THE WHO Released Their Seminal 5th LP ‘WHO’S NEXT’ 55 Years Ago Today
Significant longplayers from yesteryear
14 August 2026
British rock juggernauts THE WHO released their widely praised, then and now,
5th album WHO’S NEXT today 55 years ago, on 14 August 1971.
It developed from the aborted Lifehouse project, a multi-media rock opera conceivedby
visionary guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend as a follow-up to the band’s 1969 album Tommy.
The project was cancelled owing to its complexity and to conflicts with Kit Lambert,
the band’s manager, but the group salvaged some of the songs, without the connecting story elements, to release as their next album.
It topped the UK Charts and peaked at #4 in the US.
Rolling Stone said: “Who’s Next, regardless of what you may have been led to believe
to the contrary, is neither the soundtrack to the realization of Pete Townshend‘s apparently aborted Hollywood dream, the greatest live album in the history of the universe, nor a, shudder, rock opera, but rather an old fashioned long-player containing intelligently-conceived, superbly performed, brilliantly-produced, and sometimes even exciting rock and roll.”
TUTV: For me, it’s the album with two of their 5-star
singles (see/hear below) and the stirring ballads
The Song Is Over and Behind Blue Eyes on.
– BABA O’RILEY –
– WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN –
ALBUM
