Lou Reed released his first solo album this month

Lou Reed Lou Reed

Released: May 1972 Peak: 189 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU, 13 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. I Can’t Stand It [2:37] Going Down [2:57] Walk and Talk It [3:40] Lisa Says [5:34] Berlin [5:16] I Love You [2:21] Wild Child [4:41] Love Makes You Feel [3:13] Ride into the Sun [3:16] Ocean [5:07] All songs written by Lou Reed. Total Running Time: 38:08 The Players: Lou Reed (vocals, guitar) Caleb Quaye (guitar, piano) Steve Howe, Paul Keough (guitar) Rick Wakeman (piano) Les Hurdle, Brian Odgers (bass) Clem Cattini (percussion) Kay Garner, Helene Francois (harmony vocals)

Rating: 3.540 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Post-Velvet Underground After leaving Velvet Underground in 1970, Lou Reed and his soon-to-be first wife Bettye Kronstad hung out a lot at the Manhattan apartment of Richard and Lisa Robinson. They were a husband-and-wife team of “writers/producers/scenesters/tastemakers.” ER-13 Richard and record executive Dennis Katz facilitated the release of Reed from his contract with Atlantic Records and got him signed to RCA. ER-13 It is important to recognize that “it would be years before the cult of the Velvet Underground became big enough to mean anything commercially.” AM That meant that on the doorstep of his solo career, Reed was “pretty much back where he started from in the public eye after five years of hard work, and he seemed to be searching for a different musical direction on this set without quite deciding what it would be.” AM As such, neither Reed nor RCA quite knew what to do. The Recording of His Debut Album In an effort to distance himself – literally and figuratively – from New York City, to which Reed’s Velvet Underground was so tied, Reed headed to London with Robinson (who served as producer) to record his first solo album. In what seemed an odd move, Reed tapped a lot of session musicians – including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from Yes – who “were luminaries in the prog rock field,” ER-13 not exactly a genre associated with a man credited with birthing punk and heavy metal with Velvet Underground’s experimental, proto-punk rock. “This is not a bad album, but its greatest sin is just how totally and utterly ordinary it is.” ER-14 “The production is flat, the playing competent but sparkless, and the singer tentative.” ER-14 “One wonders what Richard Robinson’s role was in the studio.” ER-14 The Material “While the best tunes are admirably lean, no-frills rock & roll, there are also several featuring tricked-up arrangements that don't suit the material terribly well.” AM Part of the problem is Reed’s lack of new material. Eight of the ten songs on his debut album were “revised and dusted-off VU chestnuts,” ER-13 although many of the versions by the Velvets wouldn’t see official release until years later. The trend would continue over several more Lou Reed solo albums. This means that “the versions of these songs are not the best they can be.” ER-14 Over the years, they have changed “arrangements and even lyrics as their creator continuously tinkers.” ER-14 Ultimately, Lou Reed’s first solo album serves “as a stepping stone for what’s to come, and while it leaves much to be desired, we are all the better for it.” ER-14 On its own terms, Lou Reed isn't a bad album, but it isn't a terribly interesting one either, and since superior performances of most of these songs are available elsewhere, it stands today more as a historical curiosity than anything else.” AM Notes Early versions of “I Can’t Stand It,” “Lisa Says,” “Ocean,” “Ride into the Sun,” “Walk and Talk It,” and “I Love You” are all available on the Velvet Underground’s box set Peel Slowly and See. An early version of “Love Makes You Feel” is also available on the Velvet Underground’s Fully Loaded reissue of Loaded. On top of all that, the song “Berlin” then also shows up as the title cut for Reed’s third solo album. The Songs Check the track listing above for links to the songs that originated as Velvet Underground songs. The songs that were first recorded by Lou Reed for his first solo album are detailed below.

Going Down Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Lou Reed (1972), Legendary (box set: 2002) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.71 streaming About the Song: “Lou’s dry, slightly askew ‘ballad-style’ voice” ER-14 is “curiously buried in the mix. He sings as if he truly wants to believe in the lyric’s tried-and-true tale of bleak realizations and deflated dreams, but he remains hesitant.” ER-14 This is an idea that runs roughshod throughout this album: hesitancy, as if the artist was just really not sure of what he was creating…The band, in their impeccable, professional way, keep things moving along, bu the end results add up to precious little.” ER-14

