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When bands drop the ball, their music sometimes draws comparisons to the parody rock band Spinal Tap. For example, Mick Jagger once compared one of The Rolling Stones‘ albums to the work of Spinal Tap. Notably, the album produced a hit for the band.

The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger near a door
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger | Doug McKenzie / Contributor

Mick Jagger said The Rolling Stones’ album that sounded like Spinal Tap was made under the influence of acid

Spinal Tap is a parody rock band that debuted in the film This Is Spinal Tap (1984). During a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone, Jagger discussed the album Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967). The interviewer said the album sounded like Spinal Tap. Jagger agreed. He said The Rolling Stones got carried away while making the album because they were taking acid.

In a 1968 interview with Rolling Stone, Jagger discussed the repetitive lyrics of Their Satanic Majesties Request. “I don’t know what to think about it, he said. “It’s very weird really and doesn’t have anything to do with me. It hasn’t got any sort of songs in it, all the words are very obscure.”

Mick Jagger said the album ‘just got freakier as we went along’

Jagger was asked about the idea behind Their Satanic Majesties Request. “Absolutely no idea behind it,” he replied. “No, it’s wrong to say there is or was no idea at all, there was but it was all completely external. It was done over such a long period of time that eventually it just evolved. The first thing we did was ‘She’s a Rainbow,’ then ‘2000 Light Years From Home,’ then ‘Citadel’ and it just got freaker as we went along.

“Then we did ‘Sing This Song All Together’ and ‘On With The Show,’ ‘The Lantern’ and then Bill’s one (‘In Another Land’),” he added. “It took almost a whole year to make, not because it’s so fantastically complex that we needed a whole year but because we were so strung out.”

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How The Rolling Stones’ ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ performed in the United States and the United Kingdom

Their Satanic Majesties Request reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 30 weeks. Only one of the tracks from the album charted in the United States: “She’s a Rainbow.” The song hit No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for seven weeks.

According to The Official Charts Company, Their Satanic Majesties Request reached No. 3 in the United Kingdom, staying on the chart for 13 weeks. On the other hand, none of the singles from Their Satanic Majesties Request charted in the U.K.

Their Satanic Majesties Request was a hit even if Jagger compared it to the work of Spinal Tap.

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