"Pinball Wizard" группы The Who: История хита из оперы Tommy

Song by the Who from the album Tommy

"Pinball Wizard" is a song by the English rock band the Who, written by guitarist and primary songwriter Pete Townshend and featured on their 1969 rock opera album Tommy. The original recording was released as a single in 1969 and reached No. 4 in the UK charts and No. 19 on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100. The B side of the "Pinball Wizard" single is an instrumental credited to Keith Moon, titled "Dogs Part Two". Despite the title, it has no musical connection to the Who's 1968 UK single "Dogs".

The lyrics are written from the perspective of a pinball champion, called "Local Lad" in the Tommy libretto book, astounded by the skills of the opera's eponymous main character, Tommy Walker: "He ain't got no distractions / Can't hear those buzzers and bells / Don't see lights a flashin' / Plays by sense of smell / Always gets a replay / Never seen him fall / That deaf dumb and blind kid / Sure plays a mean pinball. ", and "I thought I was the Bally table king, but I just handed my pinball crown to him". Townshend once called it "the most clumsy piece of writing [he'd] ever done". Nevertheless, the song was a commercial success and remains one of the most recognised tunes from the opera. It was a perpetual concert favourite for Who fans due to its pop sound and familiarity.

In late 1968 or early 1969, when the Who played a rough assembly of their new album to critic Nik Cohn, Cohn gave a lukewarm reaction to it. Following this, Townshend, as Tommys principal composer, discussed the album with Cohn and concluded that, to lighten the load of the rock opera's heavy spiritual overtones (Townshend had recently become deeply interested in the teachings of Meher Baba), the title character, a "deaf, dumb, and blind" boy, should also be particularly good at a certain game. Knowing Cohn was an avid pinball fan, Townshend suggested that Tommy would play pinball, and Cohn immediately declared Tommy to be a masterpiece. Billboard described the single as "a solid beat rocker." Record World described it as an "exciting side."

This song is one of the band's most famous live songs, being played at almost every Who concert since its debut live performance on 2 May 1969. The live performances rarely deviated from the album arrangement, save for an occasional jam at the end sometimes leading to another song. Bootleg recordings show that this song has been known to last as long as 8 minutes (at a concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London on 3 February 1981), although live versions lasting as long as that are extremely rare. Pinball Wizard was also played during the Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show on 7 February 2010.

Chart (1969)PeakpositionAustralia KMR 45Canada RPM Top Singles6Finland (Soumen Virallinen)32France89Germany25Ireland14Netherlands 12New Zealand 8South Africa (Springbok)6Switzerland15UK 4U. S. Billboard Hot 10019U. S. Cash Box Top 10015

Chart (1969)RankUK 47U. S. (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)148

The song was performed by English musician Elton John in Ken Russell's 1975 film adaptation of Tommy. This version was released in 1975 as a promotional single only in the US, and in 1976 in the UK, where it reached number 7. Because it was not released as a commercial single in the US, it was ineligible to be listed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It did however make the US Radio & Records airplay chart, where it reached number 9. John's version uses a piano as the song's centerpiece in place of the acoustic guitar in the original. In the film, John's character is shown playing his pinball machine via a small piano keyboard. His adaptation also features additional lyrics specially written by Townshend for the movie version, as well as a subtle inclusion of musical phrases from the Who's 1960s hit "I Can't Explain" during the outro. Similarly, the Who's later cover of Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" included parts of "Take Me to the Pilot". Unlike most of the soundtrack's music, which featured various combinations of the Who and some of the era's best session players, Elton John used his own band and producer Gus Dudgeon for the track. John has performed the song as part of his Las Vegas Red Piano Show, as well as on various tours. To date, it is the only cover of a Who song to reach the top 10. John performed the song with an extended closing jam during his 1975 tour. This version appears on the 2 CD 30th Anniversary release of Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, with the live disc of the June 21, 1975 concert from Wembley Stadium. Elton opened his 'Final UK Show' at Glastonbury in 2023 playing the song. The song has subsequently been performed by Taron Egerton who portrayed Elton John in the film Rocketman (2019).

Bruce Springsteen makes a reference to the song in his song "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)", in the album The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle, with the lyric "And the wizards play down on Pinball Way". The track is also featured on the video games Rock Band 2, Rock Band Unplugged and Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore 2. Using the phrase "pinball wizard" to describe a high quality pinball player is common, both in works of media and among the general public. Several pinball tables feature a "wizard mode", a state of play which is meant to be reached only by skilled players. Within the pinball community, the phrase's use is sometimes controversial: this is primarily due to its ubiquity, with many players having become tired of hearing it. Several pinball machines have been produced with a "Pinball Wizard" theme. Two of these, produced at the time of the Tommy feature film's release, have only an oblique relation to the song: Wizard was wholly unlicensed, only taking inspiration from the song and film, while Capt. Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, a table ostensibly with an Elton John licence, used the singer's likeness as he appeared in the film, where he played the "Pinball Wizard". Both of these machines were produced in the mid 1970s by Bally Manufacturing. Two decades later, Data East Pinball also produced The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard, a licensed machine capitalising on the album's stage adaptation.