20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of The Who [Original recording remastered]

Track Listings

1. My Generation

2. Happy Jack

3. I Can See for Miles

4. Magic Bus

5. Pinball Wizard

6. Squeeze Box

7. Behind Blue Eyes

8. Who Are You

9. Join Together

10. Won't Get Fooled Again

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The Best of the Who? Well, perhaps. This set does contain 9 of the 16 Top 40 hits the Who scored in the U.S. between 1967 and '82. But try as they did early on to be a chart-topping act, the Who's career ultimately isn't about hit singles; it's more about Pete Townshend's grand concept albums Tommy and Quadrophenia and the seminal concert recording Live at Leeds--works that, by and large, don't reduce well to brief anthologies. That said, there's still some great material here. "My Generation" still reigns as the ultimate punk anthem; the kinetic "Magic Bus"; the searching "I Can See for Miles; and the titanic "Won't Get Fooled Again" all rank with rock's great tunes. At the very least, this collection will whet your appetite for some of the great individual titles from the Who's extensive catalog. --Daniel Durchholz --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Tracks:

My Generation
Happy Jack
I Can See For Miles
Magic Bus
Pinball Wizard
Squeeze Box
Behind Blue Eyes
Who Are You
Join Together
Won't Get Fooled Again

Amazon.com

The Best of the Who? Well, perhaps. This set does contain 9 of the 16 Top 40 hits the Who scored in the U.S. between 1967 and '82. But try as they did early on to be a chart-topping act, the Who's career ultimately isn't about hit singles; it's more about Pete Townshend's grand concept albums Tommy and Quadrophenia and the seminal concert recording Live at Leeds--works that, by and large, don't reduce well to brief anthologies. That said, there's still some great material here. "My Generation" still reigns as the ultimate punk anthem; the kinetic "Magic Bus"; the searching "I Can See for Miles; and the titanic "Won't Get Fooled Again" all rank with rock's great tunes. At the very least, this collection will whet your appetite for some of the great individual titles from the Who's extensive catalog. --Daniel Durchholz

Customer Reviews:

Good Music But Not A Necessary Purchase.......2007-07-08

The Who are definately one of my favorite bands. This "Best Of" release of their music is skimpy, to say the least. There are some songs that have been played at just about every Who concert since 1965, such as "I Can't Explain," "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere," and "Substitute," that are all missing here. Also some crutial 1970s songs are missing, such as "Baba O'Riley," "The Real Me," "5:15," and "You Better You Bet." The music that is included is great, but there is too much missing for this collection to be liked. (As a general rule I try to stay away from the "20th Century Masters" series, because they are all shorter and less complete than other "Greatest Hits" packages by that band.) Fortunately, when it comes to The Who, there is no shortage of "Greatest Hits" collections to choose from. So there is no need to buy this sub-par release. Instead buy "Maximum R&B," "The Ultimate Collection," or "Then And Now."

P.S. I can say one thing to this CD's credit: the version of "Who Are You" appears unedited. Some other compilations I've seen feature the edited version.

Baba O'Riley?.......2006-12-23

"Baba O'Riley" is stilled played on the radio today. It was one of the first songs I heard from in the 90s when starting to listen to music. How could this be left off?

"Going Mobile" and "The Seeker" would have been good too. But just adding Baba O'Riley could have elevated this to 3 or 4 stars. Without it, it's nothing. Instead of buying these ludicrous "Millennium Collection" albums, spend a few minutes to find real best of compilations for any artist you are interested in.

"Best of"?.......2006-12-01

Ok, so I ALMOST bought this CD, I mean it's a great price and it has a lot of great songs on it, but how can you call it the "Best" of the who without Baba O'Riley, debatebly the most popular The Who song of all time?

Exactly what I was looking for.......2006-10-28

For all of you die hard Who fans complaining about this disc, I have just one thing to say: This disc was not meant for you in the first place. Serious Who fans already own most, if not all, of the band's albums, and probably already have a "best of" or two. This CD, indeed this whole 20th Century Masters "Best Of" line of releases, was intended to be a cheap way for people to be able to sample an artist's material and see whether they want to pursue their other works.

Of course it's not a perfect retrospective. No matter what songs appear on a "best of" or "greatest hits" package, there's always going to be a track that gets left off that you think is one of the band's better tracks. As to the album length - while it's true they left room for another 30 minutes worth of material, this compilation is not supposed to be some all encompassing anthology. The 20th Century Masters series serves as an introduction to the artist and their most noteworthy material. Typically that means 10-12 tracks, which obviously won't fill the entire disc.

I am exactly the type of consumer that this compilation is targeting. I'm not a serious Who fan, but I like some of their songs. I wanted a compilation that had a good song selection and decent sound quality. There were plenty of collections to choose from, but the 20th Century Masters series provided exactly what I was looking for, and at a very reasonable price. You get a nice selection of classic Who songs, digitally remastered, at about half the cost of the average CD. All told, it is a very affordable way to pique my interest in the rest of the band's catalog.

Good for newbies.......2006-04-19

This CD is great for people who are new to The Who, and who don't want to spend too much money on a CD. All you Who fans are complaining, but this isn't directed toward the already dedicated fans (at least I hope not) who own some of their albums already. This is geared toward those who are new to The Who, and who want to get a good idea of their sound. The song choice is decent, with some great songs on it (although I agree that some of them could have been replaced with better ones), but the CD serves its purpose very well. So stop bashing it. If you're a dedicated fan of The Who, why are you bothering with greatest hits collections anyway?

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1. My Generation
2. Happy Jack
3. I Can See for Miles
4. Magic Bus
5. Pinball Wizard
6. Squeeze Box
7. Behind Blue Eyes
8. Who Are You
9. Join Together
10. Won't Get Fooled Again