The Who : The Who Sell Out ( New Link )

The Who Sell Out

 is the third

 studio album

 by 

the British

 rock band

 The Who

released on

 December 15, 1967 

by Track Records

 in the UK 

and Decca Records 

in the US.

 It is a concept album, 

formatted as 

a collection 

of unrelated songs

 interspersed with

 faux commercials 

and public 

service announcements. 

The album purports to be

 a broadcast by

 pirate radio station

 Radio London. 

Part of the intended irony

 of the title 

was that 

The Who were 

making commercials

 during that period 

of their career

The album's release

 was reportedly 

followed by lawsuits 

due to the mention 

of real-world 

commercial interests

 in the 

faux commercials

 and on

 the album covers, 

and by the makers 

of the real jingles

 (Radio London jingles),

 who claimed

 the Who

 used them without permission.

 The jingles were produced by

 PAMS Productions of

 Dallas, Texas,

 which created thousands

 of station ID jingles

 in the

 1960s and 1970s.

 It was the 

deodorant company, 

Odorono,

 who took offense that

 Chris Stamp 

made a request for

 endorsement dollars.

 "I Can See for Miles" 

was released as

 a single 

and peaked a

 #10 in the UK

 and

 #9 in the US.

The Who Sell Out 

received widespread acclaim 

from critics, 

The cover is divided 

into panels 

featuring a photograph

 by David Montgomery

 of each of

 the band members, 

two on the front

 and two

 on the back. 

On the front is

Pete Townshend 

applying Odorono 

brand deodorant

 from an 

oversized stick,

 and

 Roger Daltrey

 sitting in a bathtub 

full of

 Heinz baked beans 

holding an oversized
 tin can of the same

 Daltrey claims to have caught 

pneumonia after sitting

 for a prolonged period

 in the bathtub,

 as the beans

 had been frozen. 

On the back is

 Keith Moon 

applying Medac 

(a fictitious acne ointment) 

from an oversized tube, 

and

 John Entwistle

 in a leopard-skin Tarzan suit,

 squeezing a blonde woman 

in a leopard-skin bikini 

with one arm 

and a teddy bear 

with the other

an ad for 

the Charles Atlas 

course mentioned

 in one of the album's 

faux commercials

Original vinyl copies 

of Sell Out 

end with an 

audio oddity 

that repeats into a

 locked groove 

In response to

 The Beatles'

 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

 The music in the locked groove

 is an instrumental version 

of what was

 originally intended 

to be a

vocal jingle 

for the 

Who's UK label 

Track Records.

When the LP was 

released on

 Track Records

 in the UK 

in 1967

  a poster was included inside

 the first 1000 copies

 They came with a sticker on

 the front cover stating

 'Free Psychedelic Poster Inside'. 

Because of their rarity,

 first pressings 

with poster and sticker 

have sold for more than £600. 

Included in the inner sleeve 

 the poster art of a 

butterfly initially

 intended as

 the LP cover 

was scrapped,

 and turned into

 the free poster

LINK

Share this post