The Who Sell Out is the third studio album by the English rock band the Who. It was released on 15 December 1967 by Track Records in the UK and Decca Records in the US. A concept album, The Who Sell Out is structured as a collection of unrelated songs interspersed with fake commercials and public service announcements, including the second track "Heinz Baked Beans". The album purports to be a broadcast by pirate radio station Radio London. The reference to "selling out" was an intended irony, as the Who had been making real commercials during that period of their career, some of which are included as bonus tracks on the remastered CD.
The album was primarily written by guitarist Pete Townshend, though three tracks were penned by bassist John Entwistle and one by guest vocalist Speedy Keen, who also sings. Townshend and Entwistle are joined by vocalist Roger Daltrey and drummer Keith Moon, and organist Al Kooper makes a guest appearance on two tracks. The album was produced by the band's manager Kit Lambert.
The album's release was reportedly followed by lawsuits due to the mention of real-world commercial interests in the faux commercials and on the album covers, and by the makers of the real jingles (Radio London jingles), who claimed the Who used them without permission (the jingles were produced by PAMS Productions of Dallas, Texas, which created thousands of station identification jingles in the 1960s and 1970s). The deodorant company Odorono took offence that Chris Stamp made a request for endorsement dollars. "I Can See for Miles" was the only song from the album released as a single and peaked at number 10 in the UK and number 9 in the US, becoming the band's highest-charting single and only Top 10 hit in the latter region.
The Who Sell Out has received widespread acclaim from critics, some of whom viewed it as the Who's best record. It has also frequently been featured on all-time lists of the best albums, including Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". However, it was the band's lowest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at number 13.
Background
Initially, the band's follow-up to A Quick One was to be titled Who's Lily after their recent single "Pictures of Lily". Early cuts, such as a cover of "Summertime Blues", the Coke jingles, and the instrumental "Sodding About", showed the influence of Track Records label-mate Jimi Hendrix on Townshend's guitar playing.
Even before the group had formed, the members of the Who had been profoundly influenced by rock 'n' roll appearing on the radio. The BBC did not broadcast much contemporary music at the time, which was left to stations like Radio Luxembourg and then-pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline, Radio Scotland and Wonderful Radio London. By the end of 1966, the Who had achieved commercial success owing to the mod movement that made up a significant section of the group's early audience. However, the movement was fading, and the TV show Ready, Steady, Go that had boosted the group to fame had been cancelled. The group started touring the US the following year, and started to achieve success with their live act.
In summer 1967, the group's managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp suggested the band could create a concept album based on pirate radio and structure it in the same manner as that, or a typical US AM radio station. As pirate radio had been influential to mods, it was felt particularly appropriate to pay tribute to it. As well as the music, the inter-song announcements and jingles were a key component of radio, so it was decided to include a selection of humorous asides on the album. In his book Maximum R & B, Who confidant Richard Barnes claims he came up with the idea of the band recording commercial jingles after their cover version of the Batman theme appeared on the Ready Steady Who EP. Barnes posited the idea to Roger Daltrey, whose similar suggestions to Pete Townshend were allegedly met initially with derision. However, Townshend later claimed in his memoir that he came up with the concept for the album.
On 24 April 1967 (three weeks after recording "Pictures of Lily") the band entered De Lane Lea Studios in London to cut several songs meant for a projected instrumental EP, including a cover of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and "Instrumental No-Title", the working title for a song renamed "Sodding About" when both tracks appeared as bonus tracks on CD reissues of the album. Two commercials for Coca-Cola, "Coke after Coke" and "Things Go Better With Coke", were also recorded when the sessions concluded on 28 April.
The EP was soon abandoned and sessions for their next album began in earnest from 8-16 May at CBS in London with the outtakes "Girl's Eyes" (penned by Moon) and "Early Morning Cold Taxi" (co-written by Daltrey). On 24-29 May they returned to De Lane Lea to tape a version of the live staple "Summertime Blues", earmarked as a possible single, and a backing track for the Entwistle B-side "Someone's Coming", along with the recording of backing tracks for "Armenia City in the Sky" and "I Can See for Miles". "Armenia City in the Sky" was written by a friend of the band, Speedy Keen, while "I Can See For Miles" had been demoed by Townshend in 1966 but saved for a time he thought the group would need a big hit.
After a brief trip to America which included a notable appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival, they entered De Lane Lea from 1-4 July to tape early versions of "I Can't Reach You", "Relax" and "Rael", with Kit Lambert making mono mixes of them on the 5th. A return to America included a stop at Talent Masters Studios in New York from 10-12 July to finish the multi-sectional mini-opera "Rael". After initially recording a satisfactory version of the song, the multi-track tape was accidentally thrown in the trash by a janitor, rendering the intro unusable; when Townshend was informed of the situation, he allegedly threw a chair through the glass in the control room. Nonetheless, engineer Chris Huston was able to save the take by patching the mono version in to replace the damaged section, which is why the intro and first line of the stereo version are in mono; this version was ultimately chosen for the album over an October remake. Both Talent Masters and Mirasound were used from 6-7 August where the US single version of "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand" (featuring Al Kooper on organ), "Our Love Was", another attempt at "Summertime Blues" (which would remain an outtake) and overdubs to "I Can See For Miles" (lead vocals) and "Relax" (organ) were laid down. At this time, Townshend began to question some of Lambert's technical decisions in the studio, feeling their records did not sound clean enough. On the back is Keith Moon applying Medac (an acne ointment) from an oversized tube to an oversized pimple, and John Entwistle in a leopard-skin Tarzan suit, squeezing a blonde model, Jill Langham, in a leopard-skin bikini with one arm and a teddy bear with the other (an ad for the Charles Atlas exercise course mentioned in one of the album's fake commercials).
Original vinyl copies of Sell Out end with an audio oddity that repeats into a locked groove (In response to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). The music in the locked groove is a snippet of what was originally intended to be a vocal jingle for the Who's UK label Track Records.
When the LP was released on Track Records in the UK in 1967, a psychedelic poster illustrated by Adrian George was included inside the first 1000 copies (500 stereo and 500 mono). They came with a sticker on the front cover stating 'Free Psychedelic Poster Inside'. Because of their rarity, first pressings with poster and sticker have sold for more than £600 (about $). The poster was reinstated into the vinyl packaging when the Who's back catalogue of studio albums was restored to vinyl in 2012.