One of the most important guitarists and songwriters of his generation, Pete Townshend was the mastermind behind The Who and a crucial driving force behind the band. Alongside Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon, he created some of the greatest Rock and Roll albums in history. Although he wrote hundreds of songs throughout his career with the band and as a solo artist, Pete also recorded many covers of songs he admired, and he once revealed three that ranked among his all-time favorites.
3 Songs Pete Townshend listed among the ones he loves the most
Nina Simone “I Put a Spell On You”
One of the songs mentioned by Pete Townshend was Nina Simone’s version of “I Put a Spell On You”, originally co-written and recorded by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in 1956. He has always been a huge fan of her work and told Toronto Sun in 2025 why he decided to cover her version of the track during his solo career.
“I think that when I’m in solo mode, I’m a bit more like, I’m not trying to compare myself to Bob Dylan, but much in that frame of loose, frame of mind where I want to play songs that I love and those songs happened to be three songs that I really, really love. The version of ‘I Put a Spell On You’ (by) Nina Simone (was the one) that I copied,” he said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Curiously, Pete worked with Nina on his album “The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend” (1989). She recorded the vocals for the track “Fast Food”, featured on the concept album inspired by Ted Highes’ science fiction novel released in 1969. In his autobiography “Who I Am”, Townshend recalled how incredible it was to work with Simone.
He said:
“I finally completed Iron Man with vocal sessions from John Lee Hooker in New York, and Deborah Conway and Nina Simone in London. John Lee was great to work with as the Iron Man; we did it pretty much line by line. Nina was magnificent, and did a fantastic job as the Space Dragon. Doug and Bill had persuaded me to make one track on the album a Who track. I chose Arthur Brown’s song ‘Fire’. It nearly fitted,” he said.
During her really successful and influential career, Nina Simone released 19 studio albums and 14 live records. The final one was “A Single Woman”, released in 1993. Some of her biggest hits are “Feeling Good, “I Put a Spell On You” and “Sinnerman”. Some of her most praised albums are: “Little Girl Blue” (1959) and “I Put a Spell On You” (1965).
The Beat “Save It For Later”
“I think that on one of the shows, I think I did a version of a song called ‘Save it For Later’ by The Beat. I love that song and it was so joyful to play. Sometimes playing songs by other artists and other musicians allows you to just really enjoy the music for what it is. You’re not selling anything, you’re not plugging anything, you’re not trying to convince somebody that this is something really special. You’re just enjoying being a singer and an artist,” Pete Townshend told “Toronto Sun” in 2025.
He was a big fan of The Beat since he heard their first albums. Already in 1982, he mentioned them to NME as an example of a band that recorded in an “artist-controlled label”. “I think it’s a drag that the record companies aren’t equipped to deal with it all. Cos I don’t think small labels are the answer. Small labels are very exciting. I think that bands like UB40 and The Beat have proved that an artist-controlled label can be good. But it must be a fantastic pressure on them, to do that. Do all the gigs and everything else,” he said. One of the band’s lead vocalists and guitarists, Dave Wakeling, once revealed that Townshend even called him at the time to find out how to play that song properly.
He said:
“It was the most remarkable thing. My dad bought me a guitar when I was twelve. Neither of us knew how to play it. He bought it off a tour manager who was selling his band’s gear in the car park of a pub because he hadn’t been paid. (…) So the phone rang one Saturday morning, and it was Pete Townshend. I thought it was one of my friends, so I’m on the phone, “Oh, hey, Pete! How’s it going man,” and he said, “Hello, this is Peter Townshend, I’m sitting here with David Gilmour. We’re trying to play your song ‘Save It For Later’, but we can’t work out the tuning (laugh)”.”
“That was a such a weird thing because ‘I Can See For Miles’ and ‘I’m a Boy’ and the whole early Mod Who songs had a huge effect on me. In my teen years, Pink Floyd’s “Ummagumma” had been a big influence,” he told Music Video Time Machine in 2012.
Bob & Earl “Harlem Shuffle”
“‘Harlem Shuffle’ is just a record from my Mod days back in ’63, ’64. (It was) when all of that music was first starting to come to the UK. It felt appropriate to honor that period,” Pete Townshend said. Although most Rock and Roll fans might know the version recorded by The Rolling Stones in 1986 for their album “Dirty Work”, the song was originally written and recorded by the American R&B duo Bob & Earl.”
“The track was released as a single and featured on the album of the same name in 1963. Interestingly, the opening horn fanfare, which serves as the song’s intro, was sampled by House of Pain in 1992 on their hit “Jump Around”.
Bob & Earl’s version was not very successful, peaking at number 44 on the United States Billboard Hot 100. The Stones’ version performed better in the 1980s, reaching number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The duo Bob & Earl was active from 1957 until 1973 and underwent some lineup changes. They released only two studio albums: “Harlem Shuffle” (1964) and “Bob & Earl” (1969).