBC, Regent and Pye (all London)
GenreRock
Length31:48
LabelReaction/Polydor
ProducerKit Lambert
The Who UK chronology
Ready Steady Who
(1966)		 A Quick One
(1966)		 The Who Sell Out
(1967)
The Who US chronology
The Who Sings My Generation
(1966)		 Happy Jack
(1967)		 The Who Sell Out
(1967)
Singles from A Quick One
  1. "Happy Jack"
    Released: 2 December 1966

A Quick One is the second studio album by the English rock band the Who, released on 9 December 1966. A version of the album with an altered track listing was released under the name Happy Jack on Decca Records in April 1967 in the United States, where the song "Happy Jack" was a top 40 hit.

Unlike other albums by the Who, where guitarist Pete Townshend was the primary or sole songwriter, A Quick One features significant songwriting contributions from all band members, with lead vocalist Roger Daltrey contributing one song, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon each contributing two. The album also included a cover of the Holland–Dozier–Holland song "Heat Wave" and ends with a musical suite titled "A Quick One, While He's Away", which served as an inspiration for later rock operas that the Who would become known for.

Composition and production

The Who's second studio album departs from the R&B emphasis of their debut. 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, though Roger Daltrey only wrote one ("See My Way"), so this is the Who album least dominated by Pete Townshend's songwriting. It was recorded at IBC Studios, Pye Studios, and Regent Sound in London in 1966 by record producer Kit Lambert. Townshend said that this push for equal contribution led to the exclusion of the band's singles that he had written.[2]

"Boris the Spider" was written after John Entwistle had been out drinking with the Rolling Stones' bassist Bill Wyman. They were making up funny names for animals when Entwistle came up with the song. "Boris the Spider" quickly became Entwistle's most popular song, still performed decades later: in later years he often wore a spider necklace, and would have a spider web design inlaid on the body of his custom-made Alembic bass guitar (the latter is pictured on the cover of Entwistle's 1981 solo studio album Too Late the Hero).

Keith Moon's "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 making fun of their northern accents. Although Moon denied that a vocal part in the song was a John Lennon imitation, Entwistle said that, in fact, it was.[3]

John Entwistle would later cite "Whiskey Man" as the first song he ever wrote. It tells the story of a drunkard whose best friend is a man he sees only after drinking heavily. The drunkard is eventually locked in padded room in a sanitarium, and he laments not being able to share the room with Whiskey Man or even call him. In the first line of the song, Entwistle accidentally sings the word "friend" as "fwend"; not wanting to record an entirely new take, he instead opted to double-track the vocal and sing "flend" as a quick fix.

"Heat Wave", the only cover track and the only nod to the group's soul influences on the album, was originally written by Tamla's Holland–Dozier–Holland team and performed by Martha and the Vandellas. It was replaced by "Happy Jack" on the original US release but later included on the 1974 double album repackaging of A Quick One and The Who Sell Out (1967).

"Cobwebs and Strange" was originally called "Showbiz Sonata". Entwistle claimed that the melody came from the 1960 UK television series Man from Interpol.[3] Each band member played a wind instrument on the track: Townshend played the penny-whistle, Entwistle the trumpet and French horn, Daltrey the trombone, and Moon the tuba.[4] They recorded the winds while marching around the studio.

"See My Way", Roger Daltrey's only writing contribution to the album, is a pastiche of Buddy Holly compositions. In order to achieve a deadened tom-tom sound like that of Crickets drummer Jerry Allison's distinctive paradiddles on "Peggy Sue", towels were placed on Moon's drum kit. When this resulted in a sound that did not satisfy the band, Moon instead played the tom fills on cardboard boxes.

The mod and pop number "So Sad About Us", according to AllMusic, is "one of the Who's most covered songs".[5] The Merseys, Shaun Cassidy, Primal Scream, the Breeders, Daytona, and the Jam have recorded studio versions.

"A Quick One, While He's Away" is a nine-minute suite of song snippets telling a story of infidelity and reconciliation, the first foray into an extended form that led to the rock operas Tommy (1969) and Quadrophenia (1973).

