The Best Who Covers Ever

Head back to the beginning.

10. The Pearlfishers — Someone’s Coming

A John Entwistle song, possibly explaining the brass in the original version, “Someone’s Coming” is from the Who’s earlier and poppier days, pre- Woodstock, pre-Tommy and all the rest, but looked back upon fondly by many. The Pearlfishers, one of Scotland’s best undiscovered gems, released this iteration back at the turn of the century, for a long-shelved covers compilation called, get it, The New Sell Out. Despite the presence of such notables as Brendan Benson and, well, nobody much else, it took until 2012 to lurch toward a Bandcamp release. Whether it would have helped the Pearlfishers find any elusive fame is debatable, but they have a legacy of their own material stretching into double figures, and remain world-famous in Glasgow. – Seuras Og

9. Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ — Squeezebox

Bluesmen Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ bring The Who’s bluesy “Squeeze Box” right on back to the Deep South that inspired it. Specifically, they take it to the swamps in Louisiana for a Zydeco-flavored rendition (Zydeco being all about the Squeeze Box/Accordion). Mahal and Mo’ trade verses and weave in hand-percussion and lines from female backing singers. The end result is as much fun as the original, and quite a bit funkier. In the original, the music comes to pauses in the bridge section (“Squeeze me, come on and squeeze me”) but in the cover, nothing interrupts the groove. Cajun and Creole music always keeps the dancers moving. – Tom McDonald

8. Petra Haden — Sunrise

The acoustic guitar, light yet persistent in the original “Sunrise,” is replaced by acapella-style vocal layering in Petra Haden’s cover from her all-vocal version of The Who Sell Out. The higher-pitched main vocals transition to a lower register for the chorus, and this change foreshadows the wide variety of sounds Haden’s one voice can and will make in the rest of the song to come. In the middle of the song, the background vocals as instrumental accompaniment become a bit frantic and chaotic before petering out again. But then there is a swing back with a slight wail that peeks in for awhile. No snippet of the song sounds quite the same; there’s always a new sonic element for listeners to find. – Sara Stoudt

7. Goose – Eminence Front

Released in 1982, “Eminence Front” veers away from the Who’s classic sound. Instead of power chords, screeching vocals and bombastic drum fills, the track – written and sung by Pete Townshend – feels much more like an EDM tune, more suitable for a dance club than a stadium rock show. The open-ended structure of the song makes it ideal for a jamband like Goose. The group stretches the song out for ten minutes, giving it a seemingly endless groove and proves that even the Who’s deeper catalog is worthy of reinterpretation. – Curtis Zimmermann

6. Labelle — Won’t Get Fooled Again

“Won’t Get Fooled Again”‘s eight and a half minutes are pretty much tattooed on the minds of anybody raised on classic rock. So when you learn that Labelle cut out about forty percent of it when they recorded their second album Moon Shadow, you know there’s going to be a lot of changes that have to come (you knew it all along, in fact). But they’re not just structural changes – it’s faster now, and there’s funk and gospel to it that give the song an entirely new angle, changing where it’s coming from and where it’s going. Labelle truly liberated “Won’t Get Fooled Again” from the fold. – Patrick Robbins

5. Elton John — Pinball Wizard

The Who’s 1975 film adaptation of its rock opera Tommy was a star-studded affair, featuring appearances from the likes of Ann-Margret, Eric Clapton and Tina Turner, as well as this dazzling performance of “Pinball Wizard” by Elton John. In the sequence, he appears larger than life wearing massive red boots and towering over the audience. Though the Who is on stage with John in the film, he was backed by his own band in the studio. Together they took one of the Who’s greatest guitar anthems and transformed it into a piano-driven masterpiece, one that fits well alongside any of John’s greatest hits of the ‘70s. – Curtis Zimmermann

4. Tobo & Les Flammes — Boris the Spider

John Entwistle is in Rock and Roll Valhalla, having suffered a Rock and Roll star’s death. He was proficient in several instruments and had a remarkable understanding of how music fitted together, at the small or large scale. His contributions to The Who, including songwriting, arrangements, album covers and keeping volatile personalities together, went well beyond being part of the rhythm section. Playing behind three demonstrative extroverts, he sometimes felt that his sardonic wit and good humor did not get the airing that they could have gotten.