Berlin Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Lou Reed (1972), Berlin (1973), Rock and Roll Diary (compilation: 1980), Retro (compilation: 1989), The Best of Lou Reed & Velvet Underground (compilation: 1995), Different Times: Lou Reed in the ‘70s (compilation: 1996), The Very Best of (compilation: 2000), NYC Man – The Ultimate Collection (compilation: 2003), NYC Man – Greatest Hits (compilation: 2004) Peak: 33 CL, 28 CO, 16 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 3.71 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Most of the songs featured on Lou Reed’s self-titled debut solo album originated as Velvet Underground songs that didn’t see release at the time. “Berlin” was one of the few songs that was new to this album but it also saw different incarnations – just in the opposite direction. In this case, the song started here but “would germinate and blossom into much heartier, juicier fruit in the future, but you wouldn’t know that here.” ER-15 “The listener can’t help but pine for the song’s penultimate representation a few years later” ER-15 “that caps the later album of the same name.” ER-15 On this, the original version, “Rick Wakeman’s cocktail piano sets the stage for our mini tableau of Lou’s many lyrical images. Clem Cattini’s soft brushwork compliments the mood as Lou reservedly croons about walls, height measurements, and syrupy liqueurs on ice.” ER-15 “Lou delivers a vocal performance that cautiously rises above the album’s typically tepid delivery. The last 30 seconds of the song bring a pointless up-tempo vamp that suggest little more than a musical stage show’s closing number.” ER-15 Reed reworked the song for his 1973 album of the same name. The newer version “is lyrically simplified, the key changed and re-arranged for piano.” WK “Lou’s emotional commitment to his vocals, while hushed and subdued, is stunning, and the full sonic palette on offer here, courtesy of Bob Ezrin, has a lush and panoramic dimension to it.” ER-29

Wild Child Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Lou Reed (1972), Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of (compilation: 1977), Retro (compilation: 1989), The Best of Lou Reed & Velvet Underground (compilation: 1995) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.32 streaming About the Song: This track “is not only sonically more than functional but almost fun as well. Lou’s delivery raises its temperature noticeably, as he rolls through lyrics that blend his typical character-driven narrative with the occasional low-wattage, now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t surrealism of his words that can both tickle and tempt the listener in equal measures.” ER-16 “At the conclusion of the second set of verses, just before the first chorus, Lou lets rip with a very uncharacteristic Jagger-esque yelp, as if to show the listener that he really means this one.” ER-16 “Ultimately, it’s just a nifty little rock ‘n’ roll song.” ER-16

Love Makes You Feel Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Lou Reed (1972), Different Times: Lou Reed in the ‘70s (compilation: 1996), Legendary (box set: 2002) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.46 streaming About the Song: “This song, yet another polished-up relic from the near-past, stands out with regard to the fact that it is the album’s most musically complex song. While that’s not saying much…it has too many chords for a Lou Reed song…The lyrics, which revolve around the already generally settled idea that ‘love makes you feel ten feet tall,’ are basic in the extreme.” ER-16 There’s a point where the band plays “a tom-tom-driven rave-up with super-strummy guitars that lasts for 30 seconds before finding its denouement and returning the song to its original tempo and subsequent resolution…This section does the song no service, but prog-rockers gonna prog-rock.” ER-16

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Mark Deming ER Ethan Roy (2023). On Track…Lou Reed 1972-1986. Sonicbond Publishing: United Kingdom. Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/28/2008; last updated 9/10/2026.

 

The Rolling Stones released Exile on Main Street

Exile on Main Street The Rolling Stones

Released: May 12, 1972 Peak: 11 US, 11 UK, 16 CN, 6 AU, 15 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.30 UK, 7.0 world (includes US and UK), 11.27 EAS Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Rocks Off [4:31] Rip This Joint [2:22] Shake Your Hips [2:59] Casino Boogie [3:33] Tumbling Dice [3:45] Sweet Virginia [4:27] Torn and Frayed [4:17] Sweet Black Angel [2:54] Loving Cup [4:25] Happy [3:04] Turd on the Run [2:36] Ventilator Blues [3:24] I Just Want to See His Face [2:52] Let It Loose [5:16] All Down the Line [3:49] Stop Breaking Down [4:34] Shine a Light [4:14] Soul Survivor [3:49] Total Running Time: 67:07 2019 Bonus Disc: Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren) [4:54] Plundered My Soul [3:59] I’m Not Signifying [3:55] Following the River [4:52] Dancing in the Light [4:21] So Divine (Aladdin Story) [4:32] Loving Cup (alternate take) [5:26] Soul Survivor (alternate take) [3:59] Good Time Women [3:21] Title 5 [1:47] All Down the Line (alternate take) [4:09] The Players: Mick Jagger (vocals, harmonica) Keith Richards (guitar) Mick Taylor (guitar) Bill Wyman (bass) Charlie Watts (drums)

