By relevant I mean, relevant to the Stones and their career. I narrowed the most relevant down to three IMO: 1) Satisfaction - made them a super group around the world, 2) JJF - Got them out of their LSD haze and served as a catalyst to the greatest run in rock history and 3) Miss You - I believe tied with HTW with most weeks at #1 in US and put them back at the top when people were doubting them. Least relevant... In Another Land! Would enjoy your thoughts.

JJF, coming out of that flower jungle with a blast -
with a riff and lyrics that are timeless.

yeah, JJF for sure x)

Satisfaction

Streets Of Love

JJ Flash & Satisfaction.

Little Red Rooster is an important one as it is the only blues ever to reach no.1 in the pop charts.

Ahh, with a carreer so rich and colorful, there are a lot of turning points and relevant singles
to mark these changes. I agree with you about the importance (with hindsight) of Satisfaction
and Jumpin' Jack Flash.

Come on, of course, was relevant for their carreer, as well as I wanne be your man. Both songs
helped them to esteblish their name in the UK to begin with.

We love you could count as relevant, marking special era in their history.

And what about Mixed Emotions? That certainly was a relevant single. We all thought it was over.
No way, it was over. A whole new era was about to start. The era of mega-tours.

And then we've got Angie. Maybe not the typical Stones single, but certainly one that
opened new markets for them.

Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

It's All Over Now most relevant

Most: We Love You (no other single fit the times better with the possible exception of Street Fighting Man in the U.S.)

Least: Going To A Go Go (mediocre live cover, had absolutely nothing to with what was going on in the charts at the time)

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vudicus

Little Red Rooster is an important one as it is the only blues ever to reach no.1 in the pop charts.

Define "blues"?

Possible other contenders include:

House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals (months before Little Red Rooster)
Albatross - Fleetwood Mac
Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum
I Hear You Knockin'- Dave Edmunds
Get It On - T. Rex
Blockbuster - The Sweet (number 2 at the time was The Jean Genie by David Bowie, incorporating exactly the same Muddy Waters-inspired riff).

You can almost add Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley), which reached number 2 in the UK charts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-06-17 19:23 by Sleepy City.

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Sleepy City

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vudicus

Little Red Rooster is an important one as it is the only blues ever to reach no.1 in the pop charts.

Define "blues"?

Possible other contenders include:

House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals (months before Little Red Rooster)
Albatross - Fleetwood Mac
Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum
I Hear You Knockin'- Dave Edmunds
Get It On - T. Rex
Blockbuster - The Sweet (number 2 at the time was The Jean Genie by David Bowie, incorporating exactly the same Muddy Waters-inspired riff).

You can almost add Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley), which reached number 2 in the UK charts.

Some of those may have been blues songs - but not the versions that were released.

The Stones' version of 'Rooster' most certainly was.

Wasn`t there a song called "Sex Drive", and something called "High Wire"? - Never seen too much talk of that, - probably not very relevant.

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noughties
Wasn`t there a song called "Sex Drive", and something called "High Wire"? - Never seen too much talk of that, - probably not very relevant.

I'd say High Wire was very relevant, as it was about the (first) Gulf War that was happening at the time...which doesn't mean it was also a great song, though it was OK...

Sex Drive is always relevent.

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction as it finally put them on a songwriting par with The Beatles and established them globally.

Least important I'd say was either Sex Drive or Don't Stop. Actually, Don't Stop was important as to me it said that the game was almost over, as far as songwriting was concerned.

Don't overlook Start Me Up. Miss You showed they could survive in the disco era, but Start Me Up was pure, classic Stones rock and roll. And I would argue that in time it overcame Miss You in its importance. It's still played in sports stadiums, and rarely escapes warhorse rotation in concert.

I like the mention of Angie, a worldwide ballad smash that might have been the coda to their golden era of 1968-1972.

Don't Stop has got to be the most embarrassing, irrelevant single.

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24FPS
Don't overlook Start Me Up. Miss You showed they could survive in the disco era, but Start Me Up was pure, classic Stones rock and roll. And I would argue that in time it overcame Miss You in its importance. It's still played in sports stadiums, and rarely escapes warhorse rotation in concert.

I like the mention of Angie, a worldwide ballad smash that might have been the coda to their golden era of 1968-1972.

Don't Stop has got to be the most embarrassing, irrelevant single.

