The 50 Best Rolling Stones Songs

50 years ago today, on July 12, 1962, at London’s Marquee Club, the Rolling Stones made their live debut with a set that featured covers of songs by American bluesmen including Jimmy Reed (“Big Boss Man”) and Bukka White (“Ride ‘Em on Down”). By the end of ‘63, with the lineup of vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts, the Stones would find their way at or near the tops of singles charts with their covers and, eventually, original songs.

By the mid ‘60s, the Stones, with two-and-a-half- and three-minute R&B- and rock-infused songs like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Ruby Tuesday,” and “As Tears Go By,” were seriously rivaled only by the Beatles. But by the late ‘60s, both acts were doing very separate things, as the Stones grabbed hold of their American influences (Muddy Waters, Little Richard, etc.) and began releasing more disparate material: audacious, structurally advanced songs like “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Gimme Shelter”; bluesy and/or countrified tracks including “Let It Bleed” and “Love in Vain”; and hard-rocking bulldozers like “Brown Sugar” and “Honky Tonk Women.” And, despite all the unconventionality, they ruled the top of the pops through it all. By 1972’s stylistically sprawling Exile on Main St.—the Stones’ best album and maybe the greatest album ever, period—the band had more than earned the right to think of themselves as the best rock-and-roll band in the world.

Later, as the ‘70s wore on, and as most of the bands they came up with burned out or faded away, the Stones kept pressing on, finding success in singles (“Angie, “Fool to Cry,” “Miss You”) and putting together an album, Some Girls, whose material was bettered only by the band’s Beggars Banquet-Exile output. The band’s ‘80s, due to feuding in the Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership, weren’t as kind, seeing just a few songs (“Start Me Up, “Waiting on a Friend,” “Mixed Emotions”) that would keep the Stones relevant. Still, though, those eras and even later periods were enough to cement the band as one of the most successful—critically and commercially—of all time.

The following list is by no means comprehensive, or even exhaustive of the Stones’ noteworthy output. Just about any song from Beggars Banquet–Exile could be here, and that material, 47 tracks in all, would nearly fill up the entire feature. That said, the following 50 still make for a set that identifies all of the most important contours of Jagger, Richards, and company’s 50-year career, consequently laying out some of the songs that have shaped rock and roll, and popular music, as we know it. Enjoy.

Written by Mike Madden (@_mikemadden)

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50. “Fool to Cry” (1976)

Album: Black and Blue
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: The Glimmer Twins (Jagger and Richards)


At the time of Black and Blue’s release, the Rolling Stones were in turmoil. Following the sudden death of original guitarist Brian Jones, his replacement Mick Taylor had just left the Stones, leaving the band searching for another guitarist to complement Richards. One of the players who auditioned for the spot was Alabama-bred session musician Wayne Perkins, who wound up playing lead guitar on the slow ballad “Fool to Cry.”

Perkins’ presence isn’t felt very extensively on the track, but the interplay between his flanging six strings and Jagger’s electric piano worked well enough to notch “Fool to Cry” a place in the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic. Of course, there are also Jagger’s lyrics, which recount both his daughter and a woman to whom he “make[s] love, so fine.”

49. "Rip This Joint" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


The boisterous second track on Exile on Main St., “Rip This Joint” throttles through its two minutes 23 seconds on the back of Bobby Keys and Jim Price’s frenetic brass section, not to mention crashing drums from Charlie Watts. “Gonna raise hell at the union hall, drive myself right up the wall,” sings Jagger. Combined with Exile’s “Rocks Off,” “Joint” makes for one of the best one-two openings in rock history.

