How Legacy Recordings Keep Classic Rock Bands Alive

On September 11, 2001, Rich Weiner was sitting on a hill near his office in New Jersey, watching from afar the horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, having a revelation:

“I saw the billowing smoke, and I said, ‘You know what, life is too short’,” Weiner tells Chartmetric.

In his case, life was too short not to fulfill his dream of building the ultimate fan website for his favorite band of all time: The Who.

The website is called thewho.info, a comprehensive database of memorabilia Weiner curated from the legendary British rock outfit, featuring esoteric recordings across their 60 years together. Currently, Weiner has “6,800 of The Who / The Who solo records, CDs and tapes,” in his collection, including their first-ever recordings under that name (they were previously known as The Detours and The High Numbers). He flew to California from New Jersey to get the recordings — which were not in The Who’s archives — on acetate.

“That's the kind of thing I've gone through through my collecting. Whenever I get something new like that, I send it over to The Who so they have it, and they can put it out on a future release,” Weiner says. Over the years he’s helped The Who curate box sets for albums like Tommy (1969), Quadrophenia (1973), and Who’s Next (1971).

The Who is one of a select few bands — alongside acts like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones — who have released such box sets because 50 years after their heyday they remain in the zeitgeist. Their logos are still printed on new shirts, and when the surviving members rustle up the energy to tour, they sell out stadiums.

From a data perspective, all three bands are very successful in the modern era. Throughout Chartmetric’s history, The Rolling Stones grew from 11.4 to 26.8 million Spotify monthly listeners, The Beatles went from 12.4 to 33.1 million, and The Who went from 5 to 7 million, peaking as high as 9 million.

These bands rarely release new music (if they are releasing new material at all), so in response to their persistent popularity, they have started putting out a constant stream of outtakes, live sets, and other obscure recordings.

One quintessential offering of this nature is The Beatles Anthology. Between 1995-96, The Beatles released three double albums of vault recordings totaling 155 songs. Within the massive edition, listeners will find deep cuts of classics such as "Eleanor Rigby (strings only) (Take 14)” as well as unconventional pieces of audio like a 12-second voice clip of John Lennon: “'We were four guys ... that's all' (Lennon speaking to Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone).”

Kenneth Womack owns every recording The Beatles have ever released. Not just because he is a huge fan, but because he is an established historian of the Fab Four who has authored or contributed to 20 books on the band.

“I need to hear all the artifacts,” Womack tells Chartmetric. “I make it my business to listen to everything. It’s my job in a certain sense.”

Another part of Womack’s job is serving as a Professor of English and Popular Music at Monmouth University where he teaches a class entitled “Introducing the Beatles!” Every year young kids come into the class eager to learn about the Liverpool legends, proving that decades later The Beatles are still resonating with the youth. From Womack’s perspective, there is a simple reason why:

“It always will be the songs themselves. Their creative art going from 1962 to 1969, barely seven years of great music. But always steadily getting better. Incrementally getting better from beginning to end is unique in art,” Womack says. “It's a songbook that is a long way from any kind of extinction. A kid in 2150 is going to be able to play ‘All My Loving’ and hear something that means something to them immediately.”

“All My Loving.” “Here Comes The Sun.” “Come Together.” FM rock stations still play these songs on repeat, modern artists are recording new covers, and they’re on major playlists like Spotify’s Rock Classics playlist, which has 12.3 million saves.

The Who and The Rolling Stones also have songs of the same status. The former has “Baba ‘O Reily,” “My Generation,” and “Pinball Wizard.” The latter has “Paint It, Black,” “Start Me Up,” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

This reverence is paired with high streaming numbers. The Beatles and Stones have cleared 1 billion with “Here Comes The Sun” and “Paint It, Black.” “Baba ‘O Reily” has 619.8 million.

These timeless songs will generate new fans as long as people are around to hear them. Except now with all these different recordings, extended editions, and box sets, someone who just heard “Come Together” or “Start Me Up” or “Pinball Wizard” for the first time has piles of music to sort through.

An argument could be made that sharing these recordings is a cash grab. With some members passed away and other considerations like record label contracts, many different people are involved in clearing these new releases, and many different people stand to profit as well. Especially in the streaming era where, despite the infinitesimal royalty rate, every play earns money. The more music there is to stream, the greater the potential to earn.

As such, putting out new extended editions, compilations, and live recordings is in the financial interest of those who stand to benefit, and all three of these bands have releases like this in their catalog that have come out since streaming became the primary method of listening.

The Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You (Super Deluxe)(2021) has 46 songs up from the original 11. Revolver (Super Deluxe) (2022) from The Beatles has 63 from the original 14. Who’s Next: Life House (Super Deluxe), has 109 songs on it up from the original nine.

