The Who: the British rock band that needs no introduction. Unless you’ve been living under a rock all your life, you’ve heard their songs countless times in movies, television shows, commercials, and just on the radio. They’re up there with other venerable and venerated classic Brit Rock phenomenons like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, selling more than 100 million records worldwide and easily snagging themselves the title as one of the most influential music groups of the 20th century.

More Hits than an MMA Fight

Starting from humble roots in 1964 as a quartet of British blokes from a previous band, The Who had a legendary lineup from the beginning. Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwhistle, and Keith Moon were absolutely unstoppable, thanks in no small part to the pure, raw talent these boys had. Townshend’s lyricism and unique performance style captivated audiences across the world, and nobody’s worked the skins like Moon, though his tragic death in 1978 certainly shook things up for this supergroup. The show must go on, though, and The Who kept up the pace until the 1980s when they semi-retired. They’d get together periodically over the years until finally re-forming in 1996.

The Unbeatable and Unstoppable

With the band back together, there was no stopping them. Even Entwhistle’s death in 2002 from a heart attack couldn’t slow down this new momentum; Entwhistle’s son gave Daltrey and Townshend his blessing to continue to rock, and that’s just what they did. If nothing else, the death finally cemented the relationship between Townshend and Daltrey, something that had been notoriously rocky for decades, and the two finally buried the hatchet and got back to the work of writing and performing songs for the ages. The rest, as they say, is history.