48. "Mixed Emotions" (1989)

Album: Steel Wheels
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: Chris Kimsey and the Glimmer Twins

One of the last Stones singles to have much sting to it, “Mixed Emotions” was the first track released from Steel Wheels and its only track to reach the top five stateside. With Jagger’s coarse, roaring vocals, it can be hard to hear what he’s saying during the verses. But the chorus—all elongated and sneering—comes through loud and clear: “You’re not the only one with mixed emotions.” It could be said that this was the Stones’ last song of much merit—it’s the most recent track on this list, anyway—but with the chemistry and locked-in musicianship found here, you’d think the band had dozens more classics in them.

47. "Star Star" (1973)

Album: Goats Head Soup
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


The closing track on Goats Head Soup, “Star Star” was maybe the most lyrically explicit Stones song since “Let It Bleed”; in fact, its original title was “Star Fucker,” the same phrase heard over and again in the chorus, and it’s mostly about a girl Mick condemns for “giving head to Steve McQueen” and keeping her “pussy clean” for “lead guitars and movie stars.” Musically, the song uses relatively simple ‘50s rock staples that nod to the finer licks of Chuck Berry. All in all, it wound up being the hardest-rocking moment on Soup, not to mention one of the catchiest.

46. "Angie" (1973)

Album: Goats Head Soup
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Featuring articulated guitar playing from Richards and sturdy piano by frequent Stones collaborator Nicky Hopkins, the mid-tempo ballad “Angie”—which ended up being the Stones’ first US first chart-topper since 1971’s “Brown Sugar” and last until 1978’s “Miss You”—follows the bittersweet final stages of a relationship. Maybe inspired by David Bowie’s wife Angela, maybe actress Angie Dickinson, maybe Richards’ daughter Dandelion Angela, or maybe even heroin, the song’s subject is something the writer doesn't want to leave but definitely has to.

45. "As Tears Go By" (1965)

Album: December's Children (And Everybody's)
Label: Decca
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham and Glyn Johns


It’s one of the most famous Stones stories: Hoping for an original hit instead of yet another cover, manager Oldham locked Jagger and Richards in a kitchen until they came up with their next single. The result, “As Tears Go By,” often seen as something of a response to the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” is, yeah, a little corny and amateurish lyrically (“It is the evening of the day/I sit and watch the children play”), but the vocal melody can get lodged in a listener’s head for hours. Originally performed by Jagger’s lover Marianne Faithfull, the Stones’ own version—featuring a glistening string arrangement courtesy of Mike Leander—was among their 1965 barrage of hits that included “The Last Time,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” and “Get Off of My Cloud.”

44. "Shattered" (1978)

Album: Some Girls
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: The Glimmer Twins


Much has been said about the influence of punk rock on Some Girls, and, along with “When the Whip Comes Down,” “Lies,” and “Respectable,” “Shattered” is testimony to that influence. On one of the very few Stones songs for which Richards used guitar effects (in this case, a modest phasing sound), Jagger reps for New York, in something like a American accent, about the declining culture of the Big Apple in the late ‘70s: “Pride and joy and greed and sex/That’s what makes our town the best/Pride and joy and dirty dreams/And still surviving on the street.”

43. "Bitch" (1971)

Album: Sticky Fingers
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


One of the heaviest-grooving numbers from Sticky Fingers, “Bitch” is highlighted by umpteen excellent riffs from Richards and Jagger as well as beefy brass and an especially on-point rhythm section. Near the end, fast-moving guitar licks are fleshed out as Jagger works his way through a freewheeling vocal. “Don’t have no bark or bite,” he sings of himself in the last verse, but the song has plenty of both.

42. "Plundered My Soul" (2010)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Universal Music
Producer: Jimmy Miller, Don Was, and the Glimmer Twins


The best Stones outtake ever, “Plundered My Soul” was released, with a 40-years-later vocal add-in from Jagger, on the 2010 Exile on Main St. reissue. Featuring a soulful backing-vocal section akin to that of “Tumbling Dice,” the song finds Jagger singing of a lover who took from him something he wasn’t expecting her to: “I thought you wanted my money, but you plundered my soul.” It’s hard to say why this one was left off the original Exile, as it surely bests at least one or two songs from the 1972 classic (looking at you, “Shake Your Hips” and “Casino Boogie”).

