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TL;DR:

  • Keith Richards didn’t like The Rolling Stones’ “Get Off of My Cloud.”
  • He explained its connection to another Rolling Stones song.
  • He said “Get Off of My Cloud” was originally supposed to sound like the work of another artist.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wearing suits during The Rolling Stones' "Get Off of My Cloud" era
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards | Keystone/Getty Images

The Rolling Stones‘ “Get Off of My Cloud” was designed as a follow-up to one of the band’s other songs. Subsequently, Keith Richards revealed he never liked the song. He had major issues with its production.

What Keith Richards was thinking when he made The Rolling Stones’ ‘Get Off of My Cloud’

According to The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits, Richards discussed his state of mind around the time he wrote “Get Off of My Cloud.” “It’s difficult to realize what pressure we were under to keep producing hits,” he said. “Each single you made in those days had to be better and do better.

“If the next one didn’t do as well as the last one, everyone told you you were sliding out,” he added. “It got to be a state of mind. Every eight weeks you had to come up with a red-hot song that said it all in two minutes, 30 seconds.”

Keith Richards said the song was a ‘rushed’ follow-up to The Rolling Stones’ ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’

The book Keith Richards on Keith Richards: Interviews & Encounters includes an interview from 1971. In it, Richards discussed “Get Off of My Cloud.” “That was the follow-up to ‘[I Can’t Get No] Satisfaction,'” he said. “I never dug it as a record.”

Richards discussed how “Get Off of My Cloud” came together. “The chorus was a nice idea but we rushed it as the follow-up,” he said. “We were in L.A. and it was time for another single. But how do you follow ‘Satisfaction?’ Actually, what I wanted was to do it slow like a Lee Dorsey thing. We rocked it up. I thought it was one of Andrew [Loog Oldham]’s worse productions.”

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Keith Richards Listened to 3 Songs From This Mick Jagger Album and Gave Up

How ‘Get Off of My Cloud’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Get Off of My Cloud” was a big hit in the United States. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, staying on the chart for 12 weeks in total. The tune appeared on the compilation Hot Rocks 1964-1971. The album hit No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 394 weeks.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Get Off of My Cloud” topped the chart in the United Kingdom for three weeks. It spent a total of 12 weeks on the chart. Meanwhile, Hot Rocks 1964-1971 hit No. 3 in the U.K. and stayed on the chart for 59 weeks.

Richards wasn’t a big fan of “Get Off of My Cloud” but that didn’t stop it from becoming a juggernaut.

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