Song of the Day for November 17, 2023
Today’s song for today, is Love Reign O’er Me by The Who, live at Hyde Park. This song happens to be from the album Quadrophenia, a double album released in 1973. On November 17, 1973 this album entered the UK charts peaking at number 2. Quadrophenia was released to a positive reception in both the UK and the US, but the resulting tour was marred with problems with backing tapes replacing the additional instruments on the album, and the stage piece was retired in early 1974. It was revived in 1996 with a larger ensemble, and a further tour took place in 2012. The album made a positive impact on the mod revival movement of the late 1970s, and the resulting 1979 film adaptation was successful. The album has been reissued on compact disc several times, and seen a number of remixes that corrected some perceived flaws in the original.
“Love, Reign o’er Me” was released as a 7″ single in the US, with “Water” as the B-side. The single version is shorter than the album track, is missing the introductory rain sounds and the first piano intro and timpani and gong crash, has a slightly different sequence of the lyrics, and ends on string synthesizers with piano rather than the drum solo, guitar, gong and brass explosion as on the album. The single peaked at number 76 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was also released in Belgium and the Netherlands. Billboard praised Roger Daltrey’s vocal performance, the “dynamic orchestral arrangements” and the “interesting” synthesizer use.
Roger Daltrey’s vocal on the track has been widely praised; Mark Deming of Allmusic noted that “Quadrophenia captured him at the very peak of his powers, and ‘Love, Reign o’er Me’ is one moment where his golden-haired rock-god persona truly works and gives this song all the force it truly deserves.”
Cash Box said that “powerhouse performance from Peter Townshend and the gang, coupled with super lyrics and production make this one the closest thing to an “automatic hit” yet.”
In 2012, Paste ranked the song number one on their list of the 20 greatest The Who songs, and in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked the song number five on their list of the 50 greatest The Who songs.
The song was also featured in the 1979 film based on the Quadrophenia album as well as the soundtrack album. The version included on the soundtrack features an added flute and string arrangement, and the ending is a few seconds shorter than the album version. The rain sounds have also been removed.
The song served as inspiration for the title of the 2007 film Reign Over Me, and it was also featured extensively throughout the film.
