History Music / Tommy

* PinballScoring: "Pinball Wizard" has Tommy playing a ''Kings and Queens'', while The Pinball Wizard plays a ''Buckaroo''. The points flip over (back to 0,000 plus whatever points were scored beyond zero) when 9,999 is exceeded, but there is a light up board behind each player supposedly [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale tracking points far beyond what is possible to achieve in a single game of either machine]]! In fact, the final score achieved by Tommy is 999,999,999,999 which is barely even possible on modern pinball machines that have high scores usually go into the tens of billions!

* AdaptationExpansion: The movie has quite a bit of new music, and gives Nora Walker's second husband a good deal more characterization, shows more of their relationship, and even has him as an employee at a [[{{Foreshadowing}} holiday camp]]. Speaking of added details, Mrs. Walker doesn't even have a first name on the original album.

** [[https://youtu.be/2rJGX8uqoL8?t=168 The Acid Queen after Tommy's "trip"]], accompanied by facial and body spasms. It freak's Tommy's dad out.

** Note that Kevin and Uncle Ernie's songs were written by John Entwistle -- Pete Townshend gave John the responsibility because he felt he himself didn't have the guts to be sufficiently sadistic.

* PinballScoring: "Pinball Wizard" has Tommy playing a ''Kings and Queens'', while The Pinball Wizard plays a ''Buckaroo''. The points flip over when 9,999 is exceeded, but there is a light up board behind each player supposedly [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale tracking points far beyond what is possible to achieve in a single game of either machine]]! In fact, the final score achieved by Tommy is 999,999,999,999 which is barely even possible on modern pinball machines that have high scores usually go into the tens of billions!

* PinballScoring: "Pinball Wizard" has Tommy playing a ''Kings and Queens'', while The Pinball Wizard plays a Buckaroo. The points flip over when 9,999 is exceeded, but there is a light up board behind each player supposedly [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale tracking points far beyond what is possible to achieve in a single game of either machine]]! In fact, the final score achieved by Tommy is 999,999,999,999 which is barely even possible on modern pinball machines that have high scores usually go into the tens of billions!

* AntiChristmasSong: In "Christmas", Tommy's father is apparently unable to enjoy the holiday due to worrying about the implications Tommy's infirmities might hold for his eternal salvation.

->''"Captain Walker\\

To see him again..."''

-->And Tommy doesn't know what day it is\\

From the eternal grave?

-->I'm the school bully\\

You ever could meet

-->You didn't hear it\\

Without any proof

-->Do you know how to play hide and seek?\\

There's a lot I can do to a freak

-->Well you talk about your woman, I wish you could see mine\\

When she gets on to lovin' she brings eyesight to the blind

* AntiChristmasSong: It's Christmas, but all Tommy's father can do is worry about the implications his infirmities might have for his eternal salvation.

* ArtifactTitle: The film soundtrack version of "Go To The Mirror" keeps that title despite the phrase "go to the mirror" no longer appearing in the lyrics.

* YouDidntSeeThat: Causes Tommy to go blind and deaf via ExactWords.

* MythologyGag: In the 1993 musical, Captain Walker is the PapaWolf killing [[AssholeVictim his wife's lover]] in self-defense, which is an ironic shout-out to the 1975 film in which the lover does the same to Tommy's dad in self-defense.

* VocalTagTeam: The album features the different members of the band "playing" different characters in the story. While this is not ''strictly'' adhered to, the rough breakdown would be that Daltrey plays Tommy, the Local Lad and the Doctor; Townshend plays the parents, the Acid Queen and the narrator; and Entwistle plays Cousin Kevin and Uncle Ernie.

* DepravedHomosexual: {{Implied|Trope}} in the film; Uncle Ernie is reading the Gay News.

* EpicRocking: The 10:10 "Underture" and the 6:45 "We're Not Gonna Take It"

* RecycledSoundtrack: "Sally Simpson" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" started out as unrelated pop ballads that Townshend re-worked to fit into the story - the former was originally a story about a groupie at a rock concert featuring a [[Music/TheDoors Jim Morrison]] {{Expy}}, while the latter was a ProtestSong about fascism. The group wanted to put a cover of Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues" in but couldn't find a place to make it fit.
* RockOpera: [[TropeMakers The first one to become popular, in fact.]]

Eventually, he gains, or regains, his senses after a cathartic moment wherein the mirror in which he glimpsed the original murder is smashed. Free to speak for himself, Tommy becomes a spiritual leader to the fans he's gained through his playing and seeks to create a new religion to teach the world about the revelations he acquired during his blindness. Tommy gradually discovers that his disciples are more interested in a quick fix than spiritual enlightenment; he warns them that they can't follow him through drinking, getting high, or dropping acid, and when they beg him to give them ''some'' kind of easy spiritual key he forces them to play pinball while wearing blindfolds and earplugs. In the end, the masses rebuke and abandon him - and it is then that Tommy, broken, alone, and possibly dying, finds {{God}}.

* A 1972 recording by the London Symphony Orchestra, with members of the Who singing various parts along with other vocalists including Music/RingoStarr, Music/RodStewart, and Sir Richard Harris.

* A 1975 [[TheMovie film]] directed by Creator/KenRussell, which manages to be even more trippy than the original album. Like the [=LSO=] recording, a number of guest musicians were featured, including Music/EltonJohn (whose recording of "Pinball Wizard" became a radio hit), Ann-Margret as Tommy's mother Nora, Music/EricClapton and Arthur Brown as the [[PreacherMan high priests of the church of Marilyn Monroe]], Creator/OliverReed as Tommy's "Uncle Frank" Hobbs (who in this version kills Tommy's father rather than the other way around), and Creator/JackNicholson, in his only singing role (barring his performance of "La Vie en Rose" in ''Film/AsGoodAsItGets''), as Tommy's doctor. LighterAndSofter than the album, with gratuitous quantities of synthesized instrumentals and lots of LargeHam moments. The soundtrack album was also released by Creator/PolydorRecords as a double album and went gold in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, proving popular enough to get reissued on CD several times.

* Pete Townshend - guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on tracks 2, 3, 8-9, 11, 14, 16, 18-19, and 23, keyboard, banjo

* Roger Daltrey - lead vocals on tracks 4, 6, 7, 13, 15, 17, 20-22, and 24, harmonica

* John Entwistle - bass, backing vocals, lead vocals on track 12, french horn

* Roger Daltrey - lead vocals on tracks 4, 6, 7, 13, 15, 17 21-23, and 25, harmonica
* John Entwistle - bass, backing and lead vocals, french horn

* Pete Townshend - guitar, backing and lead vocals, keyboard, banjo

* Roger Daltrey - lead vocals, harmonica

->You didn't hear it\\

* PlayingGertrude: Ann-Margaret is only three years older than Roger Daltrey.
** In fact, Daltrey is also ''three months'' older than Robert Powell, who plays Captain Walker.