Rolling Stones Single-By-Single Thread

Did anyone else own this?
Just remember I had this but lord knows where it's buried now.

 

That CD-ROM was hilarious!! I vaguely remember going through it with a few equally hammered friends.

The observations above about the rock format/radio/audience changes during the early 90s period seem pretty accurate to what I remember. I will have to say that I saw the Stones in Oakland on that tour and a couple subsequent tours -- 1994 was the last time I remember being able to pull into town and turn on the radio and find some station playing wall to wall Stones, in celebration of y know, Hey! The STONES are in TOWN!!!!!!!!

After that, radio stations never seemed to do it -- this sort of thing was de riguer in the 70s when a big band came to a smaller town to play. Rock had changed, that's for sure. I say, whatever the Stones did to carry on being the Stones, it's all pretty allowable in that context. This thread, especially the part covering the mid 80s on, really illustrates that, I think. World's Greatest Hoffman Thread!!

 

I keep reading

I have 2.

 

Tim's post didn't mention Radio & Records. According to a website with data from that publication, "Love Is Strong" peaked at #37 on R&R's chart.

That's a big difference from Billboard and Cashbox. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. R&R was a 100% airplay-based chart, while Billboard was based on a mixture or airplay and sales. So if "Love Is Strong" charted higher in R&R, maybe it was doing better in airplay than sales? But Billboard's sales/airplay breakouts seem to contradict that. Billboard had it not in the top 75 in airplay (based on its overall peak position of #91, it probably wasn't even particularly close to making the top 75). It looks like Billboard thought "Love Is Strong" did much better with sales than it did with airplay.

So what gives? I think part of what's going on here is that R&R's reporter panel was probably still strictly Top 40/CHR stations, while Billboard's had expanded at the time of the 1991 chart change to take on stations from other formats. As noted in a previous post, Billboard's move probably hurt the Stones, and they may have done a little bit better with a traditional Top 40/CHR panel. I also wouldn't be surprised to learn that R&R's panel leaned towards stations with an "Adult Top 40" format. This was one of the new sub-formats that had splintered off of Top 40, positioned somewhere between Top 40 and Adult Contemporary. In some ways, with the hard rhythmic turn taken by what was left of the mainstream Top 40/CHR format, it was the most similar format to '70s/'80s-style Top 40, and it was probably the last bastion of Top 40 airplay for the Stones.

I'm not sure all of that really fully explains the gap between R&R and Billboard, though. Sometimes the various trade publications just weren't on the same page about the popularity level of a particular song, and it looks like "Love Is Strong" was one of them. For whatever reason, R&R simply had this as a much bigger hit than Billboard and Cashbox, and there may no way to explain why.

When you look at the change in Billboard Hot 100 performance from the first single from Steel Wheels ("Mixed Emotions") to the first single from Voodoo Lounge ("Love Is Strong"), that drop from #5 to #91 is pretty shocking. I do think that some of it was related to the change in how the Hot 100 was compiled, and to the trend of eroding singles sales for rock acts (with didn't necessarily reflect overall popularity). Without those changes, "Love Is Strong" may have hit, say #60. But whether we're talking about a drop to #37, to #60, or to #91, there was obviously a big drop-off.

I'm curious if anyone familiar with the U.K. and Canadian charts has any insight into why the Stones were apparently doing so much better on those countries' pop charts than they were in the U.S. In the U.K., I believe the chart was entirely sales-based, and there was still a robust sales market for singles, so the whole dynamic there was probably very different.

 

The Voodoo Lounge era certainly isn't my most "hated" Stones period but other than that I can't argue with a lot of what yer saying here. Hell, back in '94 when it came out, I thought Voodoo Lounge was the greatest thing since sliced bread but it seems pretty "meh" to me now- except, as you say, for Keith's songs. IMO Jagger's complaints that Voodoo Lounge was a blatant attempt at rehashing their 70's glory days were valid.

Bad way for me- to me "You Got Me Rocking" sounds like they threw just about every Stones cliche they could think of at the wall hoping something would stick. Not for the first time, granted, and not for the last, either...

 

Like many of their tours, The Stones announced The Voodoo Lounge Tour at a New York Press Conference. We were all Stones freaks at my radio station and our PD at the time, Greg Gattine got to attend the event. I imagine video exists (though I've never checked) but during it, Mick actually FORGETS the name of the new LP and after some awkward silence Gattine shouts out "Voodoo Lounge" from the audience and Mick of course picks up from there. We had the whole thing on tape and used that segment in station promos for ticket giveaways and Stones Weekends for years. What a great time to be in radio!