Rating: 4.564 out of 5.00 (average of 32 ratings) Quotable: “Regarded as the Rolling Stones’ finest album.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

A Double Album “Few other albums, let alone double albums, have been so rich and masterful as Exile on Main Street.” AM This “sprawling, weary double album” AM “allowed the band to relax a bit.” CD “Greeted with decidedly mixed reviews upon its original release,” AM it is now “regarded as the Rolling Stones’ finest album. Part of the reason why the record was initially greeted with hesitant reviews is that it takes a while to assimilate.” AM How It Stands Up to Other Stones’ Albums “At the tail end of the ‘60s the Stones evolved not just into an unbelievable album band, but really lived up to their credo as the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band.” PK “The semi-acoustic Americana of ‘68s’ Beggars Banquet got the ball rolling, but it was really the trio of albums after Mick Taylor replaced Brian Jones as guitarist that show the Stones at their very best – ‘69s’ Let It Bleed, ‘71s’ near-perfect Sticky Fingers, and of course Exile on Main Street.” PK With Exile, the Rolling Stones’ tenth album, the band “transcended anything they’d made up until that point.” PM They “set out to prove once and for all they were the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world by recording the crowning jewel” RV that “caps the Stones’ great 1968-‘72 run.” AZ2 It “is the last great album from one of rock’s greatest bands.” RV It came “during their most decadent and hedonistic period” CQ Given those “legendarily louche circumstances..it’s a miracle this double set…contains any great songs.” EW’12 However, the “angst and tension within their personal lives during this tumultuous period were channeled musically throughout Exile, which is kinda what makes it so great.” CQ This was “some of the best work of the band’s career and the album that defined early ‘70s music.” CQ It “sets a remarkably high standard for all of hard rock” AM and has become celebrated as “one of the most essential rock records ever created.” BN With “its overall murky adrenaline,” AZ1 Exile the songs take “the bleakness that underpinned Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers to an extreme.” AM “If the late ‘60s were the Rolling Stones’ road trip through rock’s American roots, then Exile on Main Street was the stop at the highway diner.” CD Author Jimmy Guterman asserts that the best word to describe the album is “mud.” JG Mastering Old Sounds Exile is “chaotic, loud, dirty and full of dark corners, radical mood swings.” RV It is “raucous, boozy, weary, violent and sex-obsessed.” TL It “sounds like the work of heathen outlaws, which of course it was. On the run from Fleet street mobs, narcotics officers and the Inland Revenue, the Stones…composed an epic blues that went beyond tribute and beyond blue.” TL They don’t “leap into new worlds so much as master the old ones” AZ1 via an “excursion into back-alley Americana” EW’93 as they “speed through familiar neighborhoods of country, blues, and R&B.” AZ1 It “is a grab-bag of genius, never resting in one sound for too long.” PM For example, “no longer does their country sound forced or kitschy – it’s lived-in and complex, just like the group’s forays into soul and gospel.” AM “The album is rich with some of the same rootsy Southern sprit” BN as the Sticky Fingers recording sessions in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. “In this rich assortment of gospel and blues Mick is by no means out of his element,” CD but Exile “found the Stones sounding more like Keith Richards’ juke-joint band than ever before.” CD At the same time, Exile isn’t just a throwback with its sound. USA Today asserted that “the band's scrappy, ramshackle blues-rock manifesto foreshadowed grunge.” UT The Band “The core of the music is the guitar interplay between Richards and Mick Taylor,” TB who are both “spinning off incredible riffs and solos.” AM “Jagger’s vocals are buried in the mix” AM leaving him “with something akin to pure singing, utilizing only his uncanny sense of style to carry him home…His performances [prove] that there’s no other vocalist who can touch him, note for garbled note.” RS He “manages to sound intently focused and deeply stoned.” TL Note: author Jimmy Guterman calls Richards “the greatest harmony singer in the history of rock and roll.” JG Meanwhile, drummer Charlie Watts “minds the store with impeccable rhythm.” TL He has “room not only to set the pace rhythmically but to also provide the bulk of the drive and magnetism” RS while Bill Wyman, whose “bass has never been recorded with an eye to clarity…fulfills his support role with a grace that is unfailingly admirable.” RS Many of the songs don’t feature all five of the Rolling Stones. JG They “assembled a brilliant set of personnel around themselves, too, with Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Ian Stewart, Jim Price and Bobby Keys laying down some absolutely ripping ensemble pieces and accentuating the music with such unkempt gnarliness that it sounds like the antithesis of Pet Sounds.” PM The Recording To escape tax problems in England, the Rolling Stones headed to France, “breaking the rule that records are supposed to be made in recording studios.” TB While they did record some songs in more traditional settings in Los Angeles and London, most were via a mobile recording gig in the basement of a 19th century villa outside Nice that belonged to Richards, JG who served as the “prime architect of the material.” TB The house was “cold and damp, and overdubs were done in the kitchen while people were eating or talking.” TB They recorded a batch of songs “written between 1968 and 1972. These legendary sessions defined the adage “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” before it became cliché.” CQ The “newly married Jagger, out to prove that he hadn’t completely made his peace with conventional mores, turned in some of the best performances of his career.” CC “In the tradition of Phil Spector, they’ve constructed a wash of sound in which to frame their songs, yet where Spector always aimed to create an impression of space and airiness, the Stones group everything together in one solid mass.” RS “Much of it sounds as if it was recorded live at a gospel revival.” CD The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Rocks Off The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972), Grrr! (2012), Honk (2019) Peak: 21 CL Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 38.57 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: The noise fest kicks off with “the hyper Rocks Off” AZ1 which “sets the tone for the rest of the album.” RV “The Stones have come up with a monster, an all-out assault of guitars and dueling vocals (not to mention one of the most definitive rock & roll lyrics of the last thirty years: ‘The sunshine bores the daylights out of me’).” PK It features “one of Richards’ patented guitar scratchings” RS and Jagger’s “swaggering frustration” AZ1 “over an incredible horn section like a roadhouse rocker with an orchestra.” RV This is “a proto-typical Stones’ opener…great choruses and well-judged horn bursts, painlessly running you through the motions.” RS “Ostensibly a bar-room rocker, ‘Rocks Off’ was probably closer to the Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light/White Heat,’ both in its unadulterated onslaught of sound and in its speed-driven , brain-addled reportage.” CC

