The Who – Pinball Wizard

The Who – Pinball Wizard (Live at the Isle of Wight, 1970)

The original Who line-up performing a full live set in front of 600,000 people at the Isle of Wight festival in the UK in 1970.

At 2am August 30th The Who appeared on stage and gave one of the most memorable concerts of their career.

The filmed negative of the show, shot by Academy Award winning Director Murray Lerner, has been restored to the highest visual quality.

“Pinball Wizard” Single by the Who from the album Tommy
B-side “Dogs Part Two”
Released 7 March 1969
Label Track (UK), Decca (US)
Songwriter Pete Townshend
Producer Kit Lambert
Charted No.19 in US, No.4 in UK, No.6 in Canada, No.25 in West Germany

This is part of Tommy, the first “rock opera.” Tommy is about a young man who is deaf, dumb, and blind, but becomes a pinball champion and gains hordes of adoring fans. It was made into a play and ran as an off-Broadway production.

Like most songs on the Tommy album, “Pinball Wizard” was written by The Who guitarist, Pete Townshend. The album existed mostly in his head while they were recording it, and the other members of The Who had no idea how most of the story would end until they finished it. The only songs Townshend didn’t write for the project were “Cousin Kevin” and “Fiddle About” (by bass player John Entwistle), and “Tommy’s Holiday Camp” (by Keith Moon).

The Who performed this at Woodstock in 1969. The song was still fairly new, so many in the crowd did not recognize it. The Who were given the early morning slot, so they ended up playing it as the sun came up.

Townshend once called it “the most clumsy piece of writing [he’d] ever done”.[4] Nevertheless, the song was a commercial success and remains one of the most recognised tunes from the opera. It was a perpetual concert favourite for Who fans due to its pop sound and familiarity.