The Rolling Stones

The complete works of The Rolling Stones

Album Index
(Click on album title to navigate)

The Rolling Stones - First Album The Rolling Stones 2 Out of Our Heads Aftermath Big Hits, High Tide and Green Grass Between the Buttons Their Satanic Majesties Request Beggars Banquet Through the Past Darkly

Let it Bleed Get Yer Ya Ya's Out Sticky Fingers Exile on Main Street Goats Head Soup Its Only Rock n Roll Black and Blue Some Girls Love You Live

Emotional Rescue Tattoo You Undercover Dirty Work Steel Wheels Voodoo Lounge Bridges to Babylon A Bigger Bang Shine a Light

The Rolling Stones - First Album Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

The Rolling Stones is the debut album by The Rolling Stones, released by Decca Records in the United Kingdom on 16 April 1964. The American edition of the LP—with a slightly different track list—came out on London Records on 30 May 1964, under the title England's Newest Hit Makers.

Recorded at Regent Sound Studios in London over the course of five days in January and February 1964, The Rolling Stones was produced by then-managers Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton. The Rolling Stones was originally released by Decca Records in the UK, while the US England's Newest Hitmakers appeared on the London Records label, with the track "Not Fade Away" (the a-side of the band's third UK single) replacing "Mona (I Need You Baby)".[1]

The majority of the tracks reflect the band's love for authentic R&B material. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (whose professional name until 1978 omitted the s in his surname) were very much fledging songwriters during early 1964, contributing only one original composition to the album: "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)". Two numbers are credited to "Nanker Phelge" - a pseudonym the band used for group compositions from 1963 to 1965. Phil Spector and Gene Pitney both contributed to the recording sessions, and are referred to as "Uncle Phil and Uncle Gene" in the subtitle of the Nanker Phelge instrumental "Now I've Got a Witness".

The album cover photo was taken by Nicholas Wright. The cover of the UK edition bears no title or identifying information other than the photo and the Decca logo - an "unheard of" design concept originated by manager Andrew Oldham.[2][3]

Upon its release, The Rolling Stones became one of 1964's biggest sellers in the UK, staying at #1 for 12 weeks, while England's Newest Hitmakers reached #11 in the US, going gold in the process. To date, this is the only of the Stones' American studio albums that failed to place in the top five on the Billboard album charts.[citation needed] The album was also number 1 in Australia for three weeks.

In August 2002, England's Newest Hitmakers was reissued as a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO, while its British counterpart has remained out of print since 1987

The Rolling Stones 2 Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

The Rolling Stones No. 2 is the second UK album by The Rolling Stones released in 1965 following the massive success of 1964's debut The Rolling Stones. Not surprisingly, The Rolling Stones No. 2 followed its predecessor's tendency to largely feature R&B covers. However, it does contain three compositions from the still-developing Mick Jagger/Keith Richards songwriting team.

Using the cover shot for 12 X 5, the second US-released album in October 1964, The Rolling Stones No. 2's tracklisting would largely be emulated on the upcoming US release of The Rolling Stones, Now!. While Eric Easton was co-credited as producer alongside Andrew Loog Oldham on The Rolling Stones' debut album, Oldham takes full production duties for The Rolling Stones No, 2, which was recorded sporadically in the UK and US during 1964.

A huge hit in the United Kingdom upon release, The Rolling Stones No. 2 spent 10 weeks at #1 in early 1965, becoming one of the year's biggest sellers in the United Kingdom.

According to Bill Wyman in his book 'Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock'N'Roll Band,' John Lennon said of The Rolling Stones No. 2: "The album's great, but I don't like five-minute numbers."

Due to the preference towards the American albums, ABKCO Records has overlooked both The Rolling Stones and The Rolling Stones No. 2 for CD release in 1986 and during its remastering series in 2002. Consequently, the album has been out of print for many years and has thus been widely bootlegged by collectors.

Out of Our Heads - The Rolling Stones Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Initially issued in July 1965 in America (featuring a shot from the same photo session that graced the cover of 12 X 5 and The Rolling Stones No. 2), Out of Our Heads was a mixture of recordings made over a six month period, including the Top 10 hit "The Last Time", the worldwide number 1 "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as well as a track from the UK-only live EP Got LIVE if you want it!. Riding the wave of "Satisfaction"'s success, Out of Our Heads became The Rolling Stones' first US #1 album, eventually going platinum. In 2003 the US edition was listed as number 114 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

The British Out of Our Heads — with a different cover — added songs that would surface later in the US on December's Children (And Everybody's) and others that had not been released in the UK thus far (such as Heart Of Stone) instead of the already-released live track and recent hit singles (as singles rarely featured on albums in the UK in those times). Issued later that September, Out of Our Heads reached #2 in the UK charts behind The Beatles' Help!. It was The Rolling Stones' last UK album to rely upon R&B covers; the forthcoming Aftermath was entirely composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

In August 2002 both the US and UK editions of Out of Our Heads were reissued in a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records.

The Rolling Stones - Aftermath Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Aftermath, first released on 15 April 1966, by Decca Records is the fourth British studio album by The Rolling Stones. It was released in the United States on 20 June 1966 by London Records as their sixth American album. The album proved to be a major artistic breakthrough for The Rolling Stones, being the first full-length release by the band to consist exclusively of Mick Jagger/Keith Richards compositions. Aftermath was also the first Rolling Stones album to be recorded entirely in the United States, at the legendary RCA Studios in Hollywood, California at 6363 Sunset Boulevard, and the first album the band released in stereo.

The album is also notable for its musical experimentation, with Brian Jones playing a variety of instruments not usually associated with rock music—including sitar on "Paint It, Black", the Appalachian dulcimer on "Lady Jane" and "I Am Waiting", the marimbas (African xylophone) on "Under My Thumb" and "Out of Time," harmonica on "High and Dry" and "Goin' Home", as well as guitar and keyboards. The songwriting featured some of the Stones' most overtly misogynistic lyrics and, though full of experiments as noted above, much of the music was still rooted in Chicago electric blues.

In 2002, the US edition of Aftermath was ranked number 108 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[4]

In August 2002 both editions of Aftermath were reissued in a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records.

The Rolling Stones - Big Hits, High Tide and Green Grass Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Reaching #3 on the US charts, where it remained for two years, Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) proved to be a big smash and currently remains a popular Rolling Stones retrospective.

The UK Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) includes tracks released after the American edition appeared. The Rolling Stones' debut 1963 single, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On", was included, but its more successful follow-up, "I Wanna Be Your Man" - composed by rivals (although in reality as friends) Lennon/McCartney - was left off the album.

Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) reached #4 in the UK charts.

The album has been out of print in the UK for years, although it was officially released on CD in Japan for a time.

In August 2002 this US edition of Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) was reissued in a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records, with the British version remaining unavailable. The re-release contains stereo mixes of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Time Is on My Side", "It's All Over Now", and "Heart of Stone".

The Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Recorded in two spurts, in Los Angeles in August 1966 and London that November, Between the Buttons caught The Rolling Stones at a period where they were moving more into arty territory and away from their R&B roots. With the release of The Beatles' Revolver, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, as well as their own Aftermath and the accompanying singles during 1966, the parameters of rock music had been expanded considerably.

Much like Aftermath, Between the Buttons saw some differences in its UK and US versions. The UK edition (how producer Andrew Loog Oldham and The Rolling Stones intended it) was issued in January 1967 on Decca Records, concurrently with a separate single, "Let's Spend the Night Together" b/w "Ruby Tuesday". Because of common practice in the British record industry at the time, the single did not appear on the album. Generally well-received (although the critics took note of their influences), Between the Buttons reached #3 in the UK.

In the US, "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" were slotted onto the album, with "Back Street Girl" and "Please Go Home" getting the boot (these would be included on the following US release, Flowers). With "Ruby Tuesday" reaching #1, Between the Buttons shot to #2 in the US, going gold.

Additionally, Between the Buttons would prove to be the last album produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, with whom The Rolling Stones would have a creative falling-out in mid-1967. Indeed, Oldham's influence is more evident here than on earlier albums, as he employs Phil Spector-like layering on "Yesterday's Papers", "My Obsession", and "Complicated" and uncredited background vocalists (including, possibly, Graham Nash) throughout. Brian Jones continues his experiments in exotic instruments on this album, [playing harmonica, recorder, piano, organ and electric dulcimer]. Keith Richards busies himself with distinctive guitar work on "My Obsession", "Connection", "All Sold Out", "Please Go Home" and "Miss Amanda Jones".

In the years following its release, Between the Buttons somehow became overlooked. Today, however, many critics and fans have come to appreciate the album's eclectic qualities and a wealth of obscure gems, making it a unique album in The Rolling Stones' released catalog, one that more or less abandoned the Stones' blues based style and featured more consistent songwriting than their previous efforts.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 355 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[1]

In August 2002 both editions of Between the Buttons were reissued in a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records.

The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Their Satanic Majesties Request is the sixth studio album by The Rolling Stones and was released on 8 December 1967 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States by London Records. Its title is a play on the "Her Britannic Majesty requests and requires..." text that appears inside a British passport.

Begun just after Between the Buttons had been released, the recording of Their Satanic Majesties Request was long and sporadic, broken up by court appearances and jail terms. Starting with this release, non-compilation albums from the band would be released in uniform editions across international markets.

Released in December 1967, Their Satanic Majesties Request reached #3 in the UK and #2 in the US (easily going gold), but its commercial performance declined rapidly. It was soon viewed as a pretentious, poorly conceived attempt to outdo The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (released June 1967), often explained by drug trials and excesses in contemporary musical fashion, although McCartney and Lennon did provide backing vocals on "Sing This All Together." At this point, the album was the first (and only) album produced by the Stones themselves. The production, in particular, came in for harsh criticism from Jon Landau in the fifth edition of Rolling Stone Magazine[2], and the Stones turned to Jimmy Miller to produce their subsequent albums. The response of the audience and the growing rejection of the flower power scene by Jagger and Richards would mean a turning point for the Stones: in 1968 the Stones would return to the hard driving blues that earned them fame early in their career.

Indeed, admiration and love of the album has grown over the years as a kind of punk rockers' own ragged flipside to the Beatles more cheerful masterpieces from the same period. Songs such as "Citadel" have been covered by a number of young rock bands.

Initial releases of the album featured a three-dimensional picture of the band on the cover by photographer Michael Cooper. When viewed in a certain way, the lenticular image shows the band members' faces turning towards each other with the exception of Jagger, whose hands appear crossed in front of him. Looking closely on its cover, one can see the faces of each of the four Beatles. Later editions replaced the glued-on 3-dimensional image with a standard photo, due to high production costs. A limited edition LP version in the 1980s re-printed the original 3D cover design. Immediately following the re-issue, the master materials for re-printing the 3D cover were intentionally destroyed.