Rip This Joint The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972), Made in the Shade (1975) Peak: 48 CL, 32 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 19.11 streaming About the Song: Rip This Joint, with its “Little Richard groove,” JG “is a stunner, getting down to the business at hand with the kind of music the Rolling Stones were born to play. It starts at a pace that yanks you into its locomotion full tilt, and never lets up from there; the sax solo is the purest of rock and roll.” RS It “was built for clubland…the floor caving in with the crush of bodies whipped into a frenzy by two minutes of classic rock ‘n’ roll.” CC

Shake Your Hips The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Slim Harpo Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 12.14 streaming About the Song: “The funky juke joint take on Slim Harpo’s Shake Your Hips” JG “mounts up as another plus, with a mild boogie tempo and a fine mannered vocal from Jagger. The guitars are the focal point.” RS It “was handled well, without falling into parody, or sophisticated, whited-out blues blandess.” CC

Casino Boogie The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 9.15 streaming About the Song: This is “not one of the album highlights.” CC The “skeletal, exhausted Casino Boogie” JG “is saved by Bobby Keys’ artful sax break.” CC

Tumbling Dice The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: 4/14/1972 (single), Exile on Main Street (1972), Made in the Shade (1975), Rewind (1984), Jump Back (1993), Forty Licks (2002), Grrr! (2012), Honk (2019) B Side: Sweet Black Angel” Peak: 7 BB, 10 CB, 18 GR, 4 HR, 3 CL, 5 UK, 7 CN, 22 AU, 6 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 119.25 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: The “luxurious Tumbling Dice” CD “is the epitome of The Stones’ distinctive groove.” TB It “is one of the most rambunctious blues-rock tunes in history, with a boogie-woogie rhythm that is a resounding gem of the Mick Jagger-Keith Richards songwriting partnership.” PM “The song builds to the kind of majesty the Stones at their best have always provided…Keith’s simple guitar figure providing the nicest of bridges, the chorus touching the upper levels of heaven and spurring on Jagger, set up by an arrangement that is both unique and imaginative. It’s definitely the cut that deserved the single.” RS

Sweet Virginia The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: 30 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 60.79 streaming About the Song: “Producer Jimmy Miller valued atmosphere over precision in his recording techniques, so Mick Jagger competes with a wooly sax and a juke joint piano and still his vocals make Sweet Virginia feel…like a bruise that’s fun to touch.” TL It “is a perfectly friendly lazy shuffle that gets hung on an overemphasized ‘shit’ in the chorus.” RS It was “the nearest the Stones ever got to a round-the-campfire singalong.” CC “If one Stones’ song was written by Keith and Gram Parsons up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, ‘Sweet Virginia’ must have been it.” CC