Good point. The Stones were longtime masters of adapting to the current sound such as, amongst others:

R'n'B - Time Is On My Side; The Last Time; It's All Over Now
Mid-60s psych pop - 19th Nervous Breakdown; Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby;
Psychedelia - Paint It Black; We Love You,
Rock - Jumping Jack Flash; Street Fighting Man; Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar and Tumbling Dice
Glamrock - It's Only Rock'n'Roll
Mid-70s balladry - Angie; Fool To Cry
Disco - Miss You and Emotional Rescue
New Wave - Respectable, Shattered

Start Me Up was their last great single but what did it fit in with? It was a stand alone slab of great Stonesy rock'n'roll.

I guess Undercover and One Hit were typical overblown 80s tunes geared for the 12" singles market. And there it ended, unfortunately, as far as fitting in with the zeitgeist and hitting the charts.

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withaheadfullofsnow
Least relevant... In Another Land! Would enjoy your thoughts.

How do you arrive at the conclusion that this would be their least relevant song? seems rather arbitrary to me. Its a good song that came out during a creative period. I think it holds up much better than tons of looked over tracks from the 80's and 90's.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-06-17 23:19 by ryanpow.

I look at it this way. The Stones of the '60's were of a much higher caliber than the Stones of the'80-90's in terms of material. You could expect a classic anthem in the '60's, where maybe you just hoped their songs were ok from Dirty Work until the present. You don't really expect the Stones to write classic songs anymore, but you did in 1967. So in this context, I believe IAL is the most irrelevant single to their career. Compared IAL to the singles made around it, She's A Rainbow and JJF. Then compared Streets Of Love to Rough Justice and Rain Fall Down. Stunning drop for IAL while Streets Of Love sort've fits in to their latter work, mediocre. Also, I do disagree the IAL is a good song. I'd rather listen to Bill snoring on Cosmic Christmas than listen to his singing on IAL. Wish 200 Man was made the single. I

I mean 2000 Man

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - How could it be anything else? The song is timeless and everyone knows it. The riff is the most recognizable in rock and the song firmly entrenched their reputation. JJF is second.

Least - Streets of Love

Of course (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, but there are a few others It's All Over Now, We Love You, JJFlash, SFMan, HTWoman, Brown Sugar to name a few.

Least Don't Stop

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Sleepy City

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noughties
Wasn`t there a song called "Sex Drive", and something called "High Wire"? - Never seen too much talk of that, - probably not very relevant.

I'd say High Wire was very relevant, as it was about the (first) Gulf War that was happening at the time..

Actually, the Gulf War was already over by the time High Wire appeared, making it not relevant before it was even released.

As one of my forespeakers has stated, "Satisfaction" is probably their most important single. "Streets Of Love" is their least relevant one.

not even close. Satisfaction.

i don`t know which is their most important one but for me BIGGEST MISTAKE was indeed their biggest mistake for releasing a single. who wants to hear that song on the radio?

It's hard to judge this stuff after the fact (me being born in 1985), but I'm inclined to say it's (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. Jumpin' Jack Flash would probably come in second.

Satisfaction made them world wide but I think Jumpin' Jack Flash established some kind of...mantle in the pantheon of rock.

Although Miss You was huge and part of a fad that lasted too long, Start Me Up is the last bit of relevance as far as their so called nickname along with how they pretty much define what and how rock'n'roll goes and is and on a lighter note the last melodic inventive single they released. A great song for a single, one hell of a riff and a fantastic vocal hook - the title of the song.

Still, JJF is bigger than SMU even, although I'm not sure if that could be convincing in terms of sales and chart position and obviously the tour that followed - perhaps SMU had a bigger overall impact because of the Tattoo You tour? That's a slim maybe but a maybe nonetheless.

Most relevant non-single? GIMME SHELTER

for me honky tonk women was terribly important
dunno wky, the cowbell , no bass in first verse..
love playing it now, in singalongs etc.
very special and grows old well, even better that satisfaction.

Brown Sugar is definitely their most relevant single. First it defined their sound until today. It was also their first song released on their own label.
When I look at the single cover I can't help thinking of their 60's single covers on which they were posing with nice suits. This pictures just tells "hey we are free to do whatever we want now!"

most relevant is obviously "Satisfaction." "Don't Stop" gets my vote for least relevant.