A Quick One

A Quick One
Studio album by The Who
Released	9 December 1966 (UK) May 1967 (US)
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)
Producer	Kit Lambert
The Who chronology
My Generation (1965) A Quick One (1966) The Who Sell Out (1967)
Singles from A Quick One
"Happy Jack" Released: 2 December 1966 "Boris the Spider" Released: 1967

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^{[citation needed]} 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
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Rolling Stone	link

Track listing

A Quick One

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

Happy Jack

All songs written by Townshend except where noted.

Side one

1. "Run Run Run"
2. "Boris the Spider" (Entwistle)
3. "I Need You" (Moon)
4. "Whiskey Man" (Entwistle)
5. "Cobwebs and Strange" (Moon)
6. "Happy Jack"

Side 2

1. "Don't Look Away]"
2. "See My Way" (Daltrey)
3. "So Sad About Us"
4. "A Quick One, While He's Away"

1974 re-release

All songs written by Townshend except where noted.

1. "Run Run Run"
2. "Boris the Spider" (Entwistle)
3. "I Need You" (Moon)
4. "Whiskey Man" (Entwistle)
5. "Heat Wave" (Holland/Dozier/Holland)
6. "Cobwebs and Strange" (Moon)
7. "Don't Look Away"
8. "See My Way" (Daltrey)
9. "So Sad About Us"
10. "A Quick One, While He's Away"
11. "Happy Jack"

Personnel

• Roger Daltrey – lead vocals, trombone and bass drum on "Cobwebs and Strange"
• John Entwistle – bass guitar, keyboards, French horn, trumpet, vocals
• Pete Townshend – guitar, penny-whistle, keyboards, vocals
• Keith Moon – drums, percussion, tuba, vocals

Composition and production

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.

Jigsaw Puzzle

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:

1. "I'm a Boy" (Slow version, released on Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy)
2. "Run Run Run"
3. "Don't Look Away"
4. "Circles" (Version 2)
5. "I Need You"
6. "Cobwebs and Strange"
7. "In the City"
8. "Boris the Spider"
9. "Whiskey Man"
10. "See My Way"
11. "Heat Wave"
12. "Barbara Ann"

Sales chart performance

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1966	UK Chart Albums	4[4]

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1967	"Happy Jack"	Billboard Pop Singles	24[5]
1966	"Happy Jack"	UK Singles Charts	3[4]

References

1. ^ Liner notes to the CD reissue
2. ^ ^{a b c} "The Hypertext Who – Liner Notes – A Quick One". Thewho.net. http://www.thewho.net/linernotes/AQuickOne.htm. Retrieved 15 May 2011. 
3. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/song/t3563653
4. ^ ^{a b} "The Who at". Chartstats.com. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=1768. Retrieved 15 May 2011. 
5. ^ "The Who Official Band Website – Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon , , A Quick One". Thewho.com. http://www.thewho.com/index.php?module=discography&discography_item_id=61&discography_tag=albums. Retrieved 15 May 2011. 

• Many of the factual details in this article are derived from the insert to the remastered CD of 1995 (MCAD-11267).

External links

• A Quick One liner notes – Song-by-song liner notes for the album
• Guitar tablature