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TL;DR:

  • Mick Jagger hated a cliché in The Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses.”
  • He liked the track as a whole and said it was a “pop” song.
  • The track became a hit in the United States but not the United Kingdom.
Mick Jagger with a microphone during The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" era
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger | George Wilkes Archive / Contributor

The Rolling Stones‘ “Wild Horses” is one of many songs that proved the band could make ballads just as well as they could make rock ‘n’ roll tunes. Mick Jagger said the song was built around an “awful” cliché. On the other hand, Keith Richards said “Wild Horses” was about a common experience.

Mick Jagger said The Rolling Stones’ ‘Wild Horses’ contained a cliché that didn’t sound like a cliché in context

During a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone, Jagger was asked if Richards wrote “Wild Horses.” “Yeah, it was his melody,” he replied. “And he wrote the phrase ‘wild horses,’ but I wrote the rest of [the lyrics].”

Jagger revealed his opinion of “Wild Horses. “I like the song,” Jagger said. “It’s an example of a pop song. Taking this cliché ‘wild horses,’ which is awful, really, but making it work without sounding like a cliché when you’re doing it.”

Keith Richards said the song was inspired by working with The Rolling Stones after the birth of his son

The book Keith Richards on Keith Richards: Interviews & Encounters includes an interview from 1971. He said he had a greater role in writing the lyrics than Jagger suggested. “‘Wild Horses,’ we wrote the chorus in the john of the Muscle Shoals recording studio ’cause it didn’t finish off right,” he said.

Richards was asked if the song was inspired by the birth of his son, Marlon Leon Sundeep. “Yeah, cause I knew we were going to have to go to America and start work again, to get me off me a**, and not really wanting to go away,” he said. “It was a very delicate moment, the kid’s only two months old, and you’re goin’ away. Millions of people do it all the time but still.”

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How ‘Wild Horses’ and its parent album performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Wild Horses” became a modest hit in the United States. It peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained on the chart for eight weeks. “Wild Horses” appeared on the classic album Sticky Fingers. For four weeks, Sticky Fingers topped the Billboard 200 and lasted on the chart for 69 weeks in total.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Wild Horses” never charted in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Sticky Fingers was a big hit in the U.K. It was No. 1 for five of its 32 weeks on the chart there.

“Wild Horses” is a great song even if it has some cliché lyrics.

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