The Who - Who's for Tennis - Non-Album Tracks (1968)

Other people who like to create alternate albums generally like to make a 1968 Who album called "Who's for Tennis." That's because the group's manager proposed an album with that name to come out in time for the July 1968 Wimbledon tennis championship near London. It would have been composed of some new songs as well as outtakes from the previous year's album "The Who Sell Out." It never came to pas,s though. Instead, the Who put out three new singles (including the hit "Magic Bus").

Additionally, in the US and Canada only, they released the album "Magic Bus: The Who on Tour." It was a bewilderingly lousy album because although the Who had lots of really good unreleased songs at the time, the album included songs previously released on their last two albums "The Who Sell Out" and "A Quick One" and a seemingly random selection of other songs, many of them recent A-sides and B-sides, some going back to 1966. The album was exploitative, in that the title made it sound like a live album, which it was not. There was no Who album in Britain in 1968.

Clearly, an album like "Who's for Tennis" should have been released instead. The blog Albums That Never Were made a good version a few years ago:

http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-who-whos-for-tennis.html

But that used some "The Who Sell Out" outtakes. I didn't want to do that since I've used those up already for my double album version of that album. I had to rely just on 1968 Who songs. Unfortunately, a few of them have never been officially released or even bootlegged, such as "Joys" and "Kids, Do You Want Kids."  I have to make do with what's publicly available. Luckily, there's just enough for an album, though it's one that's only 36 minutes long.

Most of the songs came out on later archival compilations, such as the various versions of "Odds and Sods" and the "Maximum R&B" box set. In one case though, I bent the chronology a little. We know a studio version of the cover song "Shakin' All Over" was recorded in 1968 for the intended album. Unfortunately, this version has never been made public. I could have used a live version from the recently released Fillmore 1968 album. But instead I chose a studio version recorded for the BBC in 1970 (which includes a snippet of the blues song "Spoonful"). I figure that's much more like what the studio 1968 version would sound like, since it's short like all the other 1968 songs (three and a half minutes), whereas the live version is significantly longer (seven minutes). 

The cover song "C'Mon Everybody" was done live in concert in April 1968, and released on the official live album "Live at the Fillmore East 1968." The sound quality holds up with the other songs.

In 2021, "super deluxe" edition of "The Who Sell Out" was released. That five album edition has one album called "The Road to Tommy" that more or less includes the 1968 songs here. I've used the super deluxe versions of every song here I could, which I believe is all the songs except for "Dogs, Part Two" and "Shakin' All Over - Spoonful."

Also, one new song emerged, "Facts of Life (Birds and Bees)." Unfortunately, vocals were intended for it but were never recorded, so we only have an instrumental version. I stuck that on the end. 

I'm left wondering what happened to two other Who songs said to exist from this time, "Joys" and "Kids, Do You Want Kids." A Pete Townshend demo version of that second song was included on the super deluxe box set, so I'll put that on one of the Townshend demo albums I've made. There are studio logs showing the Who did record the songs, but maybe the recordings were lost, or they decided the songs weren't good enough for an archival release. They recorded some other things in 1968 that are lost or stuck in the vaults, such as a cover of Mose Allison's song "One Room Country Shack."

I love the Who, especially 1960s Who. I think this album is just as good as most other 1960s Who albums, such as "A Quick One" or "My Generation."

01 Glow Girl (Who)
02 Magic Bus [Long Version] (Who)
03 Faith in Something Bigger (Who)
04 Melancholia (Who)
05 Fortune Teller (Who)
06 Call Me Lightning (Who)
07 Little Billy (Who)
08 C'mon Everybody (Who)
09 Dogs (Who)
10 Dogs, Part Two (Who)
11 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Who)
12 Shakin' All Over - Spoonful (Who)
13 Facts of Life [Birds and Bees] [Instrumental] (Who)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701120/TWHOO1968_WhosfrTnnis_atse.zip.html

I used the same cover that the Albums That Never Were and other similar blogs have used. It wasn't actually considered by the Who at the time, but made by an artist named Jon Hunt years later. However, the version that has been used by others has a deliberately battered look to make it seem like a frequently played album. I toned down the wear and tear some.