 

As a completist I also have one - but only because I remember them being remaindered very cheaply not long after release. In fact the same thing happened with the Dylan Hwy 61 CD-Rom too...I had two of those at one stage. The Dylan one had some archival merit. The Stones one was pretty uninspired.

 

I love Voodoo Lounge, and echo the sentiments of those who count it among their latter-day favourites. It is one of my favourites, period. Great writing and musical goods, everyone seems to have wanted it to be a good album. The variety is great, and I think there is plenty of sonic experimentation going on.

I like all the singles, I think they picked 'em well. Looking forward to You Got Me Rockin'!

 

Here it is!

You Got Me Rocking (1994)



Released: 9/26/94
B-Side: Jump on Top of Me
Charts: #23 (UK); #113 (US); #2 (US Mainstream/Album Rock)

"You Got Me Rocking" is a song by the English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones, on their 1994 album Voodoo Lounge. The song received remixes by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, they at least produced three mixes of the track including the notable Perfecto Mix.

Begun in early in 1993, "You Got Me Rocking" was initially a blues number; bootlegs have Jagger and Richards working the song as a slower, blues flavored ramble, with Jagger shouting the hook- "you got me rocking". Changed to a straightforward rocker in the vein of "Start Me Up", the song quickly evolved into a powerful rock single as Richards made the transition from piano to guitar. The lyrics moved to a more upbeat tone, as singer Mick Jagger presents redemption from a series of career ending instances of various professionals:

“ I was a hooker losing her looks; I was a writer can't write another book;
I was all dried up dying to get wet; I was a tycoon drowning in debt. ”

The lyrics can be interpreted as an answer to the Rolling Stones' critics, who often deride the band for their advancing age. Recording on "You Got Me Rocking" lasted from mid-summer to early winter 1993, when final touches were put on. The song was released as a single in the UK in September 1994, where it reached number 23. It was also released as a single in the US but reached only 113 in 1995.

The B-side is the little-known "Jump on Top of Me" which also appears on the soundtrack to Prêt-à-Porter. "You Got Me Rocking" appeared on the soundtrack to The Replacements in 2000.

"You Got Me Rocking" is notable as it remains one of the Stones' most enduring live songs, a rarity for a late-career song. The song was performed some fifty times during the 2005–2006 A Bigger Bang Tour.

A recording from the 1997–1998 Bridges to Babylon Tour opened the 1998 live album No Security. It was also included on the Stones' 2002 career retrospective, Forty Licks.

 

You Got Me Rocking
This one seems quite divisive. I've already seen in described in this thread as both generic and hard-rocking fun. I've seen people who think the lyrics are silly and those who think the lyrics are a nice ode to the band's critics. Perhaps unsurprisingly () I fall on the side that enjoys this song. The band obviously loves playing it live, considering the fact that it has become a live staple in a way nothing else from this era has. It's a good, uptempo song with very nice drumming from Charlie and a catchy hook. Nothing more to it, really. Just a fun rocker. I don't think this is any worse than "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" or "Start Me Up." Part of that same family. I like the lyrics as well. Lots of nice visuals and even some gender-bending.

Is the music video correct in demonstrating that Keith plays the first solo and Ron the second? Sounds like it. Cool picture sleeve too!

Jump on Top of Me
This one is okay, but I'm glad it's a b-side. I find that "jump on top of me, baby" hook quite repetitive and it wears on me by the end of the song. I do like all these non-album tracks though. Keeps things interesting!

 

"You Got Me Rocking" if we were to believe how the Stones see their catalog is a latter-day warhorse. Clearly the band likes playing it and I get why. The unique jungle rhythm, Keith's hypnotic riff, Woody playing slide. It breaks down and builds back up again. It's all about the dynamics and so I'm sure it is fun for them to play. However, it is not A-list material (lyrically in particular) so I never really buy in. I don't dislike this song but the criticisms we are likely to hear also ring true with the most likely word being "generic". On the other hand, I don't have any problem with the band playing something they like that is not a big mega-hit. In April of 1998, I went to see the Stones at SkyDome (now Rogers Centre) and got tickets on the street at face value ($65 - flat rate - the last of the low-priced tours) and was in the third row for the B-stage. I enjoyed the whole show but the three song mini-set on the B-stage was the absolute highlight. It was like seeing the Stones in a club. I was hearing Keith straight out of his amp (in 1998, they had separate drums/amps etc at the B-stage - later versions involved the middle of the main stage moving with the band on it) and it was an absolute thrill for three songs. The third was "You Got Me Rocking" and I have no complaints. You could see how much they dug playing it.

