The Who Outshone the Stones — Why 'Rock and Roll Circus' Was Shelved

The legendary Rock and Roll Circus film sat on a shelf for nearly 30 years because the Rolling Stones felt they’d been upstaged. The act most often blamed? The Who. Their performance of “A Quick One While He’s Away” was so tight, so ferocious, that Mick Jagger supposedly realized the Stones couldn’t follow it without looking second-rate. Adding insult to injury, Jagger had a bad cold that night and the band’s own set suffered from technical glitches and a general lack of energy.

Beyond The Who, Jethro Tull’s white-faced, theatrical version of “Song for Jeffrey” also stole attention. But the consensus among those who saw the raw footage—including Jagger himself—was that The Who’s mini-opera had already stolen the show. Jagger shelved the project entirely, and it wasn’t released until 1996, when the Stones finally agreed it could stand as a time capsule rather than a competition.