A Quick One (Extra Tracks)

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
Dec 3 1966
Also known as:
  • Happy Jack

Overview Edit

A Quick One is the second album by English rock band The Who, released in 1966. American record company executives at Decca Records released the album under the title Happy Jack, rather than the sexually suggestive title of the UK release, and due to "Happy Jack" being a top forty hit in the U.S. "Happy Jack" was not included on the UK version of the album (replaced with a cover of the HDH hit Heat Wave), but instead was released as a non-album single.

This is widely regarded 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, 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 was as record producer.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 383 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Quick_One. Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Version description:
Extra Tracks
Record label:
unknown
Catalog number:
11267
Release dates:
  • Jun 1995 in United Kingdom
  • Jun 20 1995 in United States

Genres

British Invasion, Classic Rock. Vote on Genres

What do Amazon.com customers think?

5 stars How to get "A Quick One" in STEREO!
Alot of people have had problems finding "A Quick One" in stereo. Here's the deal, your best bet is to buy the Polydor UK version of the CD. The artwork on the US MCA version is unchanged so it's impossible to know if it's the correct CD without taking the shrinkwrap off. Once you do that, you can't return it if it is the incorrect CD. With the Polydor import, all of the artwork on the package is the same (including the 1995 copyright date) EXCEPT for the catalog number on the binding. This will…
Written by "dauntless9"
3 stars Go find the LP
If you like the Who's later work-- the guitar-smashing stuff-- you probably won't like this album. That said, A Quick One is my all-time favorite Who record. The songs are weird and funny and a blast to sing along with. Even though, as others have mentioned, the songs were written by various members of the band, the album has a distinct flavor of its own.

Unfortunately, when the record folks put together the CD, they BUTCHERED the album. The original recording of 'Happy Jack' was not included at…
Written by methylethel

Track listing Edit

Credits Edit

  1. composer

    1. Don Everly [Extra Tracks]
    2. Phil Everly [Extra Tracks]
  1. performer

    1. John Entwistle [Keyboards, Bass, Vocals, Guitar (Bass)]

Other versions Edit

11 tracks format: 1 x CD
view details
10 tracks format: 1 x CD
release dates: Dec 3 1966 in United Kingdom
view details
13 tracks format: 1 x CD
release dates: 2001 in Russian Federation
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