My Generation

My Generation is the debut studio album by the Who, released on 3 December 1965 on Brunswick in the UK. The line-up is the one fans know best: Roger Daltrey on vocals, Pete Townshend on guitar, John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums, with session player Nicky Hopkins adding piano. Most of it was recorded straight after the singles "I Can't Explain" and "My Generation" made the charts. The band later saw it as something of a rush job that didn't capture how they sounded on stage. In the US it appeared in April 1966 on Decca as The Who Sings My Generation, with a different cover and a slightly altered track listing.

It reached No. 5 in the UK and missed the US charts, and it sold less than their later albums. Critics have since come round to it, praising a hard, forceful sound that was unusual for its day and that anticipated punk and heavy metal. In 2008 it was added to the National Recording Registry, the only Who recording to be honoured that way.