If you're a big fan of rock music from the 1960s and/or 1970s, then you're very likely familiar with . They're an English rock band that had the usual “ingredients,” so to speak, for rock bands at the time: a lead vocalist (), a guitarist (), a bassist (), and a drummer (). As of 2025, Daltrey and Townshend are the only remaining original members, and have announced a North American farewell tour appropriately named after one of the band’s songs: The Song Is Over.
The Who have been around in one form or another for decades, but most will agree that their greatest work can be found in the 1960s and the first half of the 1970s. Going through their best songs , but that’s what the following ranking intends to do regardless: shout out the best of the best when it comes to the songs of The Who.
An early song of The Who’s that ended up serving as the title to a 1979 documentary about the band, “The Kids Are Alright” does certainly sound of its time. Like, if you really weren’t too familiar with either or The Who, you could almost mistake this song for being something by the former? That might be sacrilege to say. But a similar itch is scratched.
Beyond being used for a documentary title, the first part of “The Kids Are Alright” is also briefly heard in , which is perhaps the band’s best (or at least most impactful) album. , and does prove to be an undeniable highlight there.
While is a very important album for both The Who and the world of music overall, being a fairly early concept album… or it might be more accurate to call it a rock opera. Either way, it was a very cinematic album, and that – plus its story – made it a good candidate for a movie adaptation, with 1975’s Tommy being the result (and that’s a wild/very interesting film).
As for Tommy, the album, it is a . The best candidate for being a single here, though, is the rather immediate and catchy “Pinball Wizard;” one that’s understandably gone on to become the most famous song off the album, being for Tommy what "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" kind of was for by .
As mentioned before, The Who were at their strongest during the 1960s and 1970s, reshaping themselves as a rock band, but still being definable as a rock band nonetheless for much of that time. .
This one embraces funk and some new wave influences, and though The Who weren’t as able to do this as skillfully as, say, , “Eminence Front” shows they still had at least one offbeat and unexpected song in them, beyond the 1970s. If you read about this one, in terms of when it was made and what genres it belongs to, your ears will probably prime themselves for disaster, but then listening to “Eminence Front” is another matter altogether. It kind of rocks (ironically, considering it’s pretty far away from “rock” by The Who’s standards).
“Behind Blue Eyes” has been covered quite famously and might well be overexposed, and it’s a popular The Who song to use in film soundtracks… but the original track still holds up. If you can kind of put aside the slightly frustrated feeling that comes with hearing something overly familiar, it’s easy to appreciate this as one of the band’s better ballads, and also one of their more moving songs.
You could almost argue that “Behind Blue Eyes” overdoes it, or lays things on a bit thick, but there’s a time and a place for big rock ballads, especially ones that are done well. , for better or worse.
Another fairly early song for The Who, "I Can See for Miles" feels like an interesting evolution for the band, and a showcase for them succeeding at something a little different. , and the result is head-spinning and ear-shattering, but in a good way.
It's heavy, but it’s still got a good hook, and also stands as the kind of track that would’ve been particularly awe-inspiring to see The Who play live when they were in their prime. It’s aggressive, engaging, and – somehow – also approachable rock, and undoubtedly one of the best songs The Who put out in the 1960s.
The title track on The Who’s debut album, “My Generation” feels like something of a mission statement for the band as a whole. Sure, they would evolve and do more than just the kind of punchy rock heard here, but the themes regarding being young and rebellious here would be further explored in later songs (and albums), and The Who’s core sound is also intact here, pretty much right from the jump.
You could call “My Generation” a , especially given how young the band members were when they recorded this one. It’s one of the first songs many people will think of when they hear the band name “The Who,” and it’s not hard to see why.
A song that expertly sets up Quadrophenia (both the album and the movie it inspired), “The Real Me” isn't the opening track of Quadrophenia, but it does sort of open the album, following on from the mostly instrumental "I Am the Sea." Like some other songs here, it has even more of an impact if you do listen to it within the album, especially because “I Am the Sea” feels like an intro for “The Real Me.”
Even without the lyrics, this track impresses because of how fast and hard it moves. It’s like a hungry shark of a song; all teeth, muscle, and ceaseless persistence.
Still, even “The Real Me” on its own absolutely rips, with there being something kind of thrilling about how it just explodes right at the start without any of that “I Am the Sea” build-up. Lyrically, so much of what you need to know about the rock opera that follows is introduced/explored here, and even without the lyrics, this track impresses because of how fast and hard it moves. .
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” is so epic in sound and scale that it puts some movies that call themselves epics to shame. It is a massive finish for The Who’s 1971 album, , which is easily their best album that wasn’t a double. That is to say, Quadrophenia might be better, and you could argue Tommy was more ambitious. But whatever. Who’s Next had the hits. It arguably didn’t need cohesion.
Case in point, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is easily one of the band’s best songs, and . Well, it is just one song, but the album version is the length of two to three songs, clocking in at eight and a half minutes. And it earns every second.
Yet for as grand a final song as “Won’t Get Fooled Again” was, the closing track to Quadrophenia, “Love, Reign o'er Me,” is even more impressive as an ending. It goes so big and passionate that, while listening to it, you can understand and accept that, post-1973, The Who probably weren’t going to be able to top this. It is everything that the ending to a rock opera should be, and more.
Words fail it a little, but this much can be said: . There is just too much passion and grandeur conveyed through “Love, Reign o'er Me” both vocally and instrumentally to resist getting swept up in it all. It’s a massive song, and a massively compelling one, even 50+ years later.
Sometimes, a band’s most popular song is simply their best. That can be said about Blondie and “Heart of Glass,” and it can also be said about The Who and "Baba O'Riley." This is the opening track that just about every other opening track from any other rock album wishes it was, and it’s such a great intro to Who’s Next while itself also having a beyond iconic intro in itself.
Also, how many other rock songs have utilized an organ quite this well? That’s all you hear at the start, then there’s some piano, and then the drums kick in, and suddenly, everything feels entirely alive… and that’s before even reaching the vocals, which take more than one minute to enter the field (which, coincidentally, is where you can fight for a meal). It’s astoundingly structured and executed; The Who’s best song, and one of the best rock tracks ever made, too.