It was the first of four Stones albums to feature a novelty cover (the others were the zipper on Sticky Fingers, the cut-out faces on Some Girls, and the stickers on Undercover).

The maze on the inside cover of the UK and US releases cannot be completed. It has a wall at about a half radius in from the lower left corner. One can never arrive at the "It's Here" in the centre of the maze.

The working title of the album was Cosmic Christmas. In the hidden coda titled "Cosmic Christmas", Wyman tells (it's slowed-down: "We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!")

The album was released in South Africa as The Stones are Rolling because of the word "Satanic" in the title.[3]

The Bill Wyman-composed "In Another Land" was released as a single, with the artist credit listed as Bill Wyman, rather than the Rolling Stones. (The B-Side, "The Lantern" was credited to The Rolling Stones.)

There are only two songs from the album which The Rolling Stones performed live, "2000 Light Years from Home" (1989 U.S. Tour and 1990 Tour of Europe), and "She's a Rainbow" (1997-98 Bridges to Babylon Tour).

In August 2002, Their Satanic Majesties Request was reissued in a new remastered CD, LP and DSD by ABKCO Records.

The song "2,000 Man" has been reworked and covered by Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley for the band's 1979 album, Dynasty.

American neo-psychedelic band The Brian Jonestown Massacre paid tribute to the album with their second album Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request.

In 1998, a bootleg box set of eight CDs with outtakes of the Satanic sessions was released on the market. The box set shows the band developing the songs, and striking is the cooperation between Brian Jones, Keith Richards and session pianist Nicky Hopkins. Richards is leading the sessions and most songs seem to be written by him, and both Hopkins and Jones indulge in creating elaborate soundscapes.

The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Beggars Banquet is the seventh studio album by the English rock band The Rolling Stones. It was released by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States in December 1968. It marked a return to the band's R&B roots, generally viewed as more primal than the conspicuous psychedelia of Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Following the long sessions for the previous album in 1967 and the departure of producer and manager Andrew Loog Oldham, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards hired producer Jimmy Miller, who had produced the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. The partnership would prove to be a success and Miller would work with the band until 1973.

In March, the band began recording their new album, aiming for a July release. One of the first tracks cut, "Jumpin' Jack Flash", was released only as a single in May 1968, becoming a major hit.

Beggars Banquet was Brian Jones's last full effort with the Rolling Stones. In addition to his slide guitar on "No Expectations" and "Jigsaw Puzzle", he played harmonica on "Dear Doctor", "Parachute Woman" (along with Mick Jagger) and "Prodigal Son"; sitar and tambura on "Street Fighting Man"; mellotron on "Jigsaw Puzzle"and "Stray Cat Blues" and backing vocals on "Sympathy for the Devil".[2]

By June, the sessions were nearly completed in England, with some final overdubbing and mixing to be done in Los Angeles during July. However, both Decca Records in England and London Records in the US rejected the planned cover design - a graffiti-covered lavatory wall. The band initially refused to change the cover, resulting in several months' delay in the release of the album. By November, however, the Rolling Stones gave in, allowing the album to be released in December with a simple white cover imitating an invitation card. (The letters R.S.V.P. that appear on this version of the cover are an abbreviation of the French phrase répondez, s'il vous plaît, which means "please respond".) The idea of a plain album cover was also implemented by The Beatles for their eponymous white-sleeved double-album, which was released one month prior to Beggars Banquet. This similarity, coupled with Beggars Banquet's later release, garnered the Rolling Stones accusations of imitating the Beatles. In 1984, the original cover art was released with the initial CD remastering of Beggars Banquet.

Critics considered the LP as a return to form.[3] It was also a clear commercial success, reaching #3 in the UK and #5 in the US (on the way to eventual platinum status).

The original LP pressing did not credit Rev. Robert Wilkins as the writer of "Prodigal Son". His performance of "Prodigal Son" at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival was included on the Vanguard LP Blues at Newport, Volume 2; that performance is similar to the Stones' cover.

On 10–11 December 1968 the band filmed a television extravaganza entitled The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton, The Who and Jethro Tull among the musical guests. One of the original aims of the project was to promote Beggars Banquet, but the film was shelved by the Rolling Stones until 1996, when it was finally released officially.

In August 2002, ABKCO Records reissued Beggars Banquet as a newly remastered LP and SACD/CD hybrid disk. This release corrected an important flaw in the original album by restoring each song to its proper, slightly faster speed. Due to an error in the mastering, Beggars Banquet was heard for over thirty years at a slower speed than it was recorded. This had the effect of altering not only the tempo of each song, but the song's key as well. These differences were subtle but important, and the remastered version is about 30 seconds shorter than the original release.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 57 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In the same year the TV network VH1 named Beggars Banquet the 67th greatest album of all time. The album is also featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

The Rolling Stones - Through the Past Darkly Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) is The Rolling Stones' second official compilation album, released in 1969 shortly following Brian Jones's departure from the group and subsequent death. The album was released by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records/ABKCO Records in the United States.

In September, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) — dedicated to Jones — appeared with a limited edition octagonal-shaped album cover. Because their first "Big Hits" compilation had been released in separate formats, with the Aftermath-era material appearing only on its UK edition, the American edition of "Big Hits Vol. 2" included hit singles from the "Aftermath" period.

The British track listing included the more obscure "You Better Move On", from The Rolling Stones' self-titled 1964 debut EP and "Sittin' on a Fence", an Aftermath outtake originally released in 1967 on the US-compiled Flowers album. In addition to those songs, many tracks, notably single-only releases, were collected for the first time on a UK Rolling Stones album: "Let's Spend the Night Together", "Ruby Tuesday", "We Love You", "Dandelion" and "Honky Tonk Women".

Both versions of Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) proved to be popular releases, reaching #2 in the UK and US with enduring sales.

The name of the album is a play on a line from the KJV translation of I Corinthians 13: "For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: . . .", but it is more likely the Stones intended an homage to Ingmar Bergman and his 1961 film Through a Glass Darkly.

In the inside flap of the album, there is a tribute to Jones, which reads: "When this you see, remember me, and bear me in your mind. Let all the world say what they may, speak of me as you find."

In August 2002 the US edition of Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) was reissued in a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records. The UK counterpart is currently out of print.

The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Let It Bleed is the eighth album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in December 1969 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States. Released shortly after the band's 1969 American Tour, it is the follow up to 1968's Beggars Banquet and the last album by the band to feature Brian Jones.

Although they had begun the recording of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" in May 1968, before Beggars Banquet had been released, recording for Let It Bleed began in earnest in February 1969 and would continue sporadically until November. Brian Jones performs on only two tracks, playing the autoharp on "You Got the Silver" and percussion on "Midnight Rambler". His replacement, Mick Taylor, plays guitar on two tracks, "Country Honk" and "Live With Me". Keith Richards, who had already shared vocal duties with Mick Jagger on "Connection", "Something Happened to Me Yesterday", and "Salt of the Earth", sang his first solo lead vocal on a Rolling Stones recording with "You Got the Silver".

The album has been called a great summing up of the dark underbelly of the 1960s.[by whom?] Let It Bleed is the second of the Stones' run of four studio LPs that are generally regarded as among their greatest achievements artistically, equalled only by the best of their great 45s from that decade. The other three albums are Beggars Banquet (1968), Sticky Fingers (1971), and Exile on Main Street (1972).

The album is often thought to be a response to Let It Be by The Beatles; though the Beatles would not release either the song or the album of that name until 1970, the major recording sessions had taken place in January 1969, prior to the majority of the Let It Bleed sessions, and it was generally known[citation needed] that the project existed. Theories vary as to whether the title was making fun of the Beatles' misplaced optimism and inability to complete their own album, or was an expression of solidarity with a recording process that had been just as taxing as the Stones'.

Released in December, Let It Bleed reached #1 in the UK (temporarily knocking The Beatles' Abbey Road out of the top slot) and number 3 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart in the US, where it eventually went double platinum.

The album was also critically well-received. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Let It Bleed the 69th greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 28 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2001, the TV network VH1 placed Let It Bleed at number 24 on their best album survey. In 2003, it was listed as number 32 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

In August 2002, it was reissued in a remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records.

The cover displays a surreal sculpture designed by Robert Brownjohn. The image consists of the Let It Bleed record being played by the tone-arm of an antique phonograph, and a record-changer spindle supporting several items stacked on a plate in place of a stack of records: a tape canister labelled Stones - Let It Bleed, a clock face, a pizza, a tyre and a cake with elaborate icing topped by figurines representing the band. The cake parts of the construction were prepared by then-unknown cookery writer Delia Smith. The reverse of the LP sleeve[9] shows the same "record-stack" melange in a state of disarray. The artwork was inspired by the working title of the album, which was Automatic Changer.

The album cover for Let It Bleed was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010.

The track listing on the record sleeve did not follow the one on the record. According to Brownjohn, he altered the track listing purely for visual reasons; the correct order was shown on the record's label. When ABKCO first issued the album on CD in 1986, the CD track listing followed that of the LP sleeve, not the actual track order of the original album. This was corrected on the 2002 re-issue.

The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya Ya's Out - Full Concert Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

`Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!´: The Rolling Stones in Concert is a live album by The Rolling Stones, released 4 September 1970 on Decca Records in the United Kingdom and on London Records in the United States. It was recorded in New York and Maryland in November 1969, just before the release of Let It Bleed.

Many, including The Rolling Stones, consider this to be their first official full-length live release, despite the appearance of the US-only Got Live If You Want It! in 1966 as a contractual obligation product. One reason for releasing a live album was to counter the release of the Live'r Than You'll Ever Be bootleg recording of an Oakland performance on the same tour, a recording which was even reviewed in Rolling Stone magazine.

Having not toured since April 1967, The Rolling Stones were eager to hit the road by 1969. With their two most recent albums, Beggars Banquet and Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) being highly praised, audiences were anticipating their live return. Their 1969 American Tour's trek during November into December , with Terry Reid, B.B. King (replaced on some dates by Chuck Berry), and Ike and Tina Turner as support acts, played to packed houses. The tour was the first for Mick Taylor with The Rolling Stones, having replaced Brian Jones shortly before Jones' July death; the performances prominently showcased the guitar interplay of Taylor with Keith Richards.

The performances captured for this release were recorded on 27–28 November 1969 at New York City's Madison Square Garden, while "Love in Vain" was recorded in Baltimore, Maryland on 26 November 1969. Overdubbing was undertaken during January and February 1970 in London's Olympic Studios. No instruments were overdubbed, although on bootlegs, examples are known of Keith Richards trying out different guitar parts (e.g. a guitar solo on "Jumpin' Jack Flash"). The finished product featured new lead vocals on half the tracks, and added backing vocals by Richards on several others.

