Key Insights
- Album Overview: The Who by Numbers is a reflective album from 1975, now being reissued with extensive additional content.
- Track Highlights: The new box set features 92 unreleased tracks, including demos and live performances.
- Historical Context: Despite its platinum status, the album was overshadowed by earlier releases like Who’s Next.
- Production Discovery: The original tapes were rediscovered in 2020, leading to this comprehensive reissue.
The Who’s most moody and introspective album, 1975’s The Who by Numbers, is being expanded for a new reissue. The super-deluxe 5CD/Blu-ray box set includes 92 unreleased tracks and mixes, including Atmos, 5.1 and stereo mixes by Pete Townshend.
Highlights include 11 of Townshend’s original demos for the album, concert appearances, tracking sessions, early mixes and guide vocals. See a complete track listing below, along with an early mix of “Imagine a Man” with Townshend on vocals. Preordering for the set is already underway. It’s due on Oct. 30.
The Who by Numbers: Super Deluxe Edition is rounded out by expanded live material from their June 1976 appearance at the U.K.’s Vetch Field in Swansea, Wales. The Blu-ray features footage from a previously unreleased Who concert in December 1975 at Metropolitan Stadium in Pontiac, Michigan.
What’s on ‘The Who by Numbers’ Reissue?
Arriving after the landmark international Top 5 albums Who’s Next and Quadrophenia, The Who by Numbers was perhaps always destined to be overlooked. This platinum-selling LP “only” reached No. 7 in the U.K. and No. 8 in the U.S. Its Top 10 lead single “Squeeze Box” likewise never had the same cache as “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Baba O’Riley” or “Love, Reign O’er Me.” The second single, “Slip Kid,” didn’t chart at all.
Townshend may have hit on why: “The Who by Numbers is a tricky album to talk about,” he said in an official statement. “It’s the only one where I allowed songs that were so personal to be used by the Who.”
READ MORE: The Who’s Most Underrated Songs
That made the entire album special for frontman Roger Daltrey, who was charged with interpreting Townshend’s lyrics. “In some ways, The Who by Numbers is my favorite [Who] album,” he said. “For me, songs like ‘Imagine a Man,’ ‘How Many Friends’ and ‘However Much I Booze’ expose our vulnerabilities, and the album is wonderful for that.”
The Who moved on. The multi-platinum Who Are You arrived in 1978, and they roared back into the Top 5. Over time, those other legendary records were the subject of huge reissues – but not The Who by Numbers.
How the Historic ‘Who by Numbers’ Tapes Were Found
Turns out, there was a reason: The tapes were lost. Enter producer and writer Brian Kehew, who’s also worked as touring musician and keyboard tech with the Who. Kehew was going through the archive at Hollywood’s Sunset Sound in 2020 when he came across the original two-inch multitracks from The Who by Numbers.
“I immediately contacted Pete Townshend, and we arranged to send the tapes back to England,” Kehew told The New York Times. “The band had been looking for the tapes for years, but this was one place they hadn’t thought to check.” The makings of a perspective-broadening new reissue were finally in hand.
READ MORE: Why the Who’s Drummer Invited Fans to Moon Him
The Who by Numbers had been principally recorded in Ronnie Lane’s Mobile Studio outside of Shepperton Studios in England. (Jon Astley did the subsequent reissue remix at his own Close to the Edge studio in Twickenham.) So how’d the original multitrack tapes get to California? The Who by Numbers was originally mixed at Sunset Sound.
A previous reissue of The Who by Numbers, dating to 1996, featured only a trio of live tracks from Swansea, “Squeeze Box,” “Behind Blue Eyes” and “Dreaming from the Waist.” The Who’s 1975 show at Pontiac originally set the record for the largest-ever indoor rock concert attendance, with almost 76,000 people.
