Songoftheday 8/25/12 - My heart starts palpitating when I think my guess was wrong...

The Who - "Athena"

from the album It's Hard (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (three weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is by the classic British rock group the Who, who released their 10th studio album in 1982, It's Hard. The group formed in the early 60s with Roger Daltrey on vocals, Pete Townshend on guitar, John Entwhistle on bass, and newly recruited bad-boy Keith Moon on the drums. Their first single as "The Who", "I Can't Explain"in 1964, was a top-10 hit in Britain, as well as their first minor chart hit in the US the following year. They continued to have success in the UK, but it wasn't until 1966's "Happy Jack" that gave the Who their first American top-40 hit the next year.

In 1967 the band released The Who Sell Out, which was the first of their classic concept records that sold albums by the caseload, and gave them an American top-10 hit with "I Can See For Miles", but surprisingly that would be their only pop top-10 single. During the late 60s and throughout the 70s the bands music would mostly be played and bought as album cuts, which raised the reputation of the band as a serious rock machine.

Sadly, Moon died of a drug overdose in 1978, and his successor, Kenney Jones of the Faces, came on board for the band's first album of the 80's Face Dances, which was able to top the newly-minted rock radio chart with "You Better You Bet" in 1981.

For their followup, the band hired on engineer Glyn Johns to produce It's Hard. He had previously co-helmed their classic Who's Next album in 1971, and the album was recorded at his home in England. The first single released from it was "Athena", which was written by Townshend  as a recount of his failed courtship of model/actress Theresa Russell...

The song was only a middle-charting top-40 hit at the time, but it was big on rock radio, making the top-5 there. But it would prove to be the group's last top-40 hit in both Britain and America. The album also peaked at #8 in the US, but just missed the top-10 in England.

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The It's Hard album wasn't a favorite of the band's, as it only played songs from it during their promotional 1982 tour, save for the excellent "Eminence Front". Here's a performance of "Athena" from that tour...

 Up tomorrow: The most recognized cheerleading chant of the 80s.