A third guitar is audible in the center channel during "Little Queenie". This instrument must have been overdubbed as none of the 1969 supporting musicians played guitar.

Some of the performances, as well as the photography session for the album cover featuring Charlie Watts and a donkey are depicted in the documentary film Gimme Shelter, and shows Jagger and Watts on a road in Birmingham, UK, in early December 1969 posing with the donkey. The actual cover photo however was taken in early February 1970 in London, and does not originate from the 1969 session. The photo, featuring Watts with guitars and binoculars hanging from the neck of a donkey, was inspired by the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Visions of Johanna" (although these lyrics refer to a mule).

In the Rolling Stone review of the album, critic Lester Bangs said, " I have no doubt that it's the best rock concert ever put on record."

`Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!´ The Rolling Stones in Concert was released in September 1970 - well into the sessions for their next studio album, Sticky Fingers, and was very well-received critically and commercially, reaching #1 in the UK and #6 in the US where it went platinum. Except for compilations, it was the last Rolling Stones album released through Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US before launching their own Rolling Stones Records label.

The title of the album was adapted from the song "Get Yer Yas Yas Out" by Blind Boy Fuller. The phrase used in Fuller's song was "get your yas yas out the door".

In August 2002, `Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!´ The Rolling Stones in Concert was reissued in a new remastered album and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records.

In November 2009, the album was reissued with unreleased songs by The Rolling Stones but also by opening acts B.B King and Ike & Tina Turner, it includes a DVD and a booklet of 56 pages.

The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Sticky Fingers is the ninth studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in April 1971. It is the band's first album of the 1970s and its first release on the band's newly-formed label, Rolling Stones Records, after having been contracted since 1963 with Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US. It is also Mick Taylor's first full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album, and the first not to feature any contributions from founding guitarist Brian Jones. In 2003, Sticky Fingers was listed as number 63 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Although sessions for Sticky Fingers began in earnest in March 1970, they had done some early recording at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama in December 1969 and "Sister Morphine", cut during Let It Bleed's sessions earlier in March of that year, was held over for this release. Much of the recording for Sticky Fingers was effected with The Rolling Stones' mobile studio unit in Stargroves during the summer and fall months in 1970. Early versions of songs that would appear on Exile on Main St. were also routined during these sessions.

With the end of their Decca/London association at hand, The Rolling Stones would finally be free to release their albums (cover art and all) as they pleased. However, soon-to-be-ex-manager Allen Klein (who took over the reins from Andrew Loog Oldham in 1965 so that Oldham could concentrate on producing the band), dealt the group a major blow when they discovered that they had inadvertently signed over their entire 1960s copyrights to Klein and his company ABKCO, which is how all of their material from 1963's "Come On" to Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert has since come to be released by ABKCO Records. The band would remain incensed with Klein for decades over the swindle.

When Decca informed The Rolling Stones that they were owed one more single, they cheekily submitted a track called "Cocksucker Blues" which was guaranteed to be refused. Instead, Decca released the two-year-old Beggars Banquet track "Street Fighting Man" while Allen Klein would have dual copyright ownership—with The Rolling Stones—of "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses".

In 1994 Sticky Fingers was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, and again in 2009 by Universal Music Enterprises.

The artwork for Sticky Fingers — which, on the original vinyl release, featured a working zipper that opened to reveal a man in cotton briefs (rubber stamped "THIS PHOTOGRAPH MAY NOT BE-ETC.") — was conceived by American pop artist Andy Warhol, photographed by Billy Name and designed by Craig Braun. The cover, a photo of Joe Dallesandro's crotch clad in tight blue jeans, was assumed by many fans to be an image of Mick Jagger, however the people actually involved at the time of the photo shoot claim that Warhol had several different men photographed (Jagger was not among them) and never revealed which shots he used. Among the candidates, Jed Johnson, Warhol's lover at the time, denied it was his likeness, although his twin brother Jay is a possibility. Those closest to the shoot – and subsequent design – name Factory artist and designer Corey Tippin as the likeliest candidate. After retailers complained that the zipper was causing damage to the vinyl (from stacked shipments of the record), the zipper was "unzipped" slightly to the middle of the record, where damage would be minimized. The album features the first usage of the "Tongue and Lip Design" designed by John Pasche.

In 2003, the TV network VH1 named Sticky Fingers the "No. 1 Greatest Album Cover" of all time

In Spain, the original cover was replaced with a "Can of fingers" cover, and "Sister Morphine" was replaced by the Chuck Berry composition "Let it Rock".

In 1992, the LP release of the album in Russia featured a similar treatment as the original cover, but with a colorized photo and a hammer and sickle inscribed in a star as the belt buckle (which is actually a Soviet Army uniform belt buckle).

The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Exile on Main St is the tenth studio album by the English rock band The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on influences from rock & roll, blues, country and soul. Initially Exile on Main St was greeted with lukewarm reviews, but is now widely considered the band's finest work and one of the defining masterpieces of the rock era. In 2003, the album was ranked number 7, the band's highest position, on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. A new version of the album will be released in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2010 and in the United States on May 18, 2010, featuring 10 new tracks, including "Plundered My Soul", "Dancing in the Light", "Following the River" and "Pass the Wine", as well as alternate versions of "Soul Survivor" and "Loving Cup".
Exile on Main St is an album composed of songs written and recorded over a period of four years, from 1968 to 1972. Of the earlier songs, the band's singer Mick Jagger said in 2003, "...After we got out of our contract with Allen Klein, we didn't want to give him [those earlier tracks]," as they were forced to do with the songs "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" from Sticky Fingers. Most were recorded between 1969 and 1971 at Olympic Studios and Jagger's Stargroves country house in England during sessions for Sticky Fingers.

By the spring of 1971, the Rolling Stones chose to temporarily leave Britain to avoid what they considered to be punitive tax rates. The band would have to leave by 5 April, or the government would seize their assets. After much deliberation, the Rolling Stones chose to settle in France at Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice, where the guitarist Keith Richards had rented Nellcôte, the "Gestapo headquarters during the Second World War," according to Richards, complete with swastikas on the floor vents. It was here that the Stones would begin work constructing their next album.
Recording began in earnest sometime near the middle of June. The bassist Bill Wyman recalls the band working all night, every night, from eight in the evening until three the following morning for the rest of the month. Wyman said of that period, "...not everyone turned up every night. This was, for me, one of the major frustrations of this whole period. For our previous two albums we had worked well and listened to producer Jimmy Miller. At Nellcôte things were very different and it took me a while to understand why..." By this time Richards had begun a daily habit of using heroin. Thousands of dollars of heroin flowed through the mansion each week in addition to a contingent of visitors that included William S. Burroughs, Terry Southern, Gram Parsons, and Marshall Chess (who was running the Rolling Stones' new label). Parsons was asked to leave Nellcôte in early July 1971, the result of both his obnoxious behaviour and an attempt by Richards to clean the house of drug users as the result of pressure from the French police.

Richards' steadily growing addiction began to prevent him from attending the sessions that continued in his basement, while Mick Jagger and Bill Wyman were often unable to attend sessions for other reasons. This often left the band in the position of having to record in altered forms without every member present. A notable instance was the recording of one of Richards' most famous songs, "Happy". Recorded in the basement, Richards said in 1982, "'Happy' was something I did because I was for one time EARLY for a session. There was Bobby Keys and Jimmy Miller... We had nothing to do and had suddenly picked up the guitar and played this riff. So we cut it and it's the record, it's the same. We cut the original track with a baritone sax, a guitar and Jimmy Miller on drums. And the rest of it is built up over that track. It was just an afternoon jam that everybody said, 'Wow, yeah, work on it'".

The basic band for the Nellcôte sessions is believed to have consisted of Richards, Bobby Keys, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Miller (a skilled drummer in his own right who covered for the absent Watts on the aforementioned "Happy" and "Shine a Light"), and Jagger when he was available. Wyman did not like the ambience of Richards' villa and sat out many of the French sessions. As Wyman appeared on only eight songs of the released album, the other bass parts were played by Taylor, Richards, and, on four tracks, the upright bassist Bill Plummer. Wyman noted in his memoir Stone Alone that there was a clear dichotomy between the band members who freely indulged in drugs (Richards, Miller, Keys, Taylor, engineer Andy Johns) and those of whom abstained to varying degrees (Wyman, Watts, and Jagger).
Additional basic tracks (probably only "Rip this Joint", "Shake Your Hips", "Casino Boogie", "Happy", "Rocks Off", "Turd on the Run", and "Ventilator Blues") were begun in the basement of Nellcôte and taken to Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles where numerous overdubs (all piano and keyboard parts, all lead and backing vocals, all guitar and bass overdubs) were added during sessions that meandered from December 1971 until May 1972. Some tracks (such as "Torn and Frayed" and "Loving Cup") were freshly recorded in Los Angeles. Although Jagger (who had recently wed Bianca Jagger) was frequently missing from Nellcôte, he immediately took charge during the second stage of recording in Los Angeles, arranging for the keyboardists Billy Preston and Dr. John and the cream of the city's session backup vocalists to record layers of overdubs. The final gospel-inflected arrangements of "Tumbling Dice", "Loving Cup", "Let It Loose" and "Shine a Light" were inspired by Jagger and Preston's visit to a local evangelical church.

The extended recording sessions and differing methods on the part of Jagger and Richards reflected the growing disparity in their personal lives. During the making of the album, Jagger had married, which was followed by the birth of their only child, Jade, in October 1971. Richards was firmly ensconced with his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg, yet both were in the throes of heroin addiction, which Richards would not overcome until the turn of the decade. Even though the album is often described as being Richards' finest moment, as Exile is often thought to reflect his vision for a raw, rootsy rock sound, Jagger was already expressing his boredom with rock and roll in several interviews at the time of the album's release. With Richards' effectiveness seriously undermined by his dependence on heroin, the group's subsequent 1970s releases—directed largely by Jagger—would experiment in varying degrees with other musical genres, moving away from the roots-based sound of Exile On Main St.
Preceded by the Top 10 hit "Tumbling Dice", Exile On Main St was released in May 1972. It was an immediate commercial success, reaching #1 worldwide just as the band embarked on their celebrated 1972 American Tour. Their first American tour in three years, it featured many songs from the new album. "Happy", sung by Richards, would be a Top 30 US hit later that summer.

Many critics judged Exile on Main St to be a ragged and impenetrable record at the time of its release, lacking a conventional single. Lenny Kaye, writing in Rolling Stone magazine, was typical of contemporary critics who failed to recognize the album as anything special. According to Kaye, "[t]here are songs that are better, there are songs that are worse,...and others you'll probably lift the needle for when the time is due." Kaye concludes by assuring his readers that "the great Stones album of their mature period is yet to come".