41. "Ruby Tuesday" (1967)

Album: Between the Buttons (US)
Label: Decca/ABKCO
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham


With one of the catchiest choruses of the entire ‘60s, it’s no wonder why the Richards-penned “Ruby Tuesday” is one of the most popular Stones singles ever. Musically, the song is built around piano chords, and features touches of recorder, played by Brian Jones, and double bass, by Wyman and Richards. And, with its lyrics that speak of the typical independent woman (“Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday / Who could hang a name on you?”), it’s no wonder why the the track was used to bid adieu to Kristen Wiig on her Saturday Night Live finale earlier this year.

40. "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" (1974

Album: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: The Glimmer Twins


Accompanied by razor-sharp Richards licks, Jagger sings about his annoyance with overly serious music critics. “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It),” the rousing third song from the album of the same name, was the Stones’ hardest-rocking single until 1978’s “Respectable.” Ironically if predictably, the song’s title became something of a cliché in music journalism not long after its release.

39. "Jigsaw Puzzle" (1968)

Album: Beggars Banquet
Label: ABKCO
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Beggars Banquet was as the Stones’ first lyrically adventurous record, and “Jigsaw Puzzle” was the album’s most lyrically adventurous song (save “Sympathy for the Devil,” which we’ll get to later). Like one of Bob Dylan’s surreally sprawling mid-‘60s songs (think “Desolation Row” or “Visions of Johanna”),”Jigsaw”’s greatest pleasures are to be found in its abstract images: “There’s a regiment of soldiers/Standing, looking on/And the queen is bravely shouting, ‘What the hell is going on?’”

38. "I Got the Blues" (1971)

Album: Sticky Fingers
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Desolate yet rugged, simple yet intricate, “I Got the Blues” is one of Sticky Fingers’ oft-overlooked gems. Grabbing Billy Preston for some Hammond organ as well as Bobby Keys and Jim Price for saxophone and trumpet, respectively, the song nods to the soul and blues that the Stones grew up loving—Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” which the Stones covered in 1965, is its most common reference point. It might be lyrically hackneyed—“Feelin’ low-down and blue/I got the blues for you”—but Jagger puts enough zest into his vocal that you hardly notice the clichés.

37. "Waiting on a Friend" (1971)

Album: Tattoo You
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: The Glimmer Twins


The last song on the Stones’ last great album, the smooth dirge “Waiting on a Friend” is “very gentle and loving, about friendships in the band,” as Jagger put it in the liner notes to 1993’s Jump Back compilation. And, considering Tattoo You’s opener was “Start Me Up,” with lyrics about making “a dead man come,” “Waiting” says a lot about the Stones’ versatility.

36. "Under My Thumb" (1966)

Album: Aftermath
Label: Decca/ABKCO
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham


Though it spawned accusations of misogyny, “Under My Thumb” worked with a melody pretty enough to further charm the girls who were already drooling over the Stones by the mid ‘60s. Like many of the band’s singles of the time, there’s nothing particularly adventurous about this one, but it’s hard to dismiss anything that works so seamlessly. And how about that marimba?

35. "Miss You" (1978)

Album: Some Girls
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: The Glimmer Twins


The song that rocketed the Stones back to relevance after going nearly two years since their last hit (“Fool to Cry”), Some Girls opener “Miss You” balanced a steamy disco influence with the sharp grooves of straight-up rock and roll. The Stones’ last No. 1 single, the song is an eternal mainstay on classic-rock radio.

34. "Sway" (1971)

Album: Sticky Fingers
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


One of the melodically stickiest songs from Sticky Fingers, “Sway” is also one of the album’s most American-sounding tracks. Though it’s undeniably raucous, there are also blues flavors in the grooves, not to mention a bottleneck slide-guitar solo. “It’s just that demon life has got you in its sway,” Jagger sings. Maybe so, but so does the song as soon as the axes hit.