Plus, deluxe albums and compilations often return the streams to the primary recording. So, with every new release of this nature, timeless songs are brought to the forefront of their catalogs, and those songs have the greatest potential to catalyze new fans, starting the domino effect of more streaming profit.

However, these releases don’t tend to fuel major spikes in streams for big songs.

The three highest-streamed songs from The Rolling Stones are “Paint It, Black,” “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction,” and “Start Me Up.” Throughout Chartmetric’s history, there have been new versions of these songs on as many as three compilations and deluxe albums. Yet, in the weeks after the release of these new editions, the streaming numbers barely increase by 100k, if that. Considering these tracks are getting 1-4 million streams per week, a 100k difference is not a big monetary gain.

The Beatles have seen a bit more streaming bumps from extended releases. Their timeless tracks like “Here Comes The Sun,” “Let It Be,” and “Come Together,” increased with the release of compilations like The Beatles 1967-1970 (2023 Edition) — which includes all three songs. After that “Here Comes The Sun,” got 1.2 million more streams than the previous week “Let It Be,” got 700.1k more, and “Come Together” got 641.2k more.

This larger bump still doesn’t lend itself to a cash grab because the songs were averaging 2-5 million streams per week. Furthermore, the bump makes sense for The Beatles, because their culture of vault releases is engrained into the fandom. The Anthology discs came out long before streaming was available, and now that it is, those fans who were thrilled to hear the 27th take of “Your Mother Should Know” can dive into the unheard material of albums like Revolver (1966) and Abbey Road (1969) with ease.

Frankly, Womack wishes the Rolling Stones operated the same way:

“I am disappointed almost every time I get a new Rolling Stones box set. I want not just the outtakes. I want the isolations. I want to hear Mary Clayton on ‘Gimme Shelter.’ I want to hear the invention that goes into Keith [Richard's] guitar licks. He's got 10 or 20 of them that are as good as anything that ever happens in rock,” Womack says.

Today, audiences still hear those riffs live as The Rolling Stones continue to tour. The final Beatles performance was their famous rooftop set on January 30, 1969, but the Stones just wrapped up their latest run of gigs in July of last year. So, where The Beatles frequently share outtakes, The Rolling Stones often share new live recordings. The Who have also toured consistently with Roger Daltrey heading back on the road this April. Their live catalog is extensive as well.

But, once again, to say any of these live releases are cash grabs goes against the data. On GRRR Live! (2023) by The Rolling Stones, the highest streaming song is “Wild Horses - Live” at 1.1 million. For The Who, the highest streamed live version on Who’s Next: Life House (Super Deluxe) is “Baba O'Riley - Live At The The Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, USA / 1971 / Remastered 2022” with 16.9k. Both of these releases came out over a year ago. Clearly, they’re not earning a ton from streaming.

So if these new releases aren’t raking in profit, they serve another hypothesis. They’re being released for the fans. That’s what truly separates these classic bands from others that fade into history. After 50 years, their fans still want to hear more…just as Weiner did after he bought Who Are You when it came out in 1978.

“I bought [Who Are You], and I listened to it over and over. So, the next time I went to buy music, I was like, ‘Okay, what else does The Who have?’ The Kids Are All Right. Liked every song on that. I had a friend who was a big Who fan. He's like, ‘You don't have to buy tapes, I'll make them off my LPs. He gave me one after the other. He gave me Quadrophenia (1973), and I'm like, ‘Oh, my God! This is fantastic!” Weiner says. “Once you get into something and you really like it, there's no reason why you don't want more of it.”

Womack concurs on the part of the Beatles, likening the big hits to a “gateway drug” that led him to one of his favorite recordings, an outtake on the 2018 extended edition of The Beatles (commonly known as “The White Album”) entitled “(You're So Square) Baby I Don’t Care - Studio Jam.”

“That thing is just amazing. Most people don’t know it existed. It's a minute of pure energy,” Womack says of the song. But as amazing as it is, it’s part of The Beatles (1968), his favorite album. “The outtakes, the different versions, the variations, the isolations. You love them. Maybe you even listen to one on heavy rotation for a while, but it all takes you back to the original.”

Had Weiner not fallen in love with the original recordings of The Who, starting thewho.info after seeing the fall of the Twin Towers wouldn’t be a part of his life story — a story, he says, that can be heard in “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere (1965),” the second single released by The Who.

“People ask me, ‘What's your favorite Who song? Well, depends what week it is, but ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,’ describes me. That's the story of my life. But I loved the song before I realized it was the story of my life. I loved the song since the first time I heard it.”