Happy Birthday to Roger Daltrey! The Who frontman has 77 candles to blow out on his cake this year… 

A man of many talents, the iconic Roger Daltrey was one of the founding members of The Who and its lead vocalist. Since its inception, Daltrey was known to be the guitarist for the band, but in the late 1960s, he made a shift from his role as a guitarist to the lead singer for the band – a decision that would, in the future, earn him the reputation of being a rock idol.

The road to Daltrey’s emergence as a singer was a bumpy one. As a young man, he had a stutter, and it was only through music that he found his voice. Daltrey later recalled how, while recording the band’s hit ‘My Generation’, that was punctuated by the stutters and the band’s manager had come up to him and said: “Stutter the words – it makes it sound like your pilled”, to which he only replied, “Oh… like I am!”

Conflict plagued the band right from the beginning. Daltrey earned a reputation of turning aggressive, especially when things didn’t go his way, or he needed to exercise control over something. Peter Townshend, the band’s lead guitarist, said that Daltrey “ran things the way he wanted. If you argued with him, you usually got a bunch of fives”. For Townshend and Daltrey, who were the two flagbearers of the band, their relationship was certainly quite prickly. Yet, when push came to shove, both gave their best to produce some of the greatest music together.

What was attractive about Roger Daltrey’s presence on stage as a lead singer, however, was his ability to engage with the piece of instrument that accentuated his skills and made him more prominent to his audience. In the case of a guitarist, it would’ve been his guitar, for a drummer his drums, and for Daltrey, it was the microphone. His act of swinging the microphone on stage by its chord (almost like a whip) became his signature move. Come to think of it; it was quite symbolic, too – Daltrey’s voice booming through the speakers, giving the resounding effect of a whip to his audience.

Even though solo careers were never on the priority list for the Who members, they kept it on the side as an engagement during their free time away from the band. Daltrey released ten studio albums as a solo act, including his solo debut album Daltrey, Ride a Rock Horse and Under a Raging Moon, as well as plenty of other compilation, live and soundtrack albums.

Treat yourself with these five marvellous isolated performances by the one and only Roger Daltrey, the man whose vocals can go from a screeching high to a growling low and hold the power to leave you completely spellbound. 

READ MORE – 5 ISOLATED VOCALS FROM ROGER DALTREY