33. "She's a Rainbow" (1971)

Album: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Label: London
Producer: The Rolling Stones


It’s been said a thousand times, but we might as well repeat it again: Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones’ only truly psychedelic album, was an overt response to the Beatles’ groundbreaking, ceiling-expanding Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. And with one listen to “She’s a Rainbow,” that really can’t be denied. Opening with a strange vocal sample (kind of like how Sgt. Pepper’s “A Day in the Life” does), the song proceeds to engage sunny piano and a Mellotron as well as a John Paul Jones–arranged string section and Fab Four–esque harmonies. The lyrics are rich, too: “Have you seen her all in gold?/Like a queen in days of old/She shoots colors all around/Like a sunset going down.”

32. "Midnight Rambler" (1969)

Album: Let It Bleed
Label: Decca/ABKCO
Producer: Jimmy Miller


The hard-rocking, blues-heavy seven-minute Let It Bleed cut, “Midnight Rambler,” was written in the gorgeous Italian village Positano. However, its lyrics are far from pretty. Detailing the assumed point of view of rapist/murder Albert DeSalvo, aka the “Boston Strangler,” the song has its haunting images: “Did you hear about the midnight rambler?/He’ll leave footprints up and down your hall Did you hear about the midnight rambler?/Did you see me make my midnight call?”

31. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" (1971)

Album: Sticky Fingers
Label: Rolling Stones/Atlantic
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Featuring some of the most electrifying guitar work of Richards’ and Taylor’s respective careers, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” opens with piercing riffs before Jagger howls: “You got satin shoes/You got plastic boots/Y’all got cocaine eyes/You got speed-freak jive now.” And even while the final four minutes feature little more than Taylor jamming on some careening licks while Bobby Keys meanders on the sax, the first three are gripping enough to make this song a shoo-in. (Though without those last four minutes, it might have made the top 20.)

30. "Country Honk" (1969)

Album: Let It Bleed
Label: Decca Records/ABKCO
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Just months before Let It Bleed’s release, the Stones scored one of the biggest hits of their career with the non-album single “Honky Tonk Women.” Fantastic as it was, that song wasn’t included on the LP—but a countrified, entirely acoustic version of it, “Country Honk,” was. Changing “Honky Tonk”’s location from Jackson, Mississippi, to Memphis, it’s highlighted by lingering fiddle from Byron Berline and steady strumming from Richards. It remains wondrous to think that the band’s biggest hit of the late ‘60s would be relegated to this more primitive alternative, but “Country Honk” possesses a rootsy charm its antecedent lacks. It also went nicely with other Let It Bleed cuts like “Love in Vain.”

29. "Paint It, Black" (1966)

Album: Aftermath
Label: London/Decca
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham


With its biting sitar lines, “Paint It, Black” marked the Stones as more adventurous than their naysayers might have assumed they were after the band’s relatively simple prior singles. It was also one of the first Stones songs to be overtly dark: according to Jagger, it’s about a girl’s funeral: “I’ll fade away and not have to face the facts/It’s not easy facin’ up when your whole world is black.”

28. "Let It Loose" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Enlisting the help of Dr. John and renowned backing singers like Clydie King and Vanetta Field, “Let It Loose” is one of the most emotional songs on Exile. Though it’s slow-moving, it’s also one of the album’s most effective moments. Opening with arpeggiated guitar lines, John’s piano emerges along with Keys’ and Price’s familiar brass section, all building to an elongated bridge. Then Jagger lets loose with some of the most cathartic vocal phrasing of his career: “In the bar, you’re getting drunk/I ain’t in love, I ain’t in luck.” Amazingly, the Stones have never elected to play the song in concert—but if that’s because they’ve never believed they could match the studio version’s emotion and musicianship during live performances, it’s understandable that they’d want to keep it untouched.

