My Generation

The album was made right after The Who got their first singles on the charts, and according to the booklet in the Deluxe Edition of the remastered CD it was later dismissed by the band as something of a rush job that did not accurately represent their stage performance of the time. Critics on the other hand very often rated it as one of the best Rock albums of all time back in the 1970s and 1980s when such list-making was common. The title song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

The album was made during The Who's early "Maximum R&B" period and features several covers of popular R&B tunes, in addition to the R&B leanings of the tracks written by the band's guitarist Pete Townshend.

Track List:

All tracks were written by Pete Townshend, except as noted. On the first USA release the "Circles" track was misidentified as "Instant Party", and was listed as "Instant Party (Circles)" in some later editions. ("Instant Party" is actually a completely different song.) According to the booklet in the Deluxe Edition of the remastered CD, "I'm A Man" was eliminated from the USA release due to its sexual content. The USA release also eliminated several bars of the rhythm section near the end of "The Kids Are Alright", hiding some of the idiosyncratic musical creativity that made The Who what they were.

The USA release also substituted an almost colorless portrait of the band with Big Ben in the background for the very artistic portrait on the cover of the UK release, where the band was photographed standing beside some drums and looking upward to the camera, with splashes of color added by the red and blue stenciled letters of the title and a jacket patterned on the Union Jack thrown over Entwistle's shoulders.

Most of the songs have enduring qualities and the engineering was very clean, so the album still rewards the interested listener.

Editions:

[1965] Brunswick Records LAT 8616

Original UK LP release. Titled as My Generation, with the UK cover and track listing as described above. Producer: Shel Talmy[?]

[1966] Decca DL4664 (mono) / DL 7-4664 (stereo)

Original USA LP release. Retitled as The Who Sings My Generation, with alternate cover and variant track listing as described above. Producer: Shel Talmy[?]

[19??[?]] MCAD-31330 (ISBN 7673-11330-2)

Original CD release (AAD). Titled as The Who Sings My Generation. Original USA release cover on the front; simple track listing on the back. Standard MCA silver label with title and track listing. The tracks are as on the original USA release, with "Circles" listed as "Instant Party (Circles)". The front insert folds out for the original liner notes, another copy of the CD's track listing, and some spamish advertisements for other MCA CDs. Producer: Shel Talmy[?].

[2002] MCA - no catalog number (ISBN 08811-29262)

Two-disk Deluxe Edition remastered CD release (ADD). Title reverts to My Generation (Deluxe Edition). Original UK release cover on the front; small photos of band members along with band name and album title on the back. The package is of paper, with a transparent vinyl slip case. The paper cover folds out into four panels, with the original liner notes, photos from the two original album cover photo shoots and reproductions of the labels on some of the songs' tape boxes inside. The disc 1 label is a facsimile of an old Brunswick single label ; disc 2 has a facsimile of an old Decca single label. The tracks are as on the original UK release, plus 3 bonus tracks on disc 1. Disc 2 consists entirely of bonus tracks. Included is a 14 leaf booklet with the original USA release cover on its front and including articles by Mike Shaw[?], Shel Talmy[?], and Andy Neill[?], a detailed track listing, period photos of the band, facsimiles of period posters and single covers, and extended credits. Producers: Shel Talmy[?] and Andy McKaie[?]. Executive Producers: Bill Curbishley[?] and Robert Rosenberg[?].

References:

• Many of the factual details in this article are derived from the insert to the remastered CD of 2002, ISBN 08811-29262.