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TL;DR:

  • Keith Richards didn’t like some of The Rolling Stones’ songs from their early days.
  • He said it took a long while before the band found a sound that fit them.
  • The song Richards liked became a top 10 hit in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in front of a building
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards | Keystone/Getty Images

Keith Richards said one of The Rolling Stones‘ songs was the first song by the band that he liked. Subsequently, he contrasted the track with earlier songs he wrote with Mick Jagger. Notably, the song Richards liked was a huge hit. 

Keith Richards discussed how his band’s songs evolved over time

The book Keith Richards on Keith Richards: Interviews & Encounters includes an interview from 1988. In it, Richards discussed the evolution of his band. “You tend [at first] to write stuff that’s totally different from the stuff you’re actually playing,” he said. “It takes a while. I think ‘The Last Time’ is the first song we wrote for the Stones that we could actually record ourselves.” 

Richards contrasted “The Last Time” with his earlier work. “Before that, we’d written ‘That Girl Belongs to Yesterday,’ which Gene Pitney had a hit with, and ‘As Tears Go By,’ which Marianne [Faithfull] had a top 10 with,” he said. “It took us a year or so to find our way through all that and find songs that we could feel comfortable about recording ourselves.”

Keith Richards said ‘The Last Time’ was the 1st definable Rolling Stones song

In a separate interview from 1989, Richards was asked to name the “first definable Rolling Stones song.” “The first one we felt happy with was ‘The Last Time,’ that we tried with the group,” he said. 

Richards discussed “The Last Time” in the context of the band’s career. “That was about six to nine months after ‘As Tears Go By,'” he said. “It was that long before we could find a style that would fit the Stones.”

Related

Keith Richards ‘Loved’ 1 Rolling Stones Hit But Mick Jagger Didn’t Understand Its Appeal

How The Rolling Stones’ ‘The Last Time’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“The Last Time” was a big hit. It reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the chart for 10 weeks. The tune appeared on the album Out of Our Heads. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for three weeks and stayed on the chart for a total of 65 weeks. 

According to The Official Charts Company, “The Last Time” peaked at No. 1 for three weeks in the United Kingdom, staying on the chart for 13 weeks in total. Meanwhile, “The Last Time” did not appeared on the U.K. edition of Out of Our Heads.

“The Last Time” was a massive hit and the group liked it.

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