On the initial critical and commercial reaction, Richards said, "When [Exile] came out it didn't sell particularly well at the beginning, and it was also pretty much universally panned. But within a few years the people who had written the reviews saying it was a piece of crap were extolling it as the best frigging album in the world."

More perceptive critics praised the album's rawness and array of different styles, from blues to country to soul. The music critic Robert Christgau concluded in 1972: "Incontrovertibly the year’s best, this fagged-out masterpiece is the summum of Rock ’72. Even now, I can always get pleasure out of any of its four sides, but it took me perhaps twenty-five listenings before I began to understand what the Stones were up to, and I still haven’t finished the job. Just say they’re 'Advancing Artistically', in the manner of self-conscious public creators careering down the corridors of destiny. Exile explores new depths of record-studio murk, burying Mick’s voice under layers of cynicism, angst, and ennui..."

In 1994 Exile on Main St was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records.

The original double album contained 12 black-and-white postcards featuring the Rolling Stones in the company of two unidentified women.

The album will be reissued again on May 17, 2010 in the United Kingdom, and on May 18, 2010 in the United States by The Rolling Stones' new distributor, Universal Music Enterprises.

At the time of Exile's release, Jagger said, "This new album is fucking mad. There's so many different tracks. It's very rock & roll, you know. I didn't want it to be like that. I'm the more experimental person in the group, you see I like to experiment. Not go over the same thing over and over. Since I've left England, I've had this thing I've wanted to do. I'm not against rock & roll, but I really want to experiment... The new album's very rock & roll and it's good. I think rock & roll is getting a bit... I mean, I'm very bored with rock & roll. The revival. Everyone knows what their roots are, but you've got to explore everywhere. You've got to explore the sky too."

In 2003, Jagger said, "Exile... is not one of my favourite albums, although I think the record does have a particular feeling. I'm not too sure how great the songs are, but put together it's a nice piece. However, when I listen to Exile it has some of the worst mixes I've ever heard. I'd love to remix the record, not just because of the vocals, but because generally I think it sounds lousy. At the time Jimmy Miller was not functioning properly. I had to finish the whole record myself, because otherwise there were just these drunks and junkies... Of course I'm ultimately responsible for it, but it's really not good and there's no concerted effort or intention." Jagger also stated he didn't understand the praise amongst Rolling Stones' fans because the album did not yield very many "hits".[According to the Rolling Stones, the Rolling Stones, Chronicle Books, October 2003.]

Of the album, Richards said, "Exile was a double album. And because it's a double album you're going to be hitting different areas, including 'D for Down', and the Stones really felt like exiles. We didn't start off intending to make a double album; we just went down to the south of France to make an album and by the time we'd finished we said, 'We want to put it all out'... The point is that the Stones had reached a point where we no longer had to do what we were told to do. Around the time Andrew Oldham left us, we'd done our time, things were changing and I was no longer interested in hitting Number One in the charts every time. What I want to do is good shit — if it's good they'll get it some time down the road."

Universal Music, which has just remastered and re-released the post 1971 Rolling Stones catalog, plans a new remastering of Exile on Main Street in a deluxe package for May 2010. New tracks include 'Plundered My Soul', 'Dancing in the Light', 'Following the River' and 'Pass the Wine'. The package will also include new versions of 'Soul Survivor' and 'Loving Cup'. On the selection of tracks, Richards said, "Well, basically it's the record and a few tracks we found when we were plundering the vaults. Listening back to everything we said, 'Well, this would be an interesting addition.'"

Most of the tracks were left as originally recorded at the time, with Richards continuing, "There wasn't much to be done and I really didn't want to get in the way of what was there. It was missing a bit of body here and there, and I stroked something on acoustic here and there. But otherwise, I really wanted to leave them pretty much as they were. Mick wanted to sort of fix some vocal things, but otherwise, basically they are as we left them 39 years ago."

To mark the re-release, Jimmy Fallon announced on his show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, that he would mark the re-release of the album with a week's worth of musicians performing songs from the album. Phish, who had played the album in its entirety live in concert before, were the first confirmed act to join the salute.

In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Exile on Main St the 42nd greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 3 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 1987 it was ranked #3 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the greatest 100 albums of the period 1967-1987. In 2003, Pitchfork Media ranked it number eleven on their Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. In 2001, the TV network VH1 placed it at number 22 on their best albums survey. The album was ranked number 19 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of the greatest 100 guitar albums of all time.In 2007, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame placed the album #6 on the "Definitive 200" list of albums that "every music lover should own."

The album and its title has frequently been referenced by other bands in their own album titles. For example, the British acid house group Alabama 3 titled its debut album Exile on Coldharbour Lane. Perhaps the most notable reference comes from indie singer/songwriter Liz Phair's debut album Exile in Guyville. Phair herself claims the album to be a direct song-by-song "response" of sorts to Exile on Main St Confrontational garage-trash noise-rock band Pussy Galore released a complete cover of the album that reflected their own personal and musical interpretations of the songs, as opposed to paying tribute to the original sound. Pop band Matchbox Twenty paid homage to this album by titling their 2007 retrospective Exile on Mainstream. Industrial Rock band Chemlab named the leading track from their album East Side Militia, "Exile on Mainline", in reference to the Rolling Stones album.

On October 31, 2009, American rock band Phish covered Exile on Main St in its entirety as the "musical costume" for their Halloween show in Indio, California. A parody/homage of the album features as the main theme of the website X-File On Main St.

The Departed, a 2006 film by Martin Scorsese, features a scene in which Bill Costigan mails Madelyn Madden an Exile on Main Street jewel case containing an incriminating recording of Colin Sullivan conspiring with crime boss Frank Costello.
Exile on Main St featured a gatefold cover and included a series of 12 perforated postcards with a sequence of images inserts, all of which were shot by photographer Norman Seeff.

The Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Goats Head Soup is the 11th studio album by The Rolling Stones released in 1973. It was recorded as the follow-up to 1972's critically acclaimed Exile on Main St. Goats Head Soup was a more polished production than the raw and ragged Exile. It reflected the resurgence of soul-pop and the rise of funk, while maintaining the Stones' distinctive rock sound. It spawned the hit single "Angie", possibly its best-known track, and topped the charts in both the US and the UK.

Recording began as early as 1970. Two tracks, "Silver Train" and "Hide Your Love", resulted from these early sessions and re-appeared in November 1972 when the band relocated to Kingston, Jamaica's Dynamic Sound Studios. Guitarist Keith Richards said in 2002, "Jamaica was one of the few places that would let us all in! By that time about the only country that I was allowed to exist in was Switzerland, which was damn boring for me, at least for the first year, because I didn't like to ski... Nine countries kicked me out, thank you very much, so it was a matter of how to keep this thing together..."

Of the recording process, Marshall Chess, the president of Rolling Stones Records at the time, said in 2002, "We used to book studios for a month, 24 hours a day, so that the band could keep the same set-up and develop their songs in their free-form way, starting with a few lyrics and rhythms, jamming and rehearsing while we fixed the sound. It amazed me, as an old-time record guy, that the Stones might not have played together for six or eight months, but within an hour of jamming, the synergy that is their strength would come into play and they would lock it together as one..."

Jagger said of their approach to recording at the time, "Songwriting and playing is a mood. Like the last album we did (Exile on Main St.) was basically recorded in short concentrated periods. Two weeks here, two weeks there - then another two weeks. And, similarly, all the writing was concentrated so that you get the feel of one particular period of time. Three months later it's all very different and we won't be writing the same kind of material as Goats Head Soup."

On the sessions and influence of the island, Richards said, "The album itself didn't take that long, but we recorded an awful lot of tracks. There were not only Jamaicans involved, but also percussion players who came from places like Guyana, a travelling pool of guys who worked in the studios. It was interesting to be playing in this totally different atmosphere. Mikey Chung, the engineer at Dynamic, for example, was a Chinese man — you realise how much Jamaica is a multi-ethnic environment."

The first track recorded at Dynamic was "Winter", which lead guitarist Mick Taylor said started with "just Mick (Jagger) strumming on a guitar in the studio, and everything falling together from there."

The album's lead single, "Angie", was an unpopular choice as lead single with Atlantic Records which, according to Chess, "wanted another 'Brown Sugar' rather than a ballad." Contrary to popular belief, the song was not about David Bowie's first wife Angela; Richards' daughter Dandelion Angela had just been born, and the name was Richards' main contribution to the lyrics.

Despite its laid-back sound, many of Goats Head Soup's songs have a darker quality to them, such as the opener "Dancing With Mr. D" (D as in Death). An alternate version can be heard on bootlegs that features a ripping Mick Taylor guitar solo that was not featured on the album version.

Also featured is the Top 20 US hit "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)", which criticizes the New York police for the accidental shooting of a 10-year-old.

This was the last Rolling Stones album produced by Jimmy Miller, who'd worked with the band since 1968's Beggars Banquet sessions. Miller developed a debilitating drug habit from his years spent with the band.

Aside from the official band members, other musicians appearing on Goats Head Soup include keyboard players Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins and Ian Stewart.

Recording was completed in January 1973 in Los Angeles and May 1973 at London's Olympic Sound Studios.

At the time of release, Jagger said, "I really feel close to this album, and I really put all I had into it... I guess it comes across that I'm more into songs. It wasn't as vague as the last album which kind of went on so long that I didn't like some of the things. There's more thought to this one. It was recorded all over the place over about two or three months. The tracks are much more varied than the last one. I didn't want it to be just a bunch of rock songs."

Preceded by "Angie" as the lead single, which sailed to #1 in the United States and became a worldwide hit, Goats Head Soup was released in late August 1973 and also shot to #1 worldwide. The Rolling Stones' autumn 1973 European Tour followed soon after, in which three slots in the set list were given to the new material. (The popular bootleg recording Brussels Affair would result from this tour.)

Critical reaction to the album was varied at the time. Bud Scoppa called the album "one of the year's richest musical experiences" in Rolling Stone, while Lester Bangs derided the effort in Creem, saying, "There is a sadness about the Stones now, because they amount to such an enormous 'So what?' The sadness comes when you measure not just one album, but the whole sense they're putting across now against what they once meant..."

Goats Head Soup is now generally considered to have marked the end of the Stones' "golden age", with Stephen Thomas Erlewine saying, "Sliding out of perhaps the greatest winning streak in rock history, the Stones slipped into decadence and rock star excess with Goats Head Soup... This is where the Stones' image began to eclipse their accomplishments, as Mick ascended to jet-setting celebrity and Keith slowly sunk deeper into addiction, and it's possible hearing them moving in both directions on Goats Head Soup, at times in the same song." Goats Head Soup has endured as a popular seller and has gone triple platinum in the United States.

