The single reached number 26 on the US singles chart and number 3 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, along with achieving top 20 status in Australia, New Zealand and several European territories, but did not share the same success in the UK, only peaking there at number 89.
Face the Face was done on a new keyboard, which was a form of DX7, and I was very keen to get something very, very fast and upbeat knocked out, and I knocked out a few sections that I couldn't play all together. I could play bits of it, but try and do it all together and it confounded me, so I did a bunch of building blocks and said to Rabbit, "I want forty of them" — this is a Mozart technique — "five of those, six of these, seven of those," and he wrote it all out and played it to a drum loop that we got from a box, and that became the beginning of the track. This was very much a new age type of recording, and that's why it sounds pretty modern, I think. Simon Phillips overdubbed the drums, we later overdubbed the brass, we overdubbed backing vocals, we overdubbed everything. It was all overdubbed onto Rabbit's synthesizer playing.[1]
In the US, the single had a different take which had bad sound compared to the UK release and the packaging for the US promo single said:[2]
Dear Programmer: Enclosed is a reservice of the Pete Townshend single "Face the Face." While Pete was visiting us here in the States, he remarked to us that the British single sounded a bit hotter. We checked... he was right. Same edit. Same mix. Hotter sound. Maybe you wouldn't notice. Maybe you would. Time to re-cart the record. Happy Holidays, Atco Records.
Cash Box called it a "playful upbeat track...with strong emphasis on a high energy marching drum groove and playful vocal mix."[3]Billboard called it a "a high-powered explosion at a feverish tempo."[4]Spin said, "when you hear lyrics such as [these] performed in 'fashionable' rap style, well, you're reminded why the Who's strongest point was never their James Brown covers."[5]
Geoffrey Giuliano in his book, Behind Blues Eyes: The Life of Pete Townshend (2002), described "[T]he highlight of the video is the poolside staging of the electric 'Face the Face', in which director Richard Lowenstein effectively captures the excitement of a big-band performance and Townshend's joyous jitterbugging ... in a gold lamé, forties-style tuxedo Lowenstein reveals more story line in these five minutes than the entire video".[6] It was released with Townshend's concept album, White City: A Novel, and included his discussing the music.[7]