27. "Let's Spend the Night Together" (1967)

Album: Between the Buttons (US)
Label: Decca/London
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham


With peppy, “ba-ba-ba” backing vocals not unlike those found on the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Let’s Spend the Night Together” was the Stones’ best song from 1967—one of their most productive years and one of the all-time best years for music. Besides heavy bass work from Wyman, the song is driven by promiscuous lyrics that must have sounded much racier when they first came out than they do now: “I’ll satisfy your every need/And now I know you will satisfy me.”

26. "Shine a Light" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Exile’s piano-powered penultimate track, “Shine a Light” is one of the more easygoing songs from the album—some of it, after all, takes place on a hotel bed. However, that’s not to say the song lacks passion or emphasis. Showcasing a magical camaraderie between Billy Preston’s organ and piano and Taylor’s modest guitar playing, it also features contemplative, “Let It Loose”–style lyrics about one of Jagger’s lovers: “Could not seem to get a high on you/My sweet honey love.”

25. "No Expectations" (1968)

Album: Beggars Banquet
Label: ABKCO
Producer: Jimmy Miller


As is the Beggars Banquet tradition, the bluesy “No Expectations” is underscored by mystical, evocative lyrics: “Your heart is like a diamond/You throw your pearls at swine/And as I watch you leaving me/You pass my peace of mind.” Musically, the song is exceptionally simple, with Richards strumming away in A major and E major while Jones bends a slide guitar and Nicky Hopkins hits light, tumbling piano notes.

24. "Torn and Frayed" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


People like to talk about Exile on Main St.’s sound: familiar yet distinct, layered yet mostly straightforward . And perhaps no song epitomizes the Exile air better than “Torn and Frayed,” which consists of just three chords but also features strong backing vocals and liquid Richards licks.

23. "Loving Cup" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


One of the most popular cuts from Exile, “Loving Cup” was founded upon Nicky Hopkins’s piano but beefed up with brass and a full rhythm section. As testimony to the Stones’ songwriting magic, it features both freewheeling improvisation (found mainly in the last minute or so) and tight hooks (everywhere else). It’s also one of the only Exile songs the Stones continue to play, even 40 years removed from the LP—see their Jack White–assisted performance of it in the Martin Scorsese-directed documentary Shine a Light.

22. "Heart of Stone" (1964)

Album: Out of Our Heads (US)/The Rolling Stones, Now! (UK)
Label: London
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham


Like most of the Stones’ other mid-‘60s singles, “Heart of Stone” is a structurally simple song— the most adventurous moment is the 10-second guitar solo near the 90-second mark—but it works so well because of its melodic sensibilities. Lyrically, it’s told from the perspective of a kind of womanizer: “Here comes the little girl/I see her walking down the street/She’s all by herself/I’ll try and knock her off her feet.”

21. "Dead Flowers" (1971)

Album: Sticky Fingers
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Perhaps no song illustrates the Stones’ taste for American country music better than “Dead Flowers”—and, if there were ever any doubts, it truly is a country song, as it was later covered by Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle. Despite its upbeat tempo, the song’s lyrics are contemplative and, at times, dark: “When you’re sitting back/In your rose-pink Cadillac/Making bets on Kentucky Derby day/I’ll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon/And another girl can take my pain away.”

20. "All Down the Line" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


The rowdiest moment on Exile besides “Rocks Off,” “All Down the Line” marked some of Mick Taylor’s most inspired playing (see the blazing solo near the middle). But perhaps more impressively, it’s one of the Stones’ greatest train-related songs—which, given that they also did “Love in Vain,” “Moonlight Mile,” and “Let It Rock,” really says something.

19. "Sweet Virginia" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Following “Tumbling Dice” and “Torn and Frayed,” “Sweet Virginia” was at least the third classic song in a row from Exile. Backed by Jagger’s underrated harmonica playing and Richards alternating between firm strumming and individually picked strings, it also turned out to be one of the most infectious—yet quiet—moments on the entire album.

