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In 1969, Pete Townshend wrote an “awful” song as a joke, unaware it would be The Who’s best-selling single ever
In 1969, Pete Townshend wrote “Pinball Wizard” for The Who’s rock opera *Tommy*, initially dismissing it as an awful, clumsy song. The track gave the album a memorable hit and helped draw attention to the story, in which Tommy discovers he is a gifted pinball player.
Townshend said critic and pinball enthusiast Nik Cohn’s reaction to the project helped prompt the pinball element, though Townshend’s accounts of how it came about have varied. After engineer Damon Lyon-Shaw and others predicted the song would be a hit, Townshend released it despite his doubts. It sold 1.2 million copies worldwide and became The Who’s best-selling single.
In short
- Townshend thought “Pinball Wizard” was awful.
- The song sold 1.2 million copies worldwide.
- It became The Who’s best-selling single.
Explained simply
The Who are a British rock band whose guitarist and songwriter, Pete Townshend, created Tommy, a 1969 album built around a fictional character’s life. Tommy is unable to see, hear or speak, but becomes exceptionally skilled at pinball.
A rock opera tells a connected story through songs, rather than presenting each song as a separate piece. Pinball Wizard became a central song in Tommy, linking the character’s unusual talent to the album’s wider story and bringing the project to a broader audience.