Ranking The Rolling Stones No. 1 Hits
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, it’s hard to argue The Rolling Stones aren’t one of the most popular bands ever. Paul McCartney claimed George Harrison got the Stones their recording contract, but whether or not that’s true doesn’t matter. They made the most of their opportunity and created several seminal albums along the way. They also found success on the Billboard singles chart. Eight Rolling Stones songs reached No. 1, but some ranked higher than others.
Note: We ranked The Rolling Stones’ eight No. 1 hits based on weeks atop the Billboard singles chart and total weeks on the chart. The only place we had to make an editorial decision was at the No. 4 spot.
8. ‘Ruby Tuesday’
One of The Rolling Stones’ most heartfelt ballads was also one of their chart-topping hits. The song, off their 1967 album Between the Buttons, spent one week atop the Billboard charts and 12 weeks on the hot 100 overall.
7. ‘Angie’
Another ballad, another chart-topping hit. The tender “Angie” followed the rollicking “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” on the Goats Head Soup album, proving the Stones could shift gears with the best of them. The song spent 16 weeks on the charts and peaked at No. 1 in October 1973.
6. ‘Miss You’
Sitting near the nexus of blues and soul, the lead track from 1978’s Some Girls announced the Stones still had the magic. “Miss You” gave the band its first chart-topper in nearly five years (“Angie” landed in 1973) and helped give the band its second wind.
Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You followed at the dawn of the 1980s and provided other certifiable hits. “Start Me Up” peaked as a Billboard No. 2, and the song “Emotional Rescue” hit No. 3. Close but no cigar to matching “Miss You,” which lasted 20 weeks on the chart and spent a week at No. 1.
5. ‘Paint It, Black’
Keith Richards said The Rolling Stones were ahead of the trend with “Paint It, Black.” The track was cynical, bleak, and rude, and audiences embraced it. The lead track from the 1966 Aftermath album lasted 11 weeks on the Billboard chart and reached peak position in June of that year.
Many fans misinterpreted the song as being about the Vietnam War. In reality, “Paint It, Black” is about a man mourning his dead lover. The fact that it can insert itself into any situation of despair and conflict is one of the reasons “Paint It, Black” remains one of the Stones’ signature songs.
4. ‘Get Off of My Cloud’
Being buried on Side 2 wasn’t the place to find hit songs in vinyl’s peak era. Still, that didn’t affect “Get Off of My Cloud” one bit. The tune from the 1965 album December’s Children (And Everybody’s) was The Rolling Stones’ second American chart-topper.
Richards’ memorable guitar riff and Charlie Watts’ rapid-fire snare fill make “Get Off of My Cloud” an enduring classic. Its performance as a single reflects that. The song spent two weeks at No. 1 and 12 weeks on the Billboard chart. Even though it had the same chart success as the next song, we ranked it No. 4 because you can’t mention The Rolling Stones without mentioning “Brown Sugar” and Sticky Fingers.
3. ‘Brown Sugar’
Mick Jagger’s narrative might contain some of the most offensive lyrics in classic rock history. They’re racist and misogynistic, and Jagger doesn’t know why he wrote them.
That said, “Brown Sugar” is one of The Rolling Stones’ signature songs, and it comes from Sticky Fingers, which might be their finest album. It would take mountains of evidence and a lengthy debate to convince Stones fans otherwise on both counts.
Like “Get Off of My Cloud,” “Brown Sugar” spent two of its 12 weeks on the Billboard hot 100 sitting in the top spot. We nudged it up the list because of the song’s stature and that of the album it came from.
2. ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’
Thank the record-buying public for proving Richards wrong. The guitarist didn’t think “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” would be successful because he didn’t like the song. Maybe that’s because it started life as a folk song before morphing into an insistent R&B rocker.
Richards’ memorable crunchy riff, Watts’ insistent beat, and Bill Wyman’s bopping bass line make it a Stones staple. It appeared on the setlist for the band’s 2022 tour, according to Concert Archives.
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is the song that started it all, The Rolling Stones’ first No. 1 in the U.S. It spent 14 weeks on the Billboard hot 100 in 1965, including four weeks at No. 1.
1. “Honky Tonk Women’
Was “Honky Tonky Women” the best single of all time? It has to be in the discussion. The Stones released the non-album track in 1969, though the band placed a more countrified version with slightly different lyrics on Let It Bleed that year. The B-side to “Honky Tonk Women?” The now-iconic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which charted on its own four years later.
That 1-2 punch helped lift “Honky Tonk Women” to the top of the Billboard singles chart just a few weeks after its summer 1969 release. It spent four of its 15 weeks holding down the top spot.
“Honky Tonk Women” ranks as The Rolling Stones’ top No. 1 hit thanks to its time at the top and longevity on the chart. Yet the song has been one of the band’s signature songs for more than 50 years.
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