“Boris the Spider,” a rare outing for Entwistle’s basso profundo, was a fan favorite. This version, in French, captures the humor and absurdity of the song really well, without playing it too straight or too strange. – Mike Tobyn

3. Richard Thompson — A Legal Matter

As a teenager, Richard Thompson was privileged to have experienced The Who at the Marquee Club, which held only a few hundred people. He remained a fan throughout his career, occasionally covering the band during live shows. For his 1000 Years of Popular Music project, which you can read more about here, he performed a cover of “A Legal Matter,” an uptempo song about fear of commitment, and the first song on which Pete Townshend sang lead. The Who’s version is a rocker, with an apparent debt to the Stones’ “The Last Time.” Thompson’s version is similarly lively, and is performed in Thompson’s distinctive style, which is always fine. – Jordan Becker

2. Patti Smith – My Generation

1976. Cleveland, Ohio. Patti Smith has released only her debut album but is playing her 2nd night at the Agora. Her producer, John Cale of Velvet Underground fame, takes the stage to play bass. The result is pure, beautiful punk rock. Smith preempts the coy “fffffffade away” of the Who’s 1965 anthem: in the 3rd line she rewrites the lyrics and drops the F-bomb. From that point on, it’s pretty clear where this thing is going.

If it’s not Smith’s vocals going off the rails – babbling, ranting, shrieking – it’s the backing band, crashing, swirling, mistimed. It’s a beautiful car wreck that takes the essence of the Who’s song and lays bare a sound to go with the message of that original. The sound still feels refreshingly contemporary – this performance feels like something you could still go see at the Agora or any number of smaller venues across the country – while at the same time sounding like the first of its kind. – Mike Misch

1. Bettye LaVette — Love, Reign O’er Me

The star power was fierce the night of the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony. Not only were the musical honorees all literal legends (Barbra Streisand, George Jones, and The Who, to be specific), many of the artists recruited to perform tributes were superstars in their own right (Queen Beyonce and Garth Brooks, to name a couple). But Bettye LaVette was no superstar–that night, she was a stranger to all but the deepest of deep Soul nerds ‘n’ old school R&B fanatics. Her biggest mainstream success had come in the form of her first single, “My Man – He’s a Lovin’ Man” which peaked at #7 on the U.S.R&B chart way back in 1962. So when LaVette was introduced, she received only a small smattering of the respectful but unenthusiastic applause (the TV broadcast had to enhance it).

But you best believe everyone in that theater in Washington DC on December 8th of 2008 knew who the hell Bettye Lavette was after her performance of “Love Reign O’er Me.” The song was no longer a cover; now it was a spiritual possession. It was a fireball blazing across the sky. It obliterated everything that had come before or had the misfortune of coming after it that night. There simply aren’t enough superlatives to describe Bettye LaVette’s show-stealing, roof-raising, name-making performance. (Later, an extended version would appear on her album Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook.)

She had hoped to be part of the tribute to George Jones that eve, as she had covered his tune “Choices” in the past. Instead, she was offered the opportunity to sing “Love Reign O’er Me,” a song she had never heard of, as part of The Who’s segment. According to her 2010 profile in The New Yorker, when she finally listened to it, she burst into tears. Not because she had been moved by its beauty, but because she straight-up wasn’t into the song. “The biggest opportunity I’ve ever been offered in my life,” she said, “and this is the song I’ve been given. I felt completely defeated.” She added that she’d been terrified to perform that night as “Everybody in the world I wanted to impress was out there, and I was singing a song I didn’t want to sing.”

Not that you’d ever detect any of this based on the result. From her signature sick vocal rasp to her onstage charisma and conviction, LaVette’s performance was absolutely freakin’ mesmerizing. When the camera cuts to Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend in the audience, both men are visibly overcome with emotion and look to be on the verge of tears.

“I didn’t come there to try anything,” LaVette elaborated in the New Yorker piece. “I just thought, Whoever else is on that show, they have to die tonight. I haven’t had the opportunity to be adored already when I walk out onstage. Still, when I walk out, I walk out to make a point. If I have to rise to the occasion of killing you, I will.”

Oh, Bettye, you killed and we’re crying. – Hope Silverman

Check out more installments in our monthly ‘Best Covers Ever’ series, including The Kinks, Pixies, Kate Bush, and more.

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