Love, Reign o'er Me

"Love, Reign O'er Me," subtitled "Pete's Theme," is a song by English rock band The Who. Written and composed by guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend, it was released on 23 October 1973 as the second single from the band's sixth studio album and second rock opera, Quadrophenia. It is the final song on the album, and has been a concert staple for years. The song peaked at number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 54 on Cash Box.

Origin and recording

"Love, Reign O'er Me," along with "Is It in My Head?"(also from Quadrophenia), date back to 1972. Both songs were originally intended to be part of the unreleased autobiographical album, Rock Is Dead—Long Live Rock! This later evolved into Quadrophenia.

Lyrics

"Love, Reign O'er Me" concerns the main character of Quadrophenia, Jimmy, having a personal crisis. With nothing left to live for, he finds a spiritual redemption in pouring rain. As Townshend described the song:

Release and reception

"Love, Reign O'er Me" was released as a 7" single. The single release version of this song is shorter than the album track, missing the introductory falling rain sound and the first piano intro and timpani and gong crash, slightly different sequence of the lyrics and ends on string synthesizers with piano rather than the drum solo, guitar, gong and brass explosion as on the album. The single was released with a B-side titled "Water." The song peaked at number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100. Outside the US, the single was released in Belgium and the Netherlands.