18. "Happy" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Like Some Girls’ “Before They Make Me Run,” the Richards-sung “Happy” is illustrative of the guitarist’s infamous anti-authority streak: “Always took candy from strangers/Didn’t wanna get me no trade/Never wanna be like papa/Working for the boss every night and day.” In addition to its riff-based structure, Bobby Keys’ sax and maracas, Jim Price’s trumpet, Ian Stewart’s piano, and Paul Buckmaster’s strings were all added for extra flavor.

17. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (1968)

Album: Non-album single
Label: Decca (UK)/London (US)
Producer: Jimmy Miller


The thunderous “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” manages to distill the Stones’ blues influence while also pumping out grooves and power only they could muster. It was also one of the first of the more traditional songs to appear after the psychedelia of Between the Buttons and, particularly, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

16. "Beast of Burden" (1978)

Album: Some Girls
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: The Glimmer Twins


Though based around just two or three main riffs, the great Some Girls ballad, “Beast of Burden,” is fluid enough to not feel repetitive. “Ain’t I rough enough?” Jagger asks the song’s subject. If we’re basing the answer off this one alone, then no, Mick, you aren’t.

15. "Tumbling Dice" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Historically the most popular Exile track, “Tumbling Dice” brings in a gospel tinged vocal section to sit atop sliding Richards riffs. Lyrically, the song is about both gambling and love—“an old blues trick,” said Richards years later. The cut is also known for having some of the most obscured vocals in the Stones catalog, despite the album’s notoriously meticulous recording process (it took an estimated 150 takes to get just the song's basic track).

14. "Time Is on My Side" (1964)

Album: 12 X 5 and The Rolling Stones No. 2
Label: London (US)
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham


One of the Stones songs that just about everyone has heard someplace, sometime, “Time Is on My Side” proved to be the Stones’ first mammoth hit on the left side of the Atlantic. Though it’s become a Stones signature, the song was originally written by the late Jerry Ragovy (under the pseudonym Norman Meade), and previously recorded by jazz trombonist Kai Winding and New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas. The Stones’ version is easily the most famous these days.

13. "Street Fighting Man" (1968)

Album: Beggars Banquet
Label: London (US)
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Like “Gimme Shelter” the next year, Beggars Banquet single “Street Fighting Man” was conceived out of the late ’60s’ fight for political change: “Summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the streets” left little to the imagination. “The radio stations that banned the song told me that 'Street Fighting Man' was subversive,” Jagger later told an interviewer. “Of course it's subversive, we said.” And can you believe those opening strums are from an acoustic guitar?

12. "Let It Bleed" (1969)

Album: Let It Bleed
Label: Decca/ABKCO
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Few Stones lines are more legendary than those from the opening of “Let It Bleed”: “We all need someone we can lean on/And if ya want it/You can lean on me.” But once the rambling, countrified guitar and piano kick in, the lyrics become a little less, um, innocent: “She said, ‘My breasts, they will always be open/Baby, you can rest your weary head right on me/And there will always be a space in my parking lot/When you need a little coke and sympathy.’” Hey, no one ever said the Stones were role models, right?

11. "Rocks Off" (1972)

Album: Exile on Main St.
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


With its unrelenting energy, Exile opening track “Rocks Off” throttles one of rock’s greatest albums immediately into fifth gear. In turn, it also turned out to be the first taste of all the things Exile is raved about for: energy, experimentation (see the psychedelic bridge), and musical richness (how great is that brass section?). Moreover, the murky mix proved the song to be very much representative of Exile’s layered and less-than-polished character.

