5 Famous Rolling Stones Songs That Weren’t Singles
A few of The Rolling Stones‘ songs managed to become famous without even being singles in the United States or the United Kingdom. Some of the tracks on this list are well-known for their amazing songwriting. On the other hand, others are well-known because they’re so infamous.
5. ‘Gimme Shelter’
“Gimme Shelter” might be one of the most famous album tracks of all time. It’s one of The Rolling Stones’ songs that captures the chaos, confusion, and hope of the late 1960s. If The Rolling Stones had never recorded another song besides “Gimme Shelter,” they’d still have a place in rock ‘n’ roll history.
The track served as the opening of The Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed. Notably, none of the songs from that album became singles in the United States or the United Kingdom.
4. ‘Under My Thumb’
“Under My Thumb” has a great beat. It’s also one of the prime examples of misogyny in The Rolling Stones’ music and rock ‘n’ roll in general. Basically, the song tries to make abuse sound cool.
In a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger noted the song drew the ire of feminists. He tried to defend the track by saying “It’s not really an anti-feminist song any more than any of the others.” That’s a pretty sorry excuse.
3. ‘Sympathy for the Devil’
The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” wasn’t the first rock song to invoke the devil but it’s still one of the best. The brilliance of this track is that it doesn’t view Satan as remote but rather as deeply involved in political events from ancient times to the present day. This might have languished as an obscure album track if it wasn’t basically perfect.
2. ‘Midnight Rambler’
“Midnight Rambler” makes “Under My Thumb” sound like Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” by comparison. In the track, Jagger talks about a notorious serial killer/serial rapist: Albert DeSalvo, a.k.a. The Boston Stranger.
According to Mental Floss, DeSalvo killed 13 women between 1962 and 1964. “Midnight Rambler” starts out as a warning about DeSalvo before Jagger reveals he’s singing from DeSalvo’s perspective. Then, he threatens to murder the listener. The Rolling Stones released “Midnight Rambler” in 1969, just a few years after DeSalvo’s crime spree ended. It’s pretty tasteless for Jagger to sing from DeSalvo’s perspective so soon after the killings.
1. ‘Let It Bleed’
The title track from Let It Bleed, one of The Rolling Stones’ most famous albums, was not a single except in Japan. This world-weary song probably would have resonated a lot if it was released as a single in the United States and Europe when it came out in 1969.
Like “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Let It Bleed” proves The Rolling Stones could write great ballads like nobody’s business even if their wheelhouse was uptempo numbers. “Let It Bleed” is like an edgier version of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” only it came out three years earlier.
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