To capitalize on the buzz surrounding the film, MCA reissued the original See Me, Feel Me b/w Overture From Tommy 45 from 1970 and restocked the original Tommy LP, labelling all reissues with stickers identifying them as the originals. Promotional representatives from MCA told me their campaign was called "Who Made The Original Tommy" (or something to that effect). In contrast, the MCA campaign used some controversial approaches, which Polydor viewed negatively as efforts to undermine sales of the lead single and soundtrack, to promote the back catalog of The Who. The Polydor campaign was conventional and included appearances of stars of the movie at various premieres and on television as well as contests and other tie-ins associated with Bally, the pinball machine manufacturer. I was not aware then but was not surprised to learn later that the promotional campaigns of Polydor and MCA around the release of the Tommy movie were quite intense. Based on heavy national airplay of Pinball Wizard, Polydor had decided by that time to withdraw promotional support from the original commercial single Listening To You/See Me, Feel Me. Also in April, about three to four weeks after the release of the Tommy soundtrack and well after radio began playing the Pinball Wizard cut from the LP, Polydor finally serviced stations, including ours, with a broadcast-only promotional 45 for programming convenience. (or "the mainland" as it was referred to locally) Pinball Wizard was added to playlists and airing in heavy rotation by April 1975. However, on other contemporary hit AM stations (like ours) and FM stations in the continental U.S. Ultimately our programming director decided to allow limited play of the song as an LP cut but it was never officially added to the station playlist. However, when local FM stations KGMQ-FM ("QFM") and KPOI-FM started playing Pinball Wizard, we began receiving listener requests for the song. The Elton John Band single Philadelphia Freedom had been recently added and was currently in heavy rotation on our station at this time. The Roger Daltrey single from the film was never added to our station's 30 to 40 song playlist (it didn’t fit our programming) and we did not initially play Elton John’s Pinball Wizard cut from the Tommy soundtrack. Immediately after Polydor secured the rights to the film version of Tommy, the label announced that the first single to be released from the album as part of its promotional campaign would not include the Elton John cover of Pinball Wizard or any of the four new songs written for the film by Pete Townshend.Īhead of the release of the Tommy soundtrack (this would have been sometime in March 1975), Polydor serviced our station, KKUA-AM in Honolulu, with promotional copies of the album and the lead single Listening To You/See Me, Feel Me (the Tommy finale from the film credited to Roger Daltrey and Chorus) backed with Overture From Tommy (credited to Pete Townshend), a newly composed version from the film that did not appear on the soundtrack LP and which I later learned was included on the commercial single at the request of The Who. Their contracts did have stipulations, however, regarding commercial releases arising from participation in said movies, particularly when those releases were controlled by another record company. if you have some time!īoth Elton John and The Who had movie soundtrack exclusions in their recording contracts with MCA which permitted them to appear and perform in movies. recording label for Elton John and The Who at the time) and Polydor (the label that acquired the worldwide rights to the original movie soundtrack of Tommy) in the years following. For those interested in additional details, below is the lengthy story based on recollections from my time at radio and conversations I’ve had with promotional representatives from MCA (the U.S.
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