10. "Wild Horses" (1971)

Album: Sticky Fingers
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: Jimmy Miller


“Wild Horses” is the Stones’ greatest ballad, period. Around the time of its release, Richards had begun using nonstandard tunings; however, while his favorite alternate tuning at the time seemed to be open G (as heard on “Honky Tonk Women” and “Brown Sugar”), here it’s the even more unconventional Nashville tuning. Consequently, the song’s acoustic strums are countrified and traditional-sounding yet far from predictable. On vocals, Jagger puts all the sweet soul into his delivery that he could have mustered: “Childhood living is easy to do/The things you wanted, I bought them for you.” All of this amounts to one of the Stones’ most popular songs ever, especially among female fans—Jagger’s ex-wife Jerry Hall, for instance, once cited it as her favorite of the band’s songs.

9. "Love in Vain" (1969)

Album: Let It Bleed
Label: London (US)/Decca (UK)
Producer:


In the early ‘60s—decades after they were produced—the recordings of Delta bluesman Robert Johnson were widely released for the first time. Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Stones were among the future rock luminaries who caught on to Johnson’s genius.

Originally recorded in 1927, Johnson’s “Love in Vain” had his signature ascending guitar lines and a lyric about being left behind at a Dixie train station. For Let It Bleed’s only cover, the Stones rendered the song two minutes longer, fleshed out the guitar part, and stretched out the vocal melody. Most blues purists will always prefer the original—and maybe they should—but given Richards’ softly arpeggiated guitar lines and Jagger’s floating vocals, it’s hard to deny that the Stones did Johnson justice. (The band would also go on to cover his “Stop Breakin’ Down Blues,” as “Stop Breaking Down,” on Exile on Main St.)

8. "Start Me Up" (1981)

Album: Tattoo You
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: The Glimmer Twins


It’s easy to make a case that “Start Me Up” turned out to be the last great Stones song appearing, as it did, in 1981. Starting with a riff as recognizable as those that open “Satisfaction” or “Brown Sugar,” the song works in spite of, or maybe because of, its repetition (the phrases “Start me up” and “Start it up” are repeated a combined 22 times over three-and-a-half-minutes). Taking all that and adding glossy ‘80s production, “Start Me Up” was a jarring opener to Tattoo You, and maybe one of the best album openers in rock history (alongside such immortals as “Like a Rolling Stone” and “London Calling”).

7. "Gimme Shelter" (1969)

Album: Let It Bleed
Label: Decca/ABKCO
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Like “Street Fighting Man,” “Gimme Shelter” is an artifact of the rebellious spirit of late-‘60s youth. Opening with distinctive, ominous guitar playing, it’s one of many Stones songs that feels epic, even cinematic. Indeed, Martin Scorsese has used the song in three of his films (Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed), as did, fittingly, the 1987 documentary Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. As the song develops, it builds to such intensity that backing vocalist Merry Clayton’s voice cracks around the three-minute mark.

6. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965)

Album: Out of Our Heads (US)
Label: Decca/ABKCO
Producer: Jimmy Miller


“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” hit with the force of a bomb when it first appeared in 1965. As the first Jagger/Richards–penned single to not feature lyrics overtly about love, it became a No. 1 hit on both sides of the Atlantic, remaining on the charts for 14 weeks.

First, the lore. During the Stones’ third US tour, Richards woke up in the middle of the night in his Clearwater, Florida, motel room hearing the riff that would become the one of the most famous in music history. Realizing he had come up with something special, he grabbed a portable tape recorder and laid down a run-through, only to fall asleep right after (“The rest [of the tape] is snoring,” Richards would say).Taking that riff—which, as testimony to what can be done with a limited palette, consists of just three notes—Jagger/Richards added lyrics about the emptiness of commercialism: “When I’m driving in my car/When a man comes on the radio/He’s telling me more and more about some useless information/Supposed to drive my imagination.” Jagger later said the song “was about my view of the world, my frustration with everything,” though its instant commercial and critical success probably alleviated that frustration just a little.