The B-side was part of the non-LP 1990s trend. I have it on my cassette of the Pret-A-Porter soundtrack. It's interesting they played it live once in Amsterdam in 1995. It's not a great song and all that but better than a B-side from the album.

 

LOL. I thought that was supposed to be a cat's tongue. Keith had a cat named Voodoo that gave the album title its namesake

 

Here's Keith with Voodoo:

 

Great explanation of this often confusing series. EMI/Capitol was the only U.S. label family that did anything like this. While other labels in this era were probably selling a large percentage of their 45s to the jukebox trade, and certainly put out some releases that were clearly targeted to that market (e.g., 45s containing songs not otherwise commercially released as singles, 45s containing two songs that were the A-sides of separate commercially released cassette/CD singles), their 45s were always part of the same numbering series as "regular" singles, and rarely if ever specifically designated as "jukebox" singles. EMI/Capitol by contrast more-or-less completely detached their vinyl 45s from their regular singles releases.

I didn't know about the Stones' contract forbidding their songs from being released in the "For Jukeboxes Only!" series, but it certainly explains their conspicuous absence from it.

The grand conspiracy to rid the world (or at least the U.S.) of Stones reissue 45s rears its ugly head again!

During the period when the Stones' releases were distributed by Atlantic and Columbia/CBS, they are always shown on the charts, in discographies, etc. as being on Rolling Stones Records. With the change to Virgin, the Stones seemed to lose interest in having their releases presented as being on their own label. Rolling Stones Records still existed, and still owned the underlying copyright in all of the Stones' music (giving the Stones the ability to take their post-1970 back catalog with them any time they changed labels), but all releases were now presented as being simply on Virgin Records, not Rolling Stones Records.

Several singles back, we talked about how U.S. record labels made 45s non-returnable as they declined in popularity and ceased to be a mass-market item. EMI/Capitol did this in 1989, at the same time they cut back significantly on releasing 45s. When they did, they marked those titles released after the point when 45s became non-returnable by changing the prefix on 45 catalog numbers from "B-" (originally a price code which designated a $1.99 list price) to "NR-". Into the 1990s, those few EMI/Capitol 45s that continued to be released as part of the regular singles numbering series (not as part of the "For Jukeboxes Only!" series) continued to carry the "NR-" prefix.

If you've been following the posts that have discussed the decline of 45s in the U.S., you may be surprised to see that the 45 of "Love is Strong" came with a picture sleeve. Before this, the Stones hadn't had one since the pre-Steel Wheels era. Didn't picture sleeves basically go extinct in the U.S. back around 1990?

They did. Around 1990 or 1991, I think there was an assumption among the U.S. majors that 45s would completely go away sometime soon. But somewhere around 1992 or 1993, the labels began to realize that predictions of the 45 format's demise had been greatly premature. 45s had certainly been reduced to a niche format, but there was still enough demand for them - from a combination of jukebox operators, record collectors, and people who just plain liked to listen to 45s - to justify their continued production on a smaller scale. This is why EMI/Capitol created the "For Jukeboxes Only!" series. By 1993-94, U.S. record labels began putting out a few releases with picture sleeves again. There weren't very many; just a few here and there, most of them high-profile releases by artists who were superstars and/or heavily collected. But just a few years earlier, no one close to the record industry or record collecting hobby would have expected to ever see any new U.S. picture sleeves again.

I was wondering how Tim was going to handle the rarity of the "Love Is Strong" picture sleeve. On the one hand, it has to have been produced in smaller numbers than most of the Stones' previous U.S. sleeves, given what a niche market 45s had become by this point. On the other hand, every single copy of the 45 probably came with a sleeve, and production was likely sufficient that from day one the sleeve was never really "rare" in relation to demand. It was also recognized as an instant collectable from the day it was released, so most people who bought one likely held onto it and preserved it in a high grade of condition. The survival rate for this sleeve, especially in higher grades of condition, may be the highest of any U.S. Stones picture sleeve released up to this point. "Value in line with other U.S. Stones picture sleeves from the '70s and '80s" is probably the best way to put it.

Tim mentioned that only a small number of EMI/Capitol 45s came out in this era with regular singles series catalog numbers matching the equivalent cassette/CD single release (not as part of the "For Jukeboxes Only!" series). Most of these were likely 45s that got picture sleeves; when EMI/Capitol gave a 45 that treatment, this seems to be how those singles were handled. Besides the three Stones 45s, off the top of my head there were also a couple of Janet Jackson 45s (she was also on Virgin in this era), and the two Beatles 45s from the Anthology project.

