ISSUE #30 MMUSICMAG.COM BEHIND THE CLASSICS WRITTEN BY: KEITH RICHARDS, MICK JAGGER RECORDED: RCA STUDIOS, L.A. PRODUCED BY: ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM MICK JAGGER: VOCALS BILL WYMAN: BASS CHARLIE WATTS: DRUMS KEITH RICHARDS: ELECTRIC GUITAR BRIAN JONES: ELECTRIC GUITAR FROM THE ALBUM: OUT OF OUR HEADS (1965)

Clockwise from top: Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” THE ROLLING STONES

On May 7, 1965, Keith Richards woke up record their ideas. A few days after Richards’ Knowing the tune’s suggestive lyrics— in the middle of the night at a Florida hotel midnight ramble, they entered Chess Studios especially the line about “trying to make some with a melody in his head. Fumbling in the in Chicago. As home to some of their biggest girl”—might prevent the song from getting dark, he grabbed his guitar next to the bed influences including Bo Diddley and Muddy airplay, Oldham decided to bury it in the mix. and a cassette recorder on the nightstand— Waters, Chess seemed the perfect location Despite the murky vocals, the and played an eight-note riff into it. It was to lay down their new tune. song became a target for the antirock accompanied by the mumbled vocal line, With manager Andrew Loog Oldham establishment. Newsweek dubbed the “I can’t get no satisfaction.” Then he fell producing, the group cut an acoustic, Stones a “leering quintet” and said back asleep. countryish version of “Satisfaction” that “Satisfaction” was full of “tasteless themes.” “On the tape you can hear me drop sounded like Bob Dylan. The sexy swagger But even a radio ban in certain cities couldn’t the pick,” Richards later recalled. “The rest that would mark the finished version was stop the song’s rise—and in July, a month is me snoring.” completely absent. after its release, the song topped the charts The Rolling Stones were in the middle Two days later in L.A., the Stones for the first of four weeks. of their second headlining U.S. tour, having checked into RCA Studios and tried again. In 1988, when Rolling Stone voted it the already scored two Top 10 hits—“Time Is on Motivated by Richards’ recently acquired Greatest Pop Single of the previous 25 years, My Side” and “The Last Time.” But in the ranks Maestro Fuzz-Tone pedal, the tracks offered Richards confessed, “I hear ‘Satisfaction’ in of the British Invasion, they still remained a a more aggressive feel. Plus, famed arranger ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash.’ I hear it in half of the notch below Herman’s Hermits. They needed Jack Nitzsche pitched in with tambourine and songs that the Stones have done.” In 2000, a defining single. piano, adding a Motown-style groove. a VH1 poll of 700 music industry movers and Richards didn’t initially recognize that The band loved the result. But Richards shakers voted “Satisfaction” as the top rock his motel riff was exactly what the Stones wasn’t convinced. He was now hearing the song of all time. were looking for. “I never thought it was song as a tribute to Martha and the Vandellas’ Though he’s been happily playing the commercial enough to be a single,” he said. “Dancing in the Street,” declaring that his fuzz song in concert for the last 50 years, Richards Mick Jagger added, “He was too close to it guitar line was only intended as a sketch for a admits, “If I’d had my way, ‘Satisfaction’ and just felt it was kind of silly.” But Jagger horn section when the band came to record would never have been released. The song was inspired and quickly wrote a lyric. the final version. was as basic as the hills, and I thought the During their tour, the Stones had been But as the Stones resumed touring, fuzz-guitar thing was a bit of a gimmick.” stopping at various American studios to Oldham started promoting the new song. –Bill DeMain

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