Rolling Stones Single-By-Single Thread

And only kept from reaching the Billboard #1 slot by Arthur's Theme, and Private Eyes.

 

Start Me Up
This is a great classic-Stones-style rocker. Some people have tired of it apparently, but I still think it's great and love hearing it. I think it could be considered the Stones' last great rocker (though there are quite a few solid ones on Tattoo You).

No Use In Crying
This is a pretty good ballad, but I don't think it really stands out among all the other ballads on side 2 of Tattoo You. I've never been a huge fan of the ballad side of Tattoo You in general to be honest, though, so when I think about it, this is one of the better ones.

 

"Start Me Up" was like Generation X's "Satisfaction" as far as the Rolling Stones' trademark guitar intros are concerned.

 

Actually, it was farther south; it was just outside of Allentown, Pa. Otherwise, an excellent post.

 

Don't ask k.d. lang.

Certainly Start Me Up did become ubiquitous - especially after Microsoft licenced it for a major ad campaign - but that just helped make it tiresome sadly. I still don't need to hear it again and prefer Hangfire if Tattoo You is playing. Side two redeems that album for me.

 

I'm not much of a fan of "Start Me Up". Yes, it's got a "classic" Stones riff hook and it's catchy, but as a song I think it's careless and lazy. In particular, the transition from the chorus back to the main riff just feels wrong to me. The band itself sounds a little uncomfortable at that point, too, like they're not all on the same page for a few moments.

 

Looking strictly at what I'll call "broad cultural impact" - not at whether I think a song is subjectively good, not at whether I think it sounds like a Stones song should - here's how I see things:

On a 1 to 10 scale, "Start Me Up" was a 10, the last of probably six to ten songs the Stones made over the course of their career that achieved that level. I don't think any song the Stones have made since then has really come particularly close to reaching this level.

"Mixed Emotions" was probably about a 7. No Stones song since "Start Me Up" had gotten that high, and none has gotten that high since. Fairly impressive - especially because at the time, a lot of people didn't think the Stones still had it in them to get even this high - but it's just not on the level of "Start Me Up".

For better or for worse, I don't think anything the Stones have made since Voodoo Lounge has crossed the 5 barrier. Their cultural impact has been mainly from the spectacle of their live shows, not from the new recordings they release.

 

By 1980 I guess I was no longer taking much notice of the Stones and without this excellent and enjoyable thread reminding me I had forgotten this single "She's So Cold" entirely. So that is it for me really re the Stones and their singles. I can name the UK singles (excepting those ABKCO oddities post 1970) in order up to and including Emotional Rescue and that is it. 33 in the chart for 1980 I guess is not that great and I do not remember ever hearing this on Capitol radio.

 

I'd agree with this. I feel like "Love is Strong" got to at least a 6 at the time of its release. It has probably been forgotten by most with time, but that music video was all over VH1 in 1994.

And I think tomorrow's single (Waiting on a Friend) is quite beloved at least amongst Stones fans. Maybe a 5 for cultural impact at large though.

 

Again I have to differ with this analysis — it seems intuitive from the cultural perspective of a majority on this particular forum, but perhaps from a South American or East Asian perspective, a lot of the 90s stuff would rank higher. "Start Me Up" put them on the immortal plain forever in North America/UK, deservedly so, but they had to keep kicking down doors in other countries with subsequent album/tour campaigns. Radio singles were part of that trajectory even up to A Bigger Bang

 

I’d say “Love Is Strong” gets damn close as a classic.

 

I like that one as well but they don't play it live anymore.

 

Start Me Up? Might be my favorite 80s rock single.

 

Hey, no jumping the gun or I'll tell the OP.

Oh. Wait a minute....

 

Yeah, it's got a great sort of..creepy vibe about it.

I like Mick's understated vocal in the beginning before he goes all histrionic and then back to singing like he's sharing a secret with us again.

Good harp and kind of nice backing harmonies also in the second half of the song.

 

'I have some Beatles singles like this--totally unrelated photos on a sort of postcard with a flexi-disc stamped on it, these come from Poland. Not sure why they were made like that, my hunch is they had limited access to the materials needed to manufacture regular records. I've seen some folks from Poland post here on the boards, maybe someone could chime-in with the back story on these. Similarly I have a number of EPs (Beatles) that are vinyl records but came in generic pic sleeves completely unrelated to the artist or songs.

 

Personally, I'd say I probably prefer it to Start Me Up. But I don't think it has had anywhere near the same impact.

 

She's So Cold was like a Rolling Stones parody.
Not bad, but not great either.

 

Start Me Up is alright but I don't like it as much as, say, Beast of Burden.

 

Start Me Up.

The final Stones mega-single. It is arguably one of the Top 5 most instantly recognizable Stones songs. Great song. Catchy riff, great chorus, fantastic vocals.

 

This is an interesting perspective and I'd love to know what singles had an impact and where.
Watching the documentary from a couple of years back when they were in Argentina and Out Of Control was treated rapturously I wondered if that was for the film or if it had been a hit there.