One point not discussed so far is which pressing plant made the U.S. 45s. Like CBS, EMI/Capitol did not put anything on its labels showing where a 45 was pressed, so you generally need to look at the trail-off vinyl to tell for sure. Also like CBS, Capitol had once operated three different pressing plants, each serving a different part of the country, but had gotten out of the vinyl pressing business by this point. Without digging out my 45 to check, it may have been Specialty, the plant in Pennsylvania which had pressed Stones 45s during the Atlantic era, and had been owned by Warner Music (Atlantic's parent) since the late '70s. When EMI/Capitol began phasing out pressing its own 45s during the 1980s, they initially took most of their pressing business to the Warner plants, and by 1994 Specialty was one of only a few big U.S. manufacturing facilities who were still pressing vinyl.

I'm not entirely sure what the "4KM" prefix means, beyond the fact that "4" meant it was a cassette (this was part of a set of format codes widely adopted across the industry, which Tim has brought up in a couple of his earlier posts). When EMI/Capitol first began releasing cassette singles in 1987, the prefix was "4B". It later changed to "4BX", then "4JM", then "4KM". The letters may have been price codes, perhaps corresponding to $1.99, $2.49, $2.99 and $3.49 list prices, but I'm not sure of that. With the advent of bar codes and computerized inventory systems, by this point most record labels no longer coded list prices into their catalog numbers.

 

I have a Maxi Single CD of Sexdrive. Single Edit 4:26; Dirty Hands Mix 4:42; Club Version 6:00. 657334 2, Made in Austria.

 

If we're looking at the same source, it was a different song from Voodoo Lounge that peaked at #37 on the R&R chart.

 

You Got Me Rocking - One of my favorites from the album. it started as a slower blues number written on piano by Keith Richards. A number of alternate takes exist. It appeared on the Forty Licks and GRRR! compilation albums and has been played live quite often. There are a number of different remixes and a promo video.

Jump On Top Of Me - A non-lp b side which also appeared on the Pret-A Porter movie soundtrack. It is another great retro sounding blues influenced track with some slide guitar by Ronnie Wood. If I remember correctly there is also a violin or fiddle player on the track. It was played live at one of the Stripped shows. I wish it would have been included on the Voodoo Lounge album.

 

Jump On Top Of Me.

 

You Got Me Rocking alternate early take

 

For reasons I cannot articulate, always loved that photo shoot w the band for VL. Right mix of old decadence w a touch of New Orleans mystery.

 

A record dealer put me in touch with the person in charge of 45s at what was then CEMA Special Markets in 1994. We hit it off immediately, and from then until the end of the series, I helped with the 45s as an unpaid consultant. So I know a lot about the jukebox series.

The contract prohibited any special-markets use. Notice how Rolling Stones songs were never on Rhino or Time-Life anthologies? The same principle applies.

Except for "Beast of Burden," of course.

Off the top of my head, I also remember one Paula Abdul 45. Also, there was the Smashing Pumpkins' "1979"/"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" 45, which was later reissued in the jukebox series with a different number.

All the EMI jukebox 45s were pressed by Specialty except the last batch, which was pressed by Rainbo. Specialty closed its vinyl plant in 2001.

 

I'm sure we're looking at the same source, and I stand corrected. Only one song from Voodoo Lounge charted in R&R; since the first single from an album is usually the biggest hit - and in my mind, perhaps clouded by having been an AOR listener at the time, "Love is Strong" seems like it was the biggest song from the album - I guess I just assumed that the one song which charted had to be "Love Is Strong" without reading the song title column very closely.

Of course, this makes almost everything I wrote in that post completely wrong.

When we get to the correct single, though, it did chart significantly higher in R&R than it did in Billboard. So some of what I wrote may turn out to actually be relevant (although that single didn't chart as low in Billboard as "Love Is Strong", so the difference between the two isn't quite as extreme as I laid it out to be)....

 

Know exactly what you mean. When he does that I just think, come on man, play the guitar, don't just pose!

These two singles from Voodoo Lounge are fun tracks. But YGMR is built for their stadium tours (which I don't mind given the scale they had in mind for this tour). I personally find the VL album overproduced. If anyone needs to hear how the songs sounded relatively raw, just head to the Voodoo Brew & Stew bootlegs.