“Baba O'Riley” by The Who

"Baba O'Riley" kicks open Who's Next, the Who's fifth studio album, from 1971, and it announces itself with a burbling, hypnotic synthesizer pattern that just keeps cycling until the band crashes in. Pete Townshend wrote it and plays nearly everything that isn't nailed down on it, from guitar and piano to organ and synthesizer.

Keith Moon hammers his drums and percussion like he's trying to break out of the studio, John Entwistle's bass holds the floor, and Roger Daltrey and Townshend split the lead vocals, Daltrey all roar and Townshend all ache. Then comes the finale, a frantic, whirling violin jig from guest Dave Arbus that builds into a delirious rave-up; Moon even gets a production credit for the violin part. Glyn Johns recorded and mixed it and served as associate producer, with the band producing and Kit Lambert, Chris Stamp and Pete Kameron as executive producers.

In Europe it went out as a single that October, backed with "My Wife". It's widely rated among the Who's finest songs and among the greatest rock songs ever cut, with places on Time's All-Time 100 Songs, Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

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