The Who released Ready Steady Who in the UK on November 11, 1966. Issued by Reaction Records as a five-track mono EP, it placed two Pete Townshend compositions on one side and three American pop covers on the other. A television superhero theme sat just a flip of the record away from the band’s own songwriting.
The title connected the release to The Who’s special edition of Ready Steady Go! Its contents came from studio sessions, however, rather than the television performance. The recordings had accumulated across several months at Olympic, Pye and IBC studios in London. That gave the EP a different character from a document of one show: it gathered material with separate origins into a compact release tied to the band’s television profile.
“Disguises” opened the record. Townshend’s song explored shifting identity through a woman whose changing appearance leaves its narrator struggling to recognize her. Kit Lambert produced the recording, with work taking place at Pye and IBC. The song supplied a new Townshend original for the EP, while the other composition on its first side, “Circles,” carried some complicated history from earlier in the year.
The Who had first recorded “Circles” with producer Shel Talmy, then made a self-produced version that appeared on the B-side of “Substitute.” Their split with Talmy led to legal action, and the song became tangled in that dispute. “Circles” also circulated under the title “Instant Party,” while Talmy’s recording appeared on the American edition of My Generation. The overlapping titles could conceal an important distinction: these were separate recordings of the same composition. Ready Steady Who contained the band’s remake, giving that version another place in the catalogue after its troubled appearance on a single.
Turn the EP over and the choices became more playful. Neal Hefti’s “Batman” television theme opened the second side, followed by “Bucket T” and “Barbara Ann.” Those selections connected with Keith Moon’s enthusiasm for American surf music, which dated to his schooldays. He took the lead vocal on “Bucket T,” a song associated with Jan & Dean. “Barbara Ann” had originated with the Regents, but The Who’s treatment followed the arrangement familiar from the Beach Boys’ version. Here, Moon’s musical interests were part of the repertoire as well as the drumming.
The EP arrived shortly before A Quick One, The Who’s second album, which followed in December. That LP included writing from all four members and Townshend’s extended “A Quick One, While He’s Away.” The releases placed short covers and a developing approach to longer storytelling within the same stretch of the band’s recording career.
Ready Steady Who also found an audience of its own. As Paul Sexton recounts in uDiscover Music, it entered the British EP chart at No. 7 and reached No. 1 in December. That was a chart specifically for EPs, a distinction that matters when describing the record’s success.
The original EP had no corresponding US release. Four of its tracks later became bonus material on the expanded A Quick One CD, with “Circles” absent from that selection. In 2015, The Reaction Singles 1966 box restored Ready Steady Who as a complete seven-inch EP, packaged alongside four singles in reproductions of their original UK sleeves.
