(Credits: Far Out / MTV)
Wed 6 August 2025 1:00, UK
Not to kill the suspense or anything, but the answer is right there in the question: It was, somewhat surprisingly, The Who.
When MTV launched in the US on August 1st, 1981, it did so with a now-mythologised bang—beginning with the on-the-nose video for ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles. A few minutes later, after Pat Benatar’s ‘You Better Run’ grabbed the title as the first MTV video by a female artist, the original crew of MTV video jockeys, otherwise known as VJs, introduced themselves.
“This is it,” VJ Mark Goodman announced, “Welcome to MTV, Music Television, the world’s first 24-hour, stereo, video music channel. Just moments ago, all the VJs and the crew here at MTV collectively hit our executive producer, Sue Steinberg, over the head with a bottle of champagne and behold, a new concept is born: the best of TV combined with the best of radio… You’ll never look at music the same way again.”
Next, after a commercial for Superman II and a video from a classic rock solo artist, Rod Stewart’s ‘She Won’t Dance With Me’, we got our first proper band of old-school legends through the gates of the video age. The song, however, was a brand new one: ‘You Better You Bet’ from The Who’s 1981 album Face Dances.
The Who’s early inclusion in MTV’s debutante ball is a little unexpected through a 21st-century lens. By 1981, they were already seen as elder statesmen of rock, with their defining albums (Who’s Next, Quadrophenia, Tommy) well in the rearview. But the band were also adapting to a rapidly evolving music industry.
‘You Better You Bet’ was a top 20 single in both the US and the UK, and showed Pete Townshend could still craft a hook-laden, emotionally complex rock song, even if its corresponding LP hadn’t exactly felt like a homerun. Crucially for MTV, the band were also no stranger to pairing a visual with their audio. The Who were, after all, pioneers of the rock opera, and unlike some artists, they didn’t feel a need to pick sides in the supposed war between radio and music television.
The ‘You Better You Bet’ video itself was shot in a darkened studio with stylised lighting and quick cuts between close-ups and group shots—tame by today’s standards, but slick and professional for its time. More importantly, it actually aired without a hitch. MTV’s first day was famously chaotic from a technical standpoint: videos played out of order, songs cut off early, graphics glitched, and some content simply failed to appear altogether. But ‘You Better You Bet’ ran smoothly, and repeatedly. Along with being the fourth video ever to air on MTV, it was also the 55th, 98th, 141st, and 191st, becoming arguably the first “overplayed” music video of all time.
This was no accident, either. Despite its claims to be at the tip of the spear of a media revolution, the platform would actually lean heavily on legacy acts in its early years, provided they could package themselves in video-friendly ways. Rod Stewart, naturally, was a constant, and even Cliff Richard got a surprising bit of airtime amongst the younger new wave acts of the day, like the Pretenders, Elvis Costello, the Cars, Blondie, and more.
Even after their breakup in 1983, The Who remained an MTV staple without having to produce any new music videos, as older clips from the band’s concerts and films ushered erstwhile hits like ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ and ‘Baba O’Riley’ into the Music Television fold.
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