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TL;DR:

  • Mick Jagger said The Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup was distinct from Exile on Main St.
  • He said he had “no idea why [Goats Head Soup] was like it was.”
  • One of the tracks from Goats Head Soup topped the pop chart in the United States.
Mick Jagger with a microphone during The Rolling Stones' 'Goats Head Soup'
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger | Evening Standard/Getty Images

The Rolling Stones‘ Goats Head Soup is one of the band’s most famous albums. During an interview, Mick Jagger said one song made the album a hit. Notably, the song in question hit No. 1 in the United States.

Mick Jagger had no idea why The Rolling Stones’ ‘Goats Head Soup’ was the way it was

During a 2020 interview with GQ, Jagger contrasted Goats Head Soup with The Rolling Stones’ album Exile on Main St. “[Goats Head Soup] was very different from Exile [On Main Street], but I don’t remember having a conversation, saying, ‘This is going to be different from Exile,'” he recalled. 

“It just sort of was different,” he continued. “It was a different time, different places. I have no idea why it was like it was.”

Mick Jagger said The Rolling Stones’ songs from the album combined classic rock and funk

Subsequently, Jagger discussed individual songs on Goats Head Soup. “The Goats Head Soup album is pretty eclectic,” he said. “It’s an interesting piece. It’s got some rather wistful things on it that we don’t ever perform, such as ‘100 Years Ago.’ It’s got good things on it. Of course, ‘Angie‘ was the big hit ballad from the album. It made a success of the album.” 

Then, Jagger discussed a song that appeared on the 2020 rerelease of the album. “I quite like the [new] track called ‘Criss Cross’ — very percussion driven,” he said. “At the time it was very fashionable to have wah-wah clavinets [such as the ones] Billy Preston played. That was the funk thing of the time. It was interesting. A mixture of classic rocky things and things of the time.”

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Mick Jagger Once Responded to Listeners Who Felt 1 of The Rolling Stones’ Songs Was Anti-Feminist

How ‘Angie’ and ‘Goats Head Soup’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Angie” became a massive hit in the United States. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, staying on the chart for 16 weeks in total. Meanwhile, Goats Head Soup hit No. 1 for four of its 39 weeks on the Billboard 200.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Angie” reached No. 5 in the United Kingdom and stayed on the chart for 10 weeks. On the other hand, Goats Head Soup reached No. 1 in the U.K. for a pair of weeks, staying on the U.K. chart for 14 weeks altogether.

Goats Head Soup was a hit and Jagger said it wouldn’t have been as successful without “Angie.”

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