Out now on colored vinyl is the Who's Who’s Greatest Hits single disc hits collection from 1983. The album, which marked the starting point for a whole new generation of fans, is now pressed on bright red 180-gram vinyl. The set was remastered by Pete Townshend's brother-in-law and longtime Who associate Jon Astley with a half-speed remastering by Miles Showell at Abbey Road
Who's Greatest was released in the U.S. on November 23rd, 1983 — just under a year after the band's first farewell tour. The set, which was certified double platinum, includes the single edit versions of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Who Are You,” and “Happy Jack” — along with the single mixes of the Quadrophenia standouts “5:15” and “Love Reign O’er Me.”
The new vinyl addition adds the band's 1965 single “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere,” as well as the full-length version of 1972's “Relay.”
Amazingly, 55 years on, Pete Townshend is still having “My Generation's” key lines — “Hope I die before I get old” — read back to him by journalists in hope of a “true” explanation: “The song was more about, y'know, refusing to grow old, rather than, y'know, 'I don't wanna grow old' — it was about refusing to grow old inside. That's what I'm so proud of: having the physique of a 16-year-old boy!”
Although it's considered perhaps the heaviest Who album, 1975's The Who By Numbers featured the surprise pop hit “Squeeze Box.” Roger Daltrey he made no apologies for the song being one of the band's more commercial tracks: “We just did it as a piece of fun — and that's probably why it's gonna be in my show (laughs)! It's just so quirky, and it just gives you kind of a slight insight into Pete's humor, y'know? At the time it was kind of tongue-in-cheek, a bit. We were very proud of our pop history. We're a pop group. We're a rock group now — but we started as a pop group, and there's nothing wrong with pop. Pop's got a very valuable place in music history. And a three-minute single, they're all gems, usually, and they still stand up. A good song, is a good song, is a good song.”
The tracklisting for Who's Greatest is:
Side A
“Substitute”
“The Seeker”
“Magic Bus”
“My Generation”
“Pinball Wizard”
“Happy Jack” (Single version)
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” (Single edit)
“Anyway Anyhow Anywhere” (mono version)
Side B
“My Wife”
“Squeeze Box”
“Relay”
“5:15” (Single mix)
“Love Reign O’er Me” (Single version)
“Who Are You” (Single edit)
AUDIO: ROGER DALTREY ON ‘SQUEEZE BOX’
AUDIO: PETE TOWNSHEND ON ‘MY GENERATION’
