I'm not so sure either about some of the choices, but a list is always subjective. Here is the panel that voted on the 100 best Stones songs. Some solid names, but only about four musicians, including everyone's favorite piano player!

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The Panel: Patrick Carney (the Black Keys), Jonathan Cott (contributing editor, Rolling Stone), Cameron Crowe (director), Anthony DeCurtis (contributing editor, Rolling Stone), Jon Dolan (contributing editor, Rolling Stone), David Fricke (Senior Writer, Rolling Stone), Robert Greenfield
(journalist and author), Will Hermes (contributing editor, Rolling Stone), Robert Hilburn (journalist and author), Howard Kramer (Director of Curatorial Affairs, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), Chuck Leavell (musician), Jonathan Lethem (novelist), Martin Scorsese (director), Rob Sheffield (contributing editor, Rolling Stone), Lucinda Williams (singer-songwriter), Warren Zanes (the Del Fuegos)

Forgot to add this:

To make the list, we asked each of these Stones experts to rank their 50 favorite songs, then tabulated the results.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-10-15 23:28 by latebloomer.

2 best-of-100-Stones-songs without inhibit their best song 'Tell Me'....WOW...

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Come On
2 best-of-100-Stones-songs without inhibit their best song 'Tell Me'....WOW...

Tell Me is awful, the studio version that is. The mock soul version they play in Charlie Is My Darling is much Betterer.

The punk version from 1978 is my favourite

Through all years from I became conscious that there was a band by the name of the Rolling Stones, "Tell Me" has always been among my favourite Stones songs. Always among my ten best, I would guess, but I am not one doing such lists. And "Tell Me" was the first Stones song that I loved, myself first aware of the Beatles, and during the first time period I liked the Beatles a little more, without being a fan.

[Later, only slightly changed.]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-10-17 19:43 by Witness.

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Witness
Through all years from I became conscious that there was a band by the name of the Rolling Stones, "Tell Me" has always been among my favourite Stones songs. Always among my ten best, I would guess, but I am not one doing such lists. And "Tell Me" was the first Stones song that I loved, myself first aware of the Beatles, and during the first time period I liked the Beatles a little more, without being a fan.

[Later, only slightly changed.]

Oh, I always have loved "Tell Me", from the very first moment I heard it from their first album. Their funny take on "mersey beat", with their natural charm. I mean, there is a lot of in that that is so distinctive, so "Stonesy". Jagger's dark, and a bit tired and threatening sounding vocals, so much in directed opposition to song's pop message, Keith's trademark and unique - for the very first time - backing up vocals... "Tell Me" includes so much not yet realized potential that even they could not have understood it at the time, since I guess it was stylistically so different to the r&b style of theirs.

- Doxa

I love Tell Me, in all its naivety. It is actually more of a 50s teddy boy-ballad.

But the song is poor, really poor. It's got buckets of charm, though.

Here's the 1978 version:

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DandelionPowderman

But the song is poor, really poor.

I protest here. It's naive and constructed out of a bit too obvious materials, and lyrically not the most adventurous, but in the category of pop ballads, is not that bad. If a song sounds good and works good enough, it is never that poor... a pragmatic principle.

For beginner guitarists it is a nice piece to learn chords. One can also hear how a young Keith, learning the game, thought of songs consisting of certain chord sequences, and the use of minors and septimes back up melodics beautifully. Actually, taking those funny structures, especially how the song lifts up from the verse to the chorus, and Charlie emphasizing the effect with his mersey beat tom toms, is about the chord richest songs he has ever written. The principle of 'less is more' is still lurking quite far... but then again, one can hear that it is a guy who would write "Ruby Tuesday" and "Angie" some day.

One can only imagine how much Brian and Stu hated the song at the time... But in the end, it was the single A-side that make some difference in American charts by "England's Newest Hit-Makers", after "Not Fade Away"/"I Wanna Be Your Man" had flopped... I tend to think that little fact might made them rather cynical as far as the taste of American audiences go, and that probably set the standard in their policy in releases in that market...

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-10-18 11:35 by Doxa.

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DandelionPowderman
I love Tell Me, in all its naivety. It is actually more of a 50s teddy boy-ballad.

But the song is poor, really poor. It's got buckets of charm, though.

Maybe, the song is poor. But in that case, this is really a poor band. Because in my verdict this is one of their very best songs. I have to speak according to my own taste.

<If a song sounds good and works good enough, it is never that poor... a pragmatic principle.>

Exactly! Only it doesn't do that for me

a great link! But Ive never heard of `Sister Morphin`
and this song is under the TopTen?! Why they didnt
perform it on their last shows or put it on GRRRR?
Anybody knows?

It's now in Germany available too: "Sonderheft - The Rolling Stones" (D 11.99€, A 12.90€, CH 20.00 CHF).

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Doxa

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Witness
Through all years from I became conscious that there was a band by the name of the Rolling Stones, "Tell Me" has always been among my favourite Stones songs. Always among my ten best, I would guess, but I am not one doing such lists. And "Tell Me" was the first Stones song that I loved, myself first aware of the Beatles, and during the first time period I liked the Beatles a little more, without being a fan.

[Later, only slightly changed.]

Oh, I always have loved "Tell Me", from the very first moment I heard it from their first album. Their funny take on "mersey beat", with their natural charm. I mean, there is a lot of in that that is so distinctive, so "Stonesy". Jagger's dark, and a bit tired and threatening sounding vocals, so much in directed opposition to song's pop message, Keith's trademark and unique - for the very first time - backing up vocals... "Tell Me" includes so much not yet realized potential that even they could not have understood it at the time, since I guess it was stylistically so different to the r&b style of theirs.

- Doxa

Tell Me was a giant step forward for the Stones as a band creating its own songs at that time.