The album cover was designed by Ray Lawrence and photographed by David Bailey, a friend of Jagger's who had worked with The Rolling Stones since 1964. The portrait of Jagger on the front cover was approximately life size in the original 12 inch LP format.

The sessions for Goats Head Soup were abundant with outtakes. Two of these - "Tops" and "Waiting on a Friend" - would surface on Tattoo You in 1981, and feature Mick Taylor on guitar; "Through the Lonely Nights" became the B-side to the "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" single and was released on CD for the first time on the 2005 compilation Rarities 1971–2003.

In 1994 Goats Head Soup was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, and again in 2009 by Universal Music. The first pressing of the UMG remaster featured a censored version of "Star Star" that was featured on the original US vinyl release, but not on the 1994 Virgin CD; later pressings feature the uncensored version.

The Rolling Stones - Its Only Rock n Roll Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

It's Only Rock 'n' Roll is the 12th studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1974. It would be the last Rolling Stones album for guitarist Mick Taylor and the songwriting and recording of the album's title track would have a connection to Taylor's eventual replacement, Ronnie Wood. The album has a more firm rock sound than their previous album, the more funk and soul-inspired Goats Head Soup. The album reached number one on the United States charts and number two in the United Kingdom.
Work would begin on It's Only Rock 'n' Roll following The Rolling Stones' fall 1973 European tour. Production would begin in November at Munich, Germany's Musicland Studios. According to guitarist Keith Richards, "We were really hot (off the road) and ready just to play some new material."

The album was at first developed as a half-live, half-studio production with one side of the album featuring live performances from The Stones' European tour while the other side would be composed of newly recorded cover versions of the band's favorite R&B songs. Covers recorded included a take of Dobie Gray's "Drift Away", Shirley & Company's "Shame, Shame, Shame", and The Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg". Soon the band began working off riffs by Richards and new ideas by Mick Jagger and the original concept was scrapped in favor of an album with all new material. The cover of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" would be the only recording to make the cut, while the "Drift Away" cover is a popular bootleg.

It's Only Rock 'n' Roll would mark The Stones' first effort in the producer's chair since Their Satanic Majesties Request, and the first for Jagger and Richards under their pseudonym "The Glimmer Twins". On the choice to produce, Richards said at the time:

"I think we'd come to a point with Jimmy (Miller) where the contribution level had dropped because it'd got to be a habit, a way of life, for Jimmy to do one Stones album a year. He'd got over the initial sort of excitement which you can feel on Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed. Also, Mick and I felt that we wanted to try and do it ourselves because we really felt we knew much more about techniques and recording and had our own ideas of how we wanted things to go. Goats Head Soup hadn't turned out as we wanted to - not blaming Jimmy or anything like that... But it was obvious that it was time for a change in that particular part of the process of making records."

Starting with this release, all future Rolling Stones albums would either be produced by them or in collaboration with an outside producer.

Most of the album's backing tracks were recorded first at Musicland, with Jagger's vocals recorded after, with Richards saying, "[Jagger] often comes up with his best stuff alone in the studio with just an engineer.".

The song "Luxury" (early version named "Living In The Heart Of Love") would show the band's growing interest in reggae music, while "Till the Next Goodbye" and "If You Really Want to Be My Friend" would continue the band's immersion into ballads. Seven of the album's 10 songs crack the four-minute mark, a quality that would come to be disparaged during the rising punk rock scene of the late 1970s.

Ronnie Wood, a longtime acquaintance of the band, began to get closer to The Rolling Stones during these sessions after he invited Mick Taylor to play on his debut album, I've Got My Own Album to Do. Taylor spent some time recording and hanging out at Wood's house The Wick. By chance, Richards was asked one night by Wood's wife at the time, Krissy, to join them at the guitarist's home. While there, Richards recorded some tracks with Wood and quickly developed a close friendship, with Richards going as far as moving into Wood's guest room. Jagger soon entered the mix and it was here that the album's lead single and title track, "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)", was first recorded. Wood worked closely on the track with Jagger, who subsequently took the song and title for their album. The released version of the song It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I like it) features Wood on 12-string acoustic guitar.

It's Only Rock 'n' Roll would be Mick Taylor's last album with The Rolling Stones, and he played on just seven of the 10 tracks. Taylor reportedly had made contributions to the songs like "Till the Next Goodbye" and "Time Waits for No One" but on the album jacket, all original songs were credited to Jagger/Richards. Taylor said in 1997,

"I did have a falling out with Mick Jagger over some songs I felt I should have been credited with co-writing on It's Only Rock 'n' Roll. We were quite close friends and co-operated quite closely on getting that album made. By that time Mick and Keith weren't really working together as a team so I'd spend a lot of time in the studio."."

Jagger stated in a 1995 Rolling Stone interview about "Time Waits for No One" that Taylor "maybe threw in a couple of chords."

Alongside the usual outside contributors, namely Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins, and unofficial member Ian Stewart, Ray Cooper would act as percussionist for the album. Several songs were finished songs and overdubs and the mixing were performed at Jagger's home, Stargroves, in the early summer of 1974.

In July, the lead single, "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)," was released, and despite the familiar sound, it surprised many by not reaching the top ten. With its sing-along chorus, it has become a staple at Rolling Stones concerts. The B-side "Through the Lonely Nights" dates back to the previous years Goat's Head Soup sessions. A cover of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," originally a 1966 hit by The Temptations, was released as the second single in the United States only, where it also became a top-twenty hit. Its parent album appeared in October with brisk initial sales, reaching number two in the U.K. (breaking a string of number-one albums that stretched back to 1969's Let It Bleed) and number one in the United States, where it eventually went platinum.

Reviews were largely positive, with Jon Landau saying in Rolling Stone, "It's Only Rock 'n Roll [is] one of the most intriguing and mysterious, as well as the darkest, of all Rolling Stones records." However rock critic Lester Bangs disparaged the album in The Village Voice, much like Goats Head Soup, saying, "The Stones have become oblique in their old age, which is just another word for perverse except that perverse is the corniest concept extant as they realized at inception... Soup was friendly and safe. I want the edge and this album doesn't reassure me that I'll get it, what a curious situation to be stuck in, but maybe that's the beauty of the Stones, hah, hah, kid? This album is false. Numb. But it cuts like a dull blade. Are they doing the cutting, or are we?"

Instead of immediately touring to promote the album, the band decided to head back into the Munich studios to record the next album, to Mick Taylor's disappointment and subsequent resignation from the band — a tour didn't happen until the following summer in the United States, the "Tour of the Americas '75", with future member Ronnie Wood taking Mick Taylor's place on guitar.

In order to promote the album, music videos were filmed for several of the songs. The most commonly seen video from the album was the video for "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (but I Like It)", featuring the band (in sailor suits) playing in a tent, which gradually fills with soap bubbles. Videos were also filmed for "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" and "Till The Next Goodbye."

Two different versions of "Luxury" exist. A shorter version of 4:30 is included on the early CD version from 1986, while the version of 5:01 was originally released on vinyl in Europe, and on the 1994 and 2009 CD remasters.

In 1994, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, and again in 2009 by Universal Music.

One of the Rolling Stones' largest fan clubs goes by the name "It's Only Rock'n Roll," though its members typically refer to it as 'IORR.'

The Rolling Stones - Black and Blue Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Black and Blue is the 13th studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1976. It was the band's first studio album released with Ronnie Wood as the replacement for Mick Taylor. Wood had played 12-string acoustic guitar on the track "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" of the 1974 Rolling Stones album It's Only Rock 'n' Roll and appears on half of the Black and Blue album tracks (mostly backing vocals) with Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel playing guitar on the remaining titles.

In December 1974 The Rolling Stones returned to Munich, Germany—the recording site of their previous release It's Only Rock 'n' Roll—and began the recording of their new album at Musicland Studios, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (as The Glimmer Twins) producing again. With a view to releasing it in time for the summer 1975 Tour of the Americas, the band broke for the holidays and returned in January in Rotterdam, Netherlands to continue working—all the while auditioning new guitarists as they recorded. Among the hopefuls were Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins, Peter Frampton and Ronnie Wood (although only Mandel's, Perkins' and Wood's guitar work would appear on the finished album). With much work to follow, it was decided to delay the album for the following year and release the Made in the Shade compilation instead. "Cherry Oh Baby" (which was a cover version of Eric Donaldson's 1971 reggae song) would be the only song from the upcoming album sporadically played on the Tour of the Americas.

Following the conclusion of the tour, The Rolling Stones went to Montreux, Switzerland in October for some overdub work, returning to Musicland Studios in Munich in December to perform similar work. After some final touch-ups, Black and Blue was completed in New York City in February 1976.

Stylistically, Black and Blue embraces funk with "Hot Stuff"; reggae with their cover of "Cherry Oh Baby"; and jazz with "Melody", featuring the talents of Billy Preston - a heavy contributor to the album. Musical and thematic styles were merged on the seven-minute "Memory Motel", with both Jagger and Richards contributing lead vocals to a love song embedded within a life-on-the-road tale.

Released in April 1976—with "Fool to Cry", a worldwide Top 10 hit, as its lead single—Black and Blue reached #2 in the UK and spent an interrupted four week spell at #1 in the US, going platinum there. Critical view was polarized: Lester Bangs wrote in Creem that "the heat's off, because it's all over, they really don't matter anymore or stand for anything" and "This is the first meaningless Rolling Stones album, and thank God"; but in the 1976 Creem Consumer Guide Robert Christgau rated the album an A-.

Bill Wyman released a version of "Melody" with his Rhythm Kings, and claimed the song was written by Preston.

The album was promoted with a controversial billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood that depicted the model Anita Russell, bruised and bound by Mick Jagger under the phrase "I'm Black and Blue from the Rolling Stones — and I love it!" The billboard was removed after protests by the feminist group Women Against Violence Against Women, although it earned the band widespread press coverage.

Two extra tracks recorded in the Rotterdam sessions were later released on 1981's Tattoo You—"Slave" and "Worried About You".

In 1994, Black and Blue was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, and again in 2009 by Universal Music.

The Rolling Stones - Some Girls Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Some Girls is the 14th studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1978. Considered a highlight of their output and the best of their post-Exile on Main St. records, the album revitalized the band's career upon its release and re-established The Rolling Stones as a vital rock and roll band in an era infused with punk rock and disco. It also became the band's biggest-selling album in the United States, with more than six million copies to date. Some Girls is ranked number 269 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
With the advent of punk rock, The Rolling Stones, among many of their musical contemporaries, were being targeted by some in the movement as cultural dinosaurs, compromising their standing. Mick Jagger felt invigorated by the provocations and was determined to answer them lyrically. It helped, however, that almost all the punks had, openly or not, idolized the Stones in the 1960s and were heavily influenced by the band's rebellious records from that era.