Cover art

The cover was designed by the pop art exponent Alan Aldridge,[6] with the front cover depicting the band playing their instruments, as the titles of some songs from the album come out of the instruments in the form of onomatopoeiae: "Cobwebs and Strange" for Moon (top left), "Whiskey Man" for Entwistle (bottom left), "See My Way" for Daltrey (top right), and "A Quick One, While He's Away" for Townshend (bottom right). The back cover of the UK release is black, with the title and track listing across the top, and a colour head-shot photograph of each band member with the letters of "The W H O" superimposed individually over their faces.[7] The back cover of the US release is a black-and-white photo montage of the band members accompanied by a short personality sketch of each (notorious 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 advertisement for their debut studio album, and a technical blurb are also crowded onto the back cover of the US release.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[9]
MusicHound Rock3.5/5[10]
Q[11]
Rolling Stone[12]
Tom HullB+ ((3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention))[13]

Rolling Stone's Steve Appleford said in 1995 that the album's cheerful pop style has an authentic quality with trifles like "Cobwebs and Strange" that are reconciled by "absolutely perfect, poignant pop tune[s]" such as "So Sad About Us".[12] The album was later described as "fascinatingly quirky" by the magazine.[14] In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau included the album's American version in his "basic record library".[15] Rolling Stone ranked the album number 383 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, published in 2003,[16] and 384 in 2012.[17]

Track listing

A Quick One

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Run Run Run"Pete TownshendRoger Daltrey2:42[a]
2."Boris the Spider"John EntwistleJohn Entwistle2:28
3."I Need You"Keith MoonKeith Moon2:24
4."Whiskey Man"EntwistleEntwistle2:57
5."Heat Wave"
Daltrey, with Pete Townshend1:54
6."Cobwebs and Strange"Mooninstrumental2:29
Total length:14:54
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Don't Look Away"TownshendDaltrey2:51
2."See My Way"Roger DaltreyDaltrey1:52
3."So Sad About Us"TownshendDaltrey3:01
4."A Quick One, While He's Away"TownshendDaltrey, Entwistle and Townshend9:10
Total length:16:54

1 The mono version fades out sooner, giving it a total running time of 2:33.[18]

Happy Jack

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Run Run Run"2:44
2."Boris the Spider"2:30
3."I Need You"2:25
4."Whiskey Man"2:57
5."Cobwebs and Strange"2:31
6."Happy Jack"2:11
Total length:15:18
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."Don't Look Away"2:53
2."See My Way"1:53
3."So Sad About Us"3:04
4."A Quick One, While He's Away"9:10
Total length:17:00

Personnel

The Who

  • Roger Daltrey – lead vocals, trombone on "Cobwebs and Strange"
  • Pete Townshend – guitar, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "A Quick One, While He's Away", tin whistle on "Cobwebs and Strange"
  • John Entwistle – bass, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Boris the Spider" and "Whiskey Man", co-lead vocals on "A Quick One, While He's Away", French horn and trumpet on "Cobwebs and Strange"
  • Keith Moon – drums, backing vocals, lead vocals on "I Need You", tuba on "Cobwebs and Strange"

A Quick One personnel

1995 credits

  • Design (original vinyl sleeve): Alan Aldridge
  • Design, art direction: Richard Evans
  • Executive producer: Bill Curbishley, Chris Charlesworth, Robert Rosenberg
  • Liner notes: Chris Stamp
  • Producer: Jon Astley
  • Producer (original recording): Kit Lambert
  • Remix, remastered by: Andy Macpherson, Jon Astley

Charts

Chart performance for A Quick One
Chart (1966–1967) Peak
position
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[19] 19
UK Albums (OCC)[20] 4
US Billboard 200[21] 67

See also

References

  1. ↑ Thewho.com
  2. ↑ Townshend, Pete (2012). Who I Am. HarperCollins. pp. 93–4. ISBN 978-0062127242.
  3. 1 2 "The Hypertext Who – Liner Notes – A Quick One". Thewho.net. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  4. ↑ Mark Wilkerson, Who Are You: The Life of Pete Townshend (London: Omnibus Press, 2008), p. 68.
  5. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/song/t3563653
  6. ↑ Liner notes to the CD reissue
  7. ↑ "The Who Albums Ranked". Rabbit Hole Music. 2022. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  8. ↑ AllMusic review
  9. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  10. ↑ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 1227. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  11. ↑ "A Quick One". Q. No. 108. London. September 1995. p. 140.
  12. 1 2 Appleford, Steve (5 October 1995). "A Quick One (Happy Jack) Album Review". Rolling Stone. New York. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  13. ↑ Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Rock (1960s)". tomhull.com. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  14. ↑ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 31 May 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
  15. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: W". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved 9 March 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  16. ↑ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 31 May 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  17. ↑ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time". Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  18. ↑ "The Who – Run Run Run (Original MONO Mix)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  19. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – The Who – A Quick One". Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  20. ↑ "The Who | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  21. ↑ "The Who Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
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