A Quick One (Extra Tracks)

by

The Who

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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.