At least as important for the band's reinvigoration was the addition of Ronnie Wood to the lineup, as Some Girls was the first album recorded with him as a full member. His guitar playing style meshed with that of Keith Richards. Wood's pedal steel playing would become one of the band's hallmarks, and his unconventional uses of the instrument are prominent on Some Girls. In addition, Jagger, who had learned to play guitar over the previous decade, contributed a third guitar part to many songs. This gave songs like "Respectable" a three-guitar lineup.

Mick Jagger is generally regarded as the principal creative force behind Some Girls, a conception that, though disputable (Richards was present at all of the sessions), is plausible considering Richards' various legal entanglements at the time (see below). Jagger claimed in a 1995 interview to have written a great number of the album's songs (though when the amount was pointed out to him he denied that the record was mostly his own), including its signature song, "Miss You." In addition to punk, Jagger claims to have been influenced by dance music, most notably disco, during the recording of Some Girls, and cites New York City as a major inspiration for the album, an explanation for his lyrical preoccupation with the city throughout.

The inspiration for the record was really based in New York and the ways of the town. I think that gave it an extra spur and hardness. And then, of course, there was the punk thing that had started in 1976. Punk and disco were going on at the same time, so it was quite an interesting period. New York and London, too. Paris—there was punk there. Lots of dance music. Paris and New York had all this Latin dance music, which was really quite wonderful. Much more interesting than the stuff that came afterward.

For the first time since 1968's Beggars Banquet, the core band — now Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and Bill Wyman — would be the only musicians on a Rolling Stones album, with few extra contributors. Ian McLagan, formerly of The Faces played keyboards, harmonica player Sugar Blue contributed to several songs, in addition to saxophonist Mel Collins and Simon Kirke, who played percussion (the three jokingly credited as "1 Moroccan, 1 Jew, 1 WASP"). Jagger's guitar contributions caused the band's road manager, Ian Stewart, to be absent from many of the sessions as he felt piano would be superfluous, making this a rare Rolling Stones album on which he did not appear. An alternate story has Stewart pointedly boycotting most of the sessions, claiming the band was sounding like 'bloody Status Quo'!

A serious concern was the issue of Keith Richards and his highly-publicized heroin possession bust in Toronto Canada in early 1977. While he cleaned up for good that summer after realizing the gravity of his situation—which also sparked his desire to get back into the music—there was still the very real possibility that he might be sent to jail for years. However, in October 1978, he received a light sentence: to perform a show for charity. As a commemoration of his second lease on life following the end of his heroin addiction, Keith reverted his surname to "Richards" with an "s" for Some Girls, after fifteen years without it.

The sessions for Some Girls began in October 1977, breaking before Christmas and starting up again after New Year's before finishing in March 1978. Under their new British recording contract with EMI (remaining with Warner Music in North America only), they were able to record at EMI's Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris, a venue at which they would record frequently for the next several years. The Rolling Stones ended up recording about fifty new songs, several of which would turn up in altered forms on Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You. These sessions have also served as a prime source for many bootleg compilations over the years. Engineer for the sessions was Chris Kimsey, whose approach to recording breathed life into the somewhat dense sounding recordings like Goats Head Soup and It's Only Rock 'n' Roll albums. Kimsey's direct method of recording, together with the entrance of the then state-of-the-art Mesa/Boogie Mark I amps instead of the Ampeg SVT line of amps, yielded a bright, direct and aggressive guitar sound. In fact, there have been few Stones sessions as widely bootlegged as these.

There was some controversy surrounded the lyrics to the title song, an extended musing on women of various nationalities and races. The line "Black girls just wanna get fucked all night" drew strong protests from various groups, including Jesse Jackson's PUSH. Jagger famously replied, "I've always said, you can't take a joke, it's too fucking bad," although he was reportedly more conciliatory to Jackson in private, as he claimed the song was intended as a parody of racist attitudes. Saturday Night Live cast member Garrett Morris would have the final say on the controversy with a mock-editorial on the show's Weekend Update segment: After giving the impression that he was going to openly criticize the Stones, he quoted a sanitized version of the "Black girls just..." line, then stated "I have one thing to say to you, Mr. Mick Jagger... where are these women?!?"

The album cover for Some Girls was designed by Peter Corriston, who would design the next three album covers as well. An elaborate die-cut design, with colors varying on different sleeves, it featured The Rolling Stones and select female celebrities in garish drag, as well as a bunch of lingerie ads. The cover immediately ran into trouble when Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Liza Minnelli (representing her mother Judy Garland), Raquel Welch, and the estate of Marilyn Monroe threatened legal action. It was withdrawn and the women's likenesses removed. Jagger later apologized to Minnelli when he encountered her during a party at the infamous discotheque Studio 54.

The revised cover removed all the celebrities whether they had complained or not, and were replaced with black and punk style garish colors with the phrase PARDON OUR APPEARANCE - COVER UNDER RE-CONSTRUCTION. There also existed a third version of the album cover with hand-drawn women.

In May 1978, the first single from the album, "Miss You", a prowling, moody number built on a stripped-down disco beat and bluesy pop harmonies, was released to very strong response, garnering The Rolling Stones their last US #1 hit and reaching #3 in the UK. Some Girls appeared in June to a very welcoming audience, reaching #1 in the US and #2 in the UK, becoming their biggest-selling studio album in the process (currently certified six times platinum in the US alone). It was also a major critical success, with many reviewers calling it a classic return to form, and their best album since 1972's Exile on Main St. "Beast of Burden", "Respectable" (in the UK) and "Shattered" (in the US) would follow as the next singles, all becoming minor hits as well.

The Stones embarked on their summer US Tour 1978 in support of the album, which for the first time saw them mount several small venue shows, sometimes under a pseudonym.

In 1986, the first Compact Disc version of the album was issued by the Stones new label distributor, Columbia Records as Rolling Stones/Columbia CK-40449.

In 1994, Some Girls was remastered and reissued on CD by Virgin Records, with a partial restoration of the original cover art and the first pressing being packaged in a replica of the original vinyl packaging.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 269 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

In 2009, Some Girls was remastered and reissued on CD by Universal Music, restoring the original color scheme of the cover.

The Rolling Stones - Love You Live Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Love You Live is a double live album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1977. The album is drawn from Tour of the Americas shows in the United States in the summer of 1975, Tour of Europe shows in 1976 and performances from the infamous El Mocambo nightclub concert venue in Toronto in 1977. It is the band's third official full-length live release.

The album was overdubbed and mixed from late May to mid-June 1977; it features Billy Preston and Ian Stewart on piano. Love You Live's artwork was prepared by Andy Warhol, and the pencil smears seen across the front were added to Warhol's dismay by Mick Jagger. Released in September 1977, the album was well-received and managed to reach #3 in the UK and #5 in the US, where it went gold.

Love You Live was The Rolling Stones' final album whereby Rolling Stones Records would be internationally distributed by Warner Music. The band's next several albums would be distributed through EMI worldwide, while they remained with Warner in North America only.

Love You Live was the final album where Keith Richard's name would be spelled as such, returning his surname to "Richards" beginning with 1978's Some Girls.

The Stones decided to round out the live album by adding a second side, with live club recordings performed at the El Mocambo Club in Toronto on March 4 and 5, 1977. The intention was to play a set of the sort of classic blues and R&B covers that sealed their reputation back at the Crawdaddy Club in 1963. However, Keith Richards arrived late for scheduled rehearsals, and faced drug charges in Canada since his wife had been arrested, with Richards's drugs in her purse, as soon as the plane landed, and drugs were also found in his hotel room.

Despite these legal troubles, the shows themselves went well enough, though the versions that appear on album are heavily overdubbed, mostly with layers of new guitars. April Wine opened for the band, and The Rolling Stones appeared secretly under fake band names on the bill so the majority of the fans thought they were attending an April Wine concert. April Wine also recorded their live album Live at the El Mocambo at these same concerts.

The album is dedicated to the memory of audio engineer Keith Harwood, who died in a drug-induced car accident shortly before the album's release.

A couple of minor song title differences occur on Love You Live: "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is spelled with a "g" instead of the usual apostrophe (although it is corrected on the CD reissue), while "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" loses its bracketed title.

In 1998, Love You Live was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records.

In 2009, Love You Live was re-released with an updated remastering by Virgin Records.

The Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Emotional Rescue is the 15th studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1980. Upon release, Emotional Rescue topped the charts in both the United States and United Kingdom.

Recorded throughout 1979, first in Nassau, Bahamas, then Paris, with some end-of-year overdubbing in New York City, Emotional Rescue was the first Rolling Stones album recorded following Keith Richards' exoneration from a Toronto drugs charge that could have landed him in jail for years. Fresh from the revitalization of Some Girls, Richards and Mick Jagger led The Rolling Stones through dozens of new songs—some of which were held over for Tattoo You—picking only ten for Emotional Rescue.

While several of the tracks featured just the core band of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and Bill Wyman, keyboardists Nicky Hopkins and band co-founder Ian Stewart, sax player Bobby Keys and harmonica player Sugar Blue joined The Rolling Stones on Emotional Rescue.

The album cover, designed by Peter Corriston, features a sombre selection of band photos which had been taken by a thermo camera, a device which measures heat emissions. The original release came wrapped in a huge colour poster featuring more thermo-shots of the band, the whole being wrapped in a plastic bag. The music video shot for "Emotional Rescue" also utilized thermo-shots of the band performing.

Released in June with the disco-infused hit title track as the lead single, Emotional Rescue was an immediate smash. The title track hit #3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. The album gave The Rolling Stones their first UK #1 album since 1973's Goats Head Soup and spent seven weeks atop the US charts. The follow-up single "She's So Cold" was a Top 30 hit while "Dance Pt. 1" reached #9 on Billboard's Dance chart. Richards' "All About You" would be the first of several album closers featuring Keith's increasingly gravel-sounding voice on lead vocal. Tattoo You, released the following year, has subsequently been the only exception.

The song "Claudine" was rumored to be a part of the original album, but didn't make the cut most likely due to the fear of litigation and controversy. The lyrics dealt with the light sentence (30 days in jail) singer-actress Claudine Longet received after she killed her live-in boyfriend, Olympian ski racer Vladimir "Spider" Sabich, in their Aspen, Colorado home. She had previously been married to musician Andy Williams. Some other songs left off the album would find their way onto the next album, Tattoo You ("Black Limousine", "Start Me Up", "Hang Fire", "Little T & A", and "No Use in Crying"). "Think I'm Going Mad", another song from the sessions, was released as the B-side to "She Was Hot" in 1984. And two cover songs sung by Keith Richards ("We Had It All" and "Let's Go Steady") have yet to be officially released, but can be found on the bootleg Static in the Attic, along with "Claudine".