Listen to the Who’s ‘Imagine a Man (Pete Townshend Vocal / Early Mix)’
The Who, ‘The Who by Numbers: Super Deluxe’ Edition Track Listing
DISC ONE: THE ORIGINAL 1975 ALBUM REMASTERED
1. “Slip Kid”
2. “However Much I Booze”
3. “Squeeze Box”
4. “Dreaming From the Waist”
5. “Imagine a Man”
6. “Success Story”
7. “They Are All In Love”
8. “Blue Red and Grey”
9. “How Many Friends”
10. “In a Hand Or a Face”
DISC TWO: PETE TOWNSHEND DEMOS
1. “Keep Me Turning” (Version 1: Previously Unreleased)
2. “Slip Kid” (Version 1)
3. “Squeeze Box”
4. “Blue Red and Grey” (Previously Unreleased)
5. “Dreaming From the Waist” (Previously Unreleased)
6. “How Many Friends” (Previously Unreleased)
7. “Keep Me Turning” (Version 2) (Previously Unreleased)
8. “Imagine a Man” (Previously Unreleased)
9. “Slip Kid” (Version 2: Previously Unreleased)
10. “Round and Round” (working title for “In a Hand Or a Face”: Previously Unreleased)
11. “There Ain’t No Way Out” (working title for “However Much I Booze”)
DISC THREE: TRACKING SESSIONS: RAMPORT & SHEPPERTON STUDIOS
1. “Ramport Jam” (Excerpt: Previously Unreleased)
2. “She Loves Everyone” (Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
3. “Control Myself” (Dreaming From The Waist Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
4. “There Ain’t No Way Out” (However Much I Booze Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
5. “Goin’ to Frisco/Round and Round” (“In a Hand Or a Face” Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
6. “Hi-Heel Sneakers Jam” with Nicky Hopkins (Studio Outtake: Previously Unreleased)
7. Pete and Keith, “The Artiste” (Studio Dialogue: Previously Unreleased)
8. “Success Story” (Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
9. “How Many Friends” (Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
10. “Imagine a Man” (Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
11. “They Are All In Love” (Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
12. “She Loves Everyone” (Retake with Nicky Hopkins: Previously Unreleased)
13. “Squeeze Box” (Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
14. Instrumental 1 (Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
15. “I’m Dreaming” (“Dreaming From the Waist” Retake: Previously Unreleased)
16. Instrumental 2 (Rough Mix Tracking Session: Previously Unreleased)
17.‘The Who by Numbers’ US Radio Spot #1 (Radio Commercial: Previously Unreleased)
DISC FOUR: EARLY MIXES & GUIDE VOCALS
1.“Slip Kid” (Alternate Roger Vocal, Early Mix Without Overdubs: Previously Unreleased)
2.“However Much I Booze” (Alternate Pete Vocal, Early Mix: Previously Unreleased)
3.“Squeeze Box” (Alternate Roger Vocal: Previously Unreleased)
4.“Dreaming From the Waist (Pete Vocal, Early Mix: Previously Unreleased)
5.“Imagine a Man” (Pete Vocal, Early Mix: Previously Unreleased)
6.“Success Story” (John Vocal, Early Mix: Previously Unreleased)
7.“They Are All In Love” (Alternate Pete Vocal, Early Mix: Previously Unreleased)
8.“Blue Red and Grey” (Unedited Version: Previously Unreleased)
9.“How Many Friends” (Pete Vocal, Early Mix: Previously Unreleased)
10.“In a Hand Or a Face” (Early Mix: Previously Unreleased)
11.“They Are All In Love” (Alternate Roger Vocal, Early Mix: Previously Unreleased)
12.“Squeeze Box” (Acoustic Stripped Mix 2026: Previously Unreleased)
13.“Imagine a Man” (Acoustic Stripped Mix 2026: Previously Unreleased)
14.“They Are All In Love” (Acoustic Stripped Mix 2026: Previously Unreleased)
15.“How Many Friends” (Acoustic Stripped Mix 2026: Previously Unreleased)
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*-Mono
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Gallery Credit: Bryan Wawzenek