 

It's funny, the edits on Sucking In The Seventies don't really bother me the way the edits on Fourty Licks, Jump Back or GRRR! do, even when they're the exact same edits!

True- Sucking In The Seventies could have been its own version of Rarities 1971-2003. Bit of a missed opportunity, yeah, but to be fair the Stones might have given at most fifteen minutes thought as far as lashing SITS together.

"Start Me Up" is another one o' those classic Stones songs where there really isn't much left to be said about it thirty seven years later. I love Bill's bass playing on the track more than anything.
"No Use In Crying", you can definitely hear the Ronnie Wood influence in the songwriting (and backing vocals), but as usual Mick's falsetto is a bit much (the "Where are yoooo...yoooo...yoooooo..." part cracks me up every time)

"Start Me Up" is tiresome for some (not me- I crank that puppy up every time I hear it) but ya gotta admit, everybody knows "Start Me Up" and knows that it's a Rolling Stones song. Just the first three notes of the intro is enough for most people to recognize it, whereas outside of hardcore Stones fans nobody remembered "Anybody Seen My Baby" after 1997...or if they did, it was probably due to the "Constant Craving" controversy.

 

I shall have to look at some other threads re the Some Girls bonus disc as I was always under the impression that like the Exile bonus disc and the Springsteen Darkness bonus studio material that there were a large number of modern overdubs/recordings involved. I have a fair amount of bootleg material from Some Girls, Emotional and Tattoo and was always hoping there would be a really great box set based on these 3 albums. Ah well I guess we have not done too bad with official Stones archival stuff. The 2 Vault live shows from 81 and 82 are excellent I think.

 

It has been a great interesting thread. As I have stated I just lost interest in the Stones post Tattoo and would struggle to name 5 singles post the Undercover album. So thanks Parachute Woman.

Start Me Up is a fine single although I never bought a copy back in the day - I made do with the album.

 

Next:

Waiting on a Friend (1981)



Released: 11/30.81
B-Side: Little T & A
Charts: #13 (US); #50 (UK)

Recording of "Waiting on a Friend" (as 'Waiting for a Friend') began in late 1972 through early 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica, during the Goats Head Soup sessions when the band still had Mick Taylor as a member. His guitar piece made it to the overdubbing sessions in April 1981 when the song was selected by Tattoo You producer Chris Kimsey as one the band could re-work for the album.

In the liner notes to 1993's compilation album Jump Back, Mick Jagger said, "We all liked it at the time but it didn't have any lyrics, so there we were... The lyric I added is very gentle and loving, about friendships in the band." Jagger also had stated that the 1981 lyrics were contemplated for a future possible video, making the song the first Rolling Stones single to be packaged as a possible video for the emerging MTV channel.

The video, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg (who also directed their 1968 special The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus), became very popular on MTV. Matching the song's lyrics, Jagger is seen waiting for Keith Richards in the doorway of an apartment block. The building, at 96-98 St. Mark's Place in Manhattan, is notable for appearing on the cover of Led Zeppelin's 1975 album Physical Graffiti. The two then walk down the street and enter the St. Mark's Bar & Grill where the other three band members are already drinking. Jagger sings the song to Richards and the video concludes with the band setting up for a gig at the back of the bar, ignored by the other patrons.

The lyrics see a more mature side of singer Jagger represented. He speaks of setting aside women and vices in favor of making some sense of his life and finding the virtues inherent in true friendship:

“ Don't need a whore, I don't need no booze, don't need a virgin priest. But I need someone I can cry to, I need someone to protect. ”
The song is noted for its dreamy qualities brought on by the soft guitars, smooth rhythm, and Jagger's lilting refrain of "doo-doo-doo"'s. Stones-recording veteran Nicky Hopkins performs the track's running piano.[1] The Stones hired jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins to perform the solo on this song, as well as two others on the album. On his addition to the track, Jagger said in 1985:

"I had a lot of trepidation about working with Sonny Rollins. This guy's a giant of the saxophone. Charlie said, 'He's never going to want to play on a Rolling Stones record!' I said, 'Yes he is going to want to.' And he did and he was wonderful. I said, 'Would you like me to stay out there in the studio?' He said, 'Yeah, you tell me where you want me to play and DANCE the part out.' So I did that. And that's very important: communication in hand, dance, whatever. You don't have to do a whole ballet, but sometimes that movement of the shoulder tells the guy to kick in on the beat."

Additional percussion, comprising claves, cabasa, güiro and conga, by Michael Carabello, was added during overdub sessions in April and June 1981.

Rolling Stones

• Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals
• Keith Richards – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Mick Taylor – lead guitar
• Bill Wyman – bass guitar
• Charlie Watts – drums
• Ronnie Wood – backing vocals

Guest musicians

• Nicky Hopkins – piano
• Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophone
• Michael Carabello – güiro, claves, cabasa and congas