In 1994, Emotional Rescue was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, and again in 2009 by Universal Music.

The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Tattoo You is the 16th studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1981. The follow-up to Emotional Rescue, it proved to be a big critical and commercial success upon its release, and is considered by many to be one of The Rolling Stones' finest full-length releases, despite its prolonged recording history. A very popular album upon release, it is the last Rolling Stones album to reach the top position of the US charts, ending a string of number ones dating back to 1971's Sticky Fingers. In 1994, Tattoo You was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, and again in 2009 by Universal Music.
Tattoo You is an album primarily composed of outtakes from previous recording sessions, some dating back a decade, with new vocals and overdubs. Along with two new songs, the Rolling Stones put together this collection in order to have a new album to promote for their worldwide American Tour 1981/European Tour 1982 beginning that September. Guitarist Keith Richards commented in 1993;

"The thing with Tattoo You wasn't that we'd stopped writing new stuff, it was a question of time. We'd agreed we were going to go out on the road and we wanted to tour behind a record. There was no time to make whole new album and make the start of the tour."

The album's producer, Chris Kimsey, who had been associated with The Stones dating back to 1971's Sticky Fingers, said Tattoo You, "...came about because Mick [Jagger] and Keith were going through a period of not getting on. There was a need to have an album out, and I told everyone I could make an album from what I knew was still there." He began sifting through the band's vaults: "I spent three months going through like the last four, five albums finding stuff that had been either forgotten about or at the time rejected. And then I presented it to the band and I said, 'Hey, look guys, you've got all this great stuff sitting in the can and it's great material, do something with it.'

Many of the songs consisted at this point of instrumental backing tracks for which vocals had not been recorded. Jagger said in a 1995 interview, "It wasn't all outtakes; some of it was old songs. ...I had to write lyrics and melodies. A lot of them didn't have anything, which is why they weren't used at the time - because they weren't complete. They were just bits, or they were from early takes." Despite the eclectic nature of the album, the Rolling Stones were able to divide Tattoo You into two distinct halves: a rock and roll side backed with one focusing on ballads.

The earliest songs used for Tattoo You are "Tops" and "Waiting on a Friend". The backing tracks for both songs were cut in late 1972 during the Goats Head Soup sessions and feature Mick Taylor, not Ronnie Wood, on guitar; Taylor later demanded and received a share of the album's royalties.

The album opens with "Start Me Up," originally rehearsed under the working title "Never Stop" as a reggae-influenced number in 1975 during the Black and Blue sessions, but not released at that time. It was taken up again, and the balance of it was recorded during these sessions. Also dating from these sessions are the backing tracks for "Slave" and "Worried About You". They feature Billy Preston on keyboards and Ollie Brown on percussion. Wayne Perkins plays the lead guitar on "Worried About You".

"Hang Fire" and "Black Limousine" were worked on during the 1977-1978 Pathe Marconi recording sessions for Some Girls.

The basic tracks for "No Use in Crying", "Little T&A", "Start Me Up", and re-recordings of "Black Limousine" and "Hang Fire" came from the Emotional Rescue sessions.
"Neighbours" and "Heaven" were recorded during sessions in October-November 1980, after the release of Emotional Rescue. "Heaven" has an unusual lineup, consisting of only Charlie Watts on drums, Bill Wyman on synthesizer and bass, Mick Jagger on guitar, and producer Chris Kimsey on piano.
Many of the vocal parts for the songs on Tattoo You were overdubbed during sessions in October-November 1980 and April-June 1981. Only Mick Jagger of the band was present at some of these sessions. Other overdubs, such as Sonny Rollins's saxophone parts on "Slave" and "Waiting on a Friend", were also added at these sessions. Most of the album was mixed at this time as well.

"Start Me Up" was released in August 1981, just a week before Tattoo You, to a very strong response, reaching the top 10 in both the U.S. and the U.K. Widely considered one of their most infectious songs, it was enough to carry Tattoo You to #1 for nine weeks in the US, while reaching #2 in the UK with solid sales. It has been certified four times platinum in the US alone. The critical reaction was positive, many feeling that Tattoo You was an improvement over Emotional Rescue and a high-quality release. "Waiting On A Friend" and "Hang Fire" became Top 20 US hits as well.

"Start Me Up" would prove to be The Rolling Stones' last single to reach as high as #2 in the US, while Tattoo You is their last American #1 album to date.

The album title was originally planned to be simply "Tattoo". Jagger claims to this day that even he has no clue how the "You" became attached to the title. The title caused friction between Jagger and Richards, with Richards suspecting that Jagger had changed the title without seeking his input.

There were several videos directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for this album including:

"Start Me Up", "Hang Fire" and "Worried About You": Consisting of a standard band performance setting, playbacking to a backing tape.
"Neighbours": An homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window, it features the band playing in one apartment of an apartment house with various happenings in the windows: A working-class couple relaxing and making love, a tai chi practitioner exercising, and most notoriously, a man putting bloody body parts in a suitcase. This video was heavily censored when presented on television.
"Waiting on a Friend": Filmed on location in New York City's East Village, it consists of Keith walking down the street, meeting Jagger, who is sitting on the front steps of a house (the same house used on the cover of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti) with several other men, one of whom is the late Reggae musician Peter Tosh, who also shakes Keith's hand. They then proceed down the street and enter a bar where the rest of the band is waiting. The video also features Wood, rather than Mick Taylor on guitar (similar to the videos for Hot Stuff and Worried About You in which Harvey Mandel and Wayne Perkins respectively actually played).

In the 1995 Rolling Stone interview during which editor Jann Wenner called Tattoo You the Stones' "most underrated album," Jagger said, "I think it’s excellent. But all the things I usually like, it doesn’t have. It doesn’t have any unity of purpose or place or time."

Reviews for Tattoo You were largely positive, proclaiming the album a return to form and ranking among the Rolling Stones' finest works. Debra Rae Cohen commented in Rolling Stone, "Just when we might finally have lost patience, the new record dances (not prances), rocks (not jives) onto the scene, and the Rolling Stones are back again, with a matter-of-fact acceptance of their continued existence – and eventual mortality..."

Though Robert Christgau gave the album a good review, however, when criticizing "Start Me Up" in his Pazz and Jop essay in 1981, said, "...its central conceit--Mick as sex machine, complete with pushbutton--explains why the album it starts up never transcends hand-tooled excellence except when Sonny Rollins, uncredited, invades the Stones' space. Though it's as good in its way as "Street Fighting Man," how much you care about it depends entirely on how much you care about the Stones' technical difficulties."

Patty Rose, in Musician, said, "The feel of the album... is more one of rediscovered youth, of axes to play, not grind, of the latest cope, not dope. After Emotional Rescue, it seems the Stones couldn't make it anymore with the theme of life getting harder and harder. The old themes are not invalidated by the new, but rather taken for granted, like knowing how to tie one's bootlace. The Stones have shed yet another layer of self-consciousness and their shiny vinyl new skin tingles with an open, early-decade kind of excitement."

In 1989, it was ranked #34 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 211 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The cover of the album was designed by artist Peter Corriston, who won a Grammy Award in the category of best album package for the design.

The Rolling Stones - Undercover Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Undercover is the 17th studio album by The Rolling Stones and was released in 1983. After their preceding studio album, Tattoo You, which was mostly patched together from a selection of outtakes, Undercover was their first release of all newly-recorded material in the 1980s. With the advent of the MTV generation, The Rolling Stones attempted to re-invent themselves for a new era.
Due to the recent advancements in recording technology, The Glimmer Twins (a.k.a. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) were officially joined in the producer's seat with Chris Kimsey, the first outside producer The Rolling Stones had used since Jimmy Miller. Recording began with an Instrumental number called "Cellophane Trousers" which was recorded in November 1975 during the "Black And Blue" sessions (which can be found on various session bootlegs), then in November 1982, three months after The Rolling Stones 1982 European "Tattoo You" Tour ended, it was given words and recorded to the track. Soon enough it became the single number "Too Tough". They began recording at the Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris, France. After breaking for the holidays, they completed the album in New York City the following summer.

The making of Undercover was an arduous process, largely because Jagger and Richards' famous mid-1980s row began during these sessions. Jagger was keenly aware of new styles and wanted to keep The Rolling Stones current and experimental, while Richards was seemingly more focused on the bands rock and blues roots. As a result, there was friction, and the tension between the two key men in The Rolling Stones would increase over the upcoming years.

The lyrics on Undercover are among Mick Jagger's most macabre, with much grisly imagery to be found in the lead single and Top 10 hit "Undercover of the Night", a rare political track about South America, as well as "Tie You Up (The Pain Of Love)," and "Too Much Blood", Jagger's attempt to incorporate contemporary trends in dance music. Musically, Undercover appears to duel between hard rock, reggae, and new wave, reflecting the leadership tug of war between Jagger and Richards at the time. "Pretty Beat Up" is largely a Ronnie Wood composition, and Jagger and Richards were both reportedly reluctant to include it on the album.

Undercover was released in November 1983 to generally warm reviews and reached #3 in the UK and #4 in the United States. It was a relative disappointment however, breaking a streak of eight #1 albums (excluding compilations and live albums) in the U.S. and failing to spawn any huge singles. Its cover artwork was covered with real peel-off stickers on the original vinyl edition, which when removed revealed other patterned geometric shapes.

"Think I'm Going Mad" was a track first recorded during the Emotional Rescue sessions of 1979. It finally arrives as the B-side to "She Was Hot". Unfortunately, it was left off the Rarities 1971–2003 collection and has never appeared on CD.

Undercover continues to divide critics and fans alike. Although it was largely praised on release (Rolling Stone awarded it a near-classic four-and-a-half stars), many fans came to regard it as among The Rolling Stones' weaker releases, a view echoed by Jagger himself in later interviews. While some critics tend to blame the then-contemporary production and eclecticism, it should be noted that a large part of the album was done in a hard-rock style ("She Was Hot", "Too Tough," "All The Way Down," "It Must Be Hell"), leading many to fault the generally inconsistent material. A great deal of the tension during the recording of the album stemmed from the fact that Keith Richards had emerged (to an extent) from his destructive lifestyle of the previous decade, and thus sought a more active role in the creative direction of the band.

As with several latter-day Stones records, recent critical analysis has been kinder, noting the album's eclecticism and nastiness as a reflection of the Jagger/Richards feud. It would also prove to be the last album that seriously attempted to take the band's music in new directions; critics often fault the Stones' later (and more popular) albums as relying too comfortably on their early-70's hard rock and blues formula. However, the record is still one of the Stones' less popular and more obscure releases.

In 1994, Undercover was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, and again in 2009 by Universal Music.

