Hasta La Creative!

Now, in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the band’s first album, Mr. Townshend has given his blessing to remixes of 15 great Who songs — including “My Generation,” “Baba O’Riley” and “I’m Free” — to introduce the band to a new generation of fans. Unusually, the remixes have been created with the initial aim of seeking licensing opportunities for commercials, movie trailers and TV. “The idea of remixing the songs came about because Pete mentioned to his publisher, Spirit, that he had the original multitrack tapes for most of the band’s classic songs,” said Kris Roggemann, creative producer at music-production agency Mophonics, which led A&R on the project alongside Spirit. “We didn’t want to just take songs to use as great lyric hooks for ads, but to also re-create great music that people would want to listen to,” said Peter Shane, Spirit’s senior VP-creative. Universal Music is also on board to release a remixes album, possibly early next year to mark the anniversary.

Mr. Townshend loved the outcome. “A lot of work [went] into these, especially because the respect shown by the remixes to the original songs and song shapes. I know that makes remixing harder, and less fun for them, but a lot of fun for me,” he wrote in an email shared with Ad Age.

Continue reading at AdAge.com