Several names later, The Who hit it big
Go Deeper.
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Today's Morning Edition music is from a group that was first known as the Detours.
For a while they were known as the High Numbers.
Pete Townsend thought they should be called The Hair.
But 50 years ago today the band began a 16-week engagement at London's Marquee Club with a name that would stick: The Who.
They would soon release their first single "I Can't Explain," which Townsend says he wrote to sound like the music of another British band they admired: The Kinks. It would make it to No. 8 on the UK pop chart.
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