Face Dances

Lore & Background

The album's title came from a moment Pete Townshend observed: a friend rhythmically moving a match between her teeth, which he jokingly called "face dances." This incident is described in the first verse of Townshend's song "Face Dances, Pt. 2." Townshend later realized he had been inspired by the Face Dancers in Frank Herbert's Dune series, saying: "It was only later that someone pointed out to me that in the Dune trilogy there are a group of characters called 'face dancers,' sort of like chameleons; they can change completely for special purposes. That must have stuck in my head because I really loved the first one." The album cover features 16 paintings of the band members by 16 British painters, commissioned by Peter Blake—designer of the cover of the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Artists included Tom Phillips, Richard Hamilton, Allen Jones, David Hockney, Clive Barker, R. B. Kitaj, Howard Hodgkin, Patrick Caulfield, David Inshaw, Mike Andrews, Joe Tilson, Patrick Procktor, David Tindle, and Blake himself. Photographer Gavin Cochrane took a reference photo of each of the four band members—Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Kenney Jones—which the 16 artists used to paint 6 in × 6 in canvases for the front cover.

Reader's Guide

Face Dances celebrated its 40th anniversary with the release on 12 June 2021 on Record Store Day 1 of a 2-LP expanded coloured vinyl version—LP1 is blue and LP2 is yellow. Both discs were mastered by Jon Astley at Close To The Edge and cut at half speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. The pressing was limited to 6500 copies. LP1 is the newly re-mastered version of the album, while LP2 has a side of studio out-takes and four live tracks from the band's 1981 Rockpalast show which appear for the first time on vinyl. In 1993, Polydor re-released the album on CD, including only the songs from the original LP. In 1997, the album was remixed, remastered, and rereleased by MCA with three outtakes as well as two live tracks. The live track "How Can You Do It Alone" is an edited version of the live performance. The album's personnel includes Roger Daltrey on lead vocals, Pete Townshend on guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, and lead vocals on "I Like Nightmares," "Somebody Saved Me," and "How Can You Do It Alone (Live, 1979)"; John Entwistle on bass, backing vocals, and lead vocals on "The Quiet One"; Kenney Jones on drums; and John "Rabbit" Bundrick on additional keyboards.

Did You Know?

• R. B. Kitaj, who painted John Entwistle's portrait for the cover, was the first American elected to the Royal Academy since John Singer Sargent in the 1890s.
• The music video for 'You Better You Bet' was one of the first music videos aired on MTV in 1981, and was the first to be repeated on the channel.