The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Dirty Work is The Rolling Stones' 18th studio album. It was released on 24 March 1986 on the Rolling Stones label by CBS Records. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album was recorded during a period when relations between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards soured considerably, and is often regarded as a low point for the band.

The album produced a hit for the Rolling Stones — their cover of "Harlem Shuffle" — and features a number of guest appearances, including contributions by Tom Waits, Patti Scialfa, Bobby Womack, and Jimmy Page on "One Hit (To the Body)."

In 1994 Dirty Work was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, and again in 2009 by Universal Music.

The sessions for Dirty Work, the first album under the Rolling Stones' recording contract with CBS Records, began in April 1985 in Paris, running for two months before breaking for a short spell. Mick Jagger had just released his first solo album, She's the Boss, much to Richards' annoyance, since the latter's first priority was The Rolling Stones and he was stung that Jagger was pursuing a career as a pop star. Jagger was often absent from the Dirty Work sessions while Richards recorded with Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts; Jagger's vocal parts were added later on. The divide between Jagger and Richards was on public view on 13 July 1985, when Jagger performed a solo set at Live Aid while Richards and Wood supported Bob Dylan's set on acoustic guitars.

Charlie Watts' involvement in the recording sessions was also limited: in 1993 Watts told Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes that during the 1980s he had been addicted to heroin as well as alcohol, and that this is why replacement drummers are credited on both Undercover and Dirty Work. Steve Jordan and Anton Fig do the drumming on some tracks; Ronnie Wood takes over the sticks on "Sleep Tonight". Jagger would later cite Watts' personal state as one of the reasons he vetoed a tour in support of Dirty Work in 1986, preferring to start work on his second album, Primitive Cool.

Four of the album's eight original compositions are credited to Jagger/Richards/Wood and one to Jagger/Richards/Chuck Leavell. Only three are credited to Jagger/Richards, the lowest number since on any Rolling Stones album since Out of Our Heads (1965). Dirty Work is the first Rolling Stones record to feature two tracks with Richards singing lead vocals ("Too Rude" and "Sleep Tonight").

Following a further month of final recording in July and August 1985 (which saw guest appearances by Jimmy Page, Bobby Womack and Tom Waits), co-producer Steve Lillywhite supervised several weeks of mixing and the creation of 12 inch remixes. On 12 December, Ian Stewart—one of the founding members of The Rolling Stones and their longtime pianist and road manager—died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 47. In remembrance of their friend, a hidden track of Stewart playing Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway" was added to close the album.

In March 1986, The Rolling Stones' cover of "Harlem Shuffle" (their first lead single from a studio album not to be a Jagger/Richards original since the earliest days of the band) was released to a receptive audience, reaching #13 in the UK and #5 in the US, though it did not receive the same amount of exposure as previous hits. The follow-up single "One Hit (To the Body)" was a Top 30 hit and featured a revealing video of Jagger and Richards seeming to trade blows.

Dirty Work was released a week after "Harlem Shuffle", reaching #4 in the UK and the US (going platinum there), but the critical reaction was less than enthusiastic. Some reviewers felt the album was slight in places, with weak, generic songwriting from Richards and Wood and puzzlingly abrasive vocals from Jagger. Some felt Jagger was saving his best material for his solo records, though the critical reaction to those releases was muted as well. Dirty Work's critical standing has only marginally improved over the years, in part because it lacks any favourable hits or it's lack of 70s style production.To this day, the album is regarded by some as perhaps the weakest Rolling Stones record.

However, in 1986 Robert Christgau called Dirty Work "a bracing and even challenging record [which] innovates without kowtowing to multi-platinum fashion or half-assed pretension. It's honest and makes you like it." In 2004 Stylus Magazine's "On Second Thoughts" feature assessed the album as "a tattered, embarrassed triumph, by far the most interesting Stones album since Some Girls at every level: lyrical, conceptual, instrumental." The re-evaluation of the album finds that despite its change of style to a than current 80s-style production and experimentation, the album features "the most venomous guitar sound of the Stones’ career, and Jagger’s most committed vocals."

The original vinyl release of Dirty Work came shrinkwrapped in dark red cellophane. Breaking with Rolling Stones tradition, Dirty Work was the first of their studio albums to contain a lyric sheet in the U.S., apparently at the insistence of then-distributor CBS Records, who also pushed for the atypical colourful band-photo cover.

The Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Steel Wheels is the 19th studio album by The Rolling Stones and was released in 1989. Heralded as a major comeback upon its release, the project is notable for the patching up of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' relationship, a reversion to a more classic style of music and the launching of the band's biggest world tour at the time. It is also founding bassist Bill Wyman's final studio album with The Rolling Stones, preceding the announcement of his departure in January 1993.

Following the release of 1986's Dirty Work, and Jagger's active pursuit of a solo career, relations between him and the Stones-committed Richards worsened considerably. While Jagger released the tepidly-received Primitive Cool in 1987, Richards recorded Talk is Cheap, his solo debut, which would be released in 1988 to rave reviews. The couple of years largely apart appeared to have healed the wounds sufficiently that they could begin contemplating resurrecting their partnership and their band.

Meeting in January 1989, just preceding The Rolling Stones' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the chemistry between Jagger and Richards easily outshone whatever differences they had and after composing some fifty songs in a matter of weeks, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were called in to begin recording what would become Steel Wheels, beckoning Undercover co-producer Chris Kimsey to perform the same role.

Recording in Montserrat and London during the spring months, Steel Wheels was designed to emulate a classic Rolling Stones sound. The only real diversion would prove to be "Continental Drift", an Eastern-flavored piece, with the Master Musicians of Jajouka, that was as much an appreciation of world music as it was a tribute to Brian Jones who had recorded with the same troupe back in 1967. With much of the past disagreements behind them, sessions for Steel Wheels went fairly harmoniously.

The massive, worldwide Steel Wheels Tour was launched in late August 1989, concurrently with Steel Wheels' arrival and the release of lead single "Mixed Emotions", a partially-biographical reference to Jagger and Richards' recent woes that proved to be The Rolling Stones' last major hit single in the US, reaching #5. (listeners have noted that the song's title could be read as "Mick's Demotion" or "Mick's Emotions" in reference to Richards' increasing role within the band.) Critical reaction was warm, with Steel Wheels reaching #2 in the UK and #3 in the US where it went double-platinum. Follow-up singles were "Rock and a Hard Place", "Almost Hear You Sigh" and "Terrifying". The mammoth Steel Wheels Tour—which finished in mid-1990 after being re-titled the Urban Jungle Tour—was an enormous financial success, cementing The Rolling Stones' return to full power. In 1990, Fox aired a 3-D television special of the Steel Wheels tour. Unlike anaglyphic 3-D which requires the familiar red & green glasses, the method used was the Pulfrich Effect which permitted full color video. The film was shot by Gerald Marks of PullTime 3-D in NYC. An IMAX film of the tour was released the next year, which still still plays sporadically at IMAX venues around the world.

The album was the Rolling Stones' first digital recording. In 1994, Steel Wheels was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, and again in 2009 by Universal Music.

This is also the first Rolling Stones album without any musical contributions from pianist Ian Stewart.

The Rolling Stones - Voodoo Lounge Click Here for Popup Music Player Back to Album Index

Voodoo Lounge is the 20th studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in July 1994. As their first new release under their new alliance with Virgin Records, it ended a five-year gap since their last studio album, Steel Wheels in 1989. Voodoo Lounge is also The Rolling Stones' first album without founding bassist Bill Wyman, who departed the line-up in early 1993. In 2009, Voodoo Lounge was remastered and reissued by Universal Music.

Following the release of Keith Richards' Main Offender and Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit in 1992 and 1993 respectively, both leaders of The Rolling Stones began composing new songs in April 1993, deciding upon Don Was as co-producer for the upcoming sessions. In November, after rehearsing and recording at Ronnie Wood's house in Ireland that September, The Rolling Stones shifted their gear to Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin and began cutting Voodoo Lounge. Although not joining the band officially, Darryl Jones would be taking Bill Wyman's place as the group's regular bassist.

Producer Don Was—noted for his retro rock production sensibilities—was reportedly responsible for pushing the band towards more conventional territory in an attempt to reproduce the archetypal "Rolling Stones" sound. Although this approach pleased critics and the Stones rock-oriented fanbase, Jagger in particular expressed some dissatisfaction with Was' aesthetic, commenting in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone;

"...there were a lot of things that we wrote for “Voodoo Lounge” that Don steered us away from: groove songs, African influences and things like that. And he steered us very clear of all that. And I think it was a mistake."

Was responded that he was not, "...anti-groove, just anti-groove without substance, in the context of this album. They had a number of great grooves. But it was like, 'OK, what goes on top of it? Where does it go?' I just felt that it's not what people were looking for from the Stones. I was looking for a sign that they can great real serious about this, still play better than anybody and write better than anybody."

The result was an essentially classicist recording that drew on the blues, R&B, and country that had informed the Stones classic late 1960s/early 1970s recordings. Jagger would insist on a more diverse, contemporary production cast for the subsequent Bridges to Babylon. Nevertheless, Was (who has produced several Grammy-winning records) remains the Stones producer to this day. After a period of recording in Los Angeles in the first few months of 1994, Voodoo Lounge was complete and The Rolling Stones moved onto the rehearsals for the (yet another massive, worldwide) Voodoo Lounge Tour which would begin in August.

Writing for Vox magazine in August 1994, Steven Dalton thought that the album's strongest tracks were filled with "echoes of the band's halcyon days", most notably 1972's Exile on Main Street and 1978's Some Girls. He went on to surmise that Voodoo Lounge "reminds us why we liked the Stones in the first place", and singled out "New Faces", "Out of Tears" and "Blinded By Rainbows" as the album's highlights, despite also stating that the record contained "too many sketchy, arsing-around-in-the-studio jobs" to be considered one of the group's overall best albums.
In early 1995, while the Voodoo Lounge Tour was still in full force (not finishing until August that year) Voodoo Lounge won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.

"Love Is Strong"—which was inspired by Richards' solo "Wicked As It Seems"—was released as the first single, reaching #14 in the UK. However, although the track was a hit on US rock radio, it stalled on the overall US singles charts at #91, and (at least in the US) became The Rolling Stones' worst performing lead single from an album to that time. Two follow-up US singles also received strong rock radio airplay, but failed to cross over into top 40 hits: "Out of Tears" peaked at #60, and "You Got Me Rocking" fared even worse, peaking at #113. Consequently, Voodoo Lounge would be the first Rolling Stones album to not produce significant hits in America, even with 2 million copies sold. In the UK, meanwhile, "Love Is Strong", "You Got Me Rocking", "Out Of Tears", and "I Go Wild" were all top 40 chart hits.