5. "Moonlight Mile" (1971)

Album: Sticky Fingers
Label: Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer: Jimmy Miller


On the way to an emphatic string arrangement courtesy of Paul Buckmaster, and through skeletal guitar playing from Jagger and Taylor, the six-minute Sticky Fingers closer details the touring life and its effects, meanwhile alluding to one of the band’s favorite drugs of the time—cocaine—with lyrics like, “When the wind blows/And the rain feels cold/With a head full of snow/Don’t the nights pass slow?” Though it stands as one of the Stones’ most underrated songs, “Moonlight” was raved about by legendary critic Robert Christgau upon release: “[The song] re-created all the paradoxical distances inherent in erotic love with a power worthy of [Irish poet W.B.] Yeats.”

4. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (1969)

Album: Let It Bleed
Label: Decca (UK)/London (US)
Producer: Jimmy Miller


With maybe the most distinct intro ever (the serene choir that opens with the as-yet-unheard chorus), Let It Bleed’s seven-minute closer, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” unfolds seamlessly, with help from Richards’ bare strums and Jagger’s rousing vocal improvisation at the end. This is one song that nobody could, or should, go through life without hearing. And is there a more famous Stones line than the titular one?

3. "Brown Sugar" (1971)

Album: Sticky Fingers
Label: Rolling Stones
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Featuring some of the most driving, to-the-point rhythms rock has seen this side of Chuck Berry, “Brown Sugar” runs through racy, provocative lyrics about a young African-American girl: “How come you taste so good?/Brown sugar, just like a young girl should.” It could be said that no Stones single rocks, or grooves, harder than this one, what with Richards’ legendary riffs and Bobby Keys’ romping sax solo.

2. "Honky Tonk Women" (1969)

Album: Let It Bleed
Label: Decca (UK)/London (US)
Producer: Jimmy Miller


Marking the debut of Mick Taylor on guitar, “Honky Tonk Women” is beefed up through a pounding (albeit simple) Watts drum rhythm and twanged-out, open-G embellishments from Richards. Lyrically, few songs cover rock’s debauched lifestyle more concisely, as it brims with lines like “I met a gin-soaked bar-room queen in Memphis,” “I laid a divorcee in New York City,” and “I just can’t seem to drink her off my mind.” The cowbell’s a nice touch, too.

1. "Sympathy for the Devil" (1968)

Album: Beggars Banquet
Label: ABKCO, Decca, London
Producer: Jimmy Miller


As previously mentioned, the Stones began to experiment with “Dylanesque” lyrics around the time of Beggars Banquet. And without question, no song illustrates Jagger and Richards’ sudden poeticism better than “Sympathy for the Devil.” Yes, “Dylanesque” is a very fuzzy term—after all, Bobby D. has traveled so much sonic ground in his career that it's unjust to label him, or his sound, as any one thing. But if we’re talking some of dude’s mid-‘60s epics, like “Desolation Row” and “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” then “Sympathy” had much in common with things the Stones’ peer had already mastered. Chronicling everything from Russian royalty to the crucifixion of Christ, the six-minute-plus song is practically heroic in scope, so evocative that it seems to nearly bust open with its Beelzebub-inspired imagery: “I was around when Jesus Christ/Had his moment of doubt and pain/Made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands/And sealed his fate […]”

In turn, “Sympathy” was also one of the Stones’ most musically ambitious songs. Though backed by omnipresent congas and maracas, it still sounded unmistakably rock. Piano chords are hammered and bass lines throb throughout, and a baffling sense of pacing emerges. By the time Richards finally drops in, with his screeching, technically astounding solo, it can feel like you’ve been in the song’s grasp for hours, when it’s really only been three minutes.

Even by the mid ‘60s, for a song to be truly revolutionary, it had to break ground that the standard two-and-half-minute single couldn’t: musically through unfamiliar textures and/or atypical structures, lyrically through unexplored topics and/or images. Following songs like Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” and the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” the Stones used “Sympathy” to take popular music to heights that even they—at least at the outset of their career—probably couldn’t have imagined.