“5:15” by The Who

"5:15" is the runaway train at the center of Quadrophenia, the Who's second rock opera, from 1973. Pete Townshend wrote it about the story's hero, Jimmy, riding down to Brighton hemmed in between two city gents and gobbling a truly silly quantity of purple hearts as he goes, his head lurching up and down while he chews over the seedy side of teenage life that the tabloids love.

The band play it like a riot on rails. Roger Daltrey and Townshend split the lead vocal, John Entwistle's bass barrels along and his horns blare, Keith Moon batters everything in reach, and Chris Stainton's piano pounds away beside them. The Who produced it themselves with Ron Nevison engineering. It reached No. 20 in Britain, and a 1979 reissue tied to the film made the Billboard Hot 100.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.