10 Hard Rock Songs Added At The Last Minute

Pete Townshend definitely had a clear vision for the Who when it came time to craft the album Tommy. Shaped as the world's first rock opera, the album would tell the story of a deaf dumb and blind boy trying to find his place amongst disaffected youth. Though pinball initially was a minute detail, Townshend's anger at management prompted one of the band's biggest hits.

When Townshend first started to present his grand masterpiece to various industry elites, he became particularly disgruntled when one bigwig pointed out that the story was good but there was no single that the band could release. In a cheeky form of payback, Townshend went home and crafted "Pinball Wizard," whose structure was a bit more pop-friendly than the odysseys throughout the rest of the record.

Instead of just staying as a cheap joke, the song ended up gaining legs shortly after the album's release, quickly becoming the defining song of the entire opera. While many were jamming to the song's infectious beat, Townshend was more bewildered than anything else, thinking that the song barely had anything to do with the actual story. Though it might not be the most coherent segue on the album, "Pinball Wizard" shows that despite his more adventurous vision, Townshend could still write a gripping pop tune.