A Quick One

Each member was advanced 500 pounds to supply two songs. Chris Stamp was executive producer and Kit Lambert produced. The album closes with A Quick One, While He's Away, which runs 9:10. It reached number four in Britain. In the United States it came out on Decca in April 1967 under the title Happy Jack and reached number 67. Rolling Stone placed it at number 383 in its 2003 list of 500 greatest albums.

Unlike other Who albums, it is not dominated by Townshend. Daltrey wrote one song, See My Way, a pastiche of Buddy Holly, while Entwistle and Moon wrote two each and Townshend four. Entwistle's Boris the Spider was written in under ten minutes after a night out with Bill Wyman, and was later named by Jimi Hendrix as his favorite Who number. Whiskey Man was Entwistle's first song. Moon's I Need You includes a harpsichord part played by Entwistle. On Cobwebs and Strange each member played a wind instrument: Townshend the penny-whistle, Entwistle the trumpet and French horn, Daltrey the trombone and Moon the tuba. Heat Wave, a Holland-Dozier-Holland song, is the only cover, and it was replaced by Happy Jack on the American release.

A Quick One, While He's Away is a suite of six fragments: Her Man's Gone, Crying Town, We Have a Remedy, Ivor the Engine Driver, Soon Be Home and You Are Forgiven. It was recorded at IBC, Pye and Regent Sound in the first week of November and was the last song finished for the album. Entwistle recalled that Lambert said cellos were unaffordable, so the band sang cello cello cello instead. During an early October session Chas Chandler brought Hendrix to meet the group, and Townshend recommended Hiwatt and Marshall amplifiers. Melody Maker's Chris Welch gave it a full-page track-by-track review, and AllMusic's Richie Unterberger gave it four and a half stars. The album's working title was Jigsaw Puzzle. Alan Aldridge designed the sleeve.