Torn and Frayed The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 11.54 streaming About the Song: “Torn and Frayed has trouble getting started, but as it inexorably rolls to its coda the Stones find their flow and relax back, allowing the tune to lovingly expand.” RS This “could be the epitaph to the Stones’ career. Richards goes unplugged and Jagger puts away his patented swagger to create a beautiful homage to the blues.” RV “What could have been a throwaway was elevated by some splendid gteel guitar, courtesy of Al Perkins, atmospheric organ from horn player Jim Price, and Jagger providing just the right featherlight touch the song required.” CC

Sweet Black Angel The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: Oct. – Nov. ’70 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Stargroves, Newbury and Olympic Sound Studios in London; June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: 4/14/1972 (B side of “Tumbling Dice”), Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 9.68 streaming About the Song: “Sweet Black Angel,” is built on a “vaguely West Indian rhythm and Jagger playing Desmond Dekker, comes off as a pleasant experiment that works.” RS It features “Jagger’s wildly exaggerated delivery of a tender message of support to black American radical Angela Davis.” CC “There is something distinctly odd about Jagger’s most outrageous act of mimicry yet…as he delivers the ‘free de sweet black slave’ punchline, but the sentiments sideswept the almost painful parody.” CC

Loving Cup The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: 30 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 31.89 streaming About the Song: “Loving Cup and other songs on Exile “betray their Southern gospel leanings.” CD “With Nicky Hopkins and a punchy brass section in tow, the Stones furthered their own white gospel ambitions in tub-thumping fashion.” CC The song dates back to 1969 when the Stones introduced “Loving Cup” at a concert at Hyde Park in July. CC

Happy The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: 77/15/1972 (single), Exile on Main Street (1972), Made in the Shade (1975), Forty Licks (2002), Grrr! (2012), Honk (2019) B Side: “All Down the Line” Peak: 22 BB, 14 CB, 29 GR, 12 HR, 6 CL, 9 CN, 17 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 37.10 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Happy is “essentially…Richards’ show.” CC He wrote it, sings it, and plays bass and guitar, CC letting “loose on some of his best riffs.” RV It “provided the template for his future lead vocal sorties.” CC It “lives up to its title from start to finish. It’s a natural-born single,” RS “the closest thing to a pop number…on the album.” RS It “was basically cut as a warm-up, hence the impromptu backing group of just Jimmy Miller on drums and Bobby Keys on sax.” CC

Turd on the Run The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.37 streaming About the Song: “Turd on the Run, even belying its gimmicky title, is a superb little hustler; if Keith can be said to have a showpiece on this album, this is it. Taking off from a jangly ‘Maybellene’ rhythm guitar, he misses not a flick of the wrist, sitting behind the force of the instrumental and shoveling it along.” RS The “instrumental backing [is] very much the outraged offspring of the obscure B-side ‘Stoned’ almost a decade earlier.” CC

Ventilator Blues The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 13.0 streaming About the Song: The band rework Harpo’s “Hip Shake” “into a harp-and-piano steamroller…in Ventilator Blues” AZ1 with Mick “spreading the guts of his voice all over the microphone.” RS “Keith claims [it] was inspired by a grate, while the song plays like an ode to a pistol.” AZ2 “It was a measure of the band’s greatness…that they could…transform a grizzly riff into something invested with all the ‘soul’ they’d once sought to locate in second-rate covers of Otis Redding songs.” CC

I Just Want to See His Face The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. ’71 (?) at Olympic Sound Studios in London; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.04 streaming About the Song: I Just Want to See His Face is a “Dr. John-influenced voodoo incantation.” CC “Jagger and the chorus sinuously wavering around a grand collection of jungle drums.” RS

Let It Loose The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 12.07 streaming About the Song: With its “frank blues,” JG “the soulful, redemptive” JG “Let It Loose…is one beautiful song, both lyrically and melodically. Like on ‘Tumbling Dice,’ everything seems to work as a body here, the gospel chorus providing tension, the leslie’d guitar rounding the mysterious nature of the track, a great performance from Mick and just the right touch of backing instruments” RS alongside his “rare display of genuine emotion.” CC The “horn arrangements were all but Memphis in name.” CC

All Down the Line The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: 7/7/1972 (B side of “Happy”), Exile on Main Street (1972), Time Waits for No One (1979) Peak: 77 CB, 74 HR, 14 CL, 25 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 10.63 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “Rocks Off,” “Happy,” “Ventilator Blues” and “the rollicking boogie of All Down the Line” PK “are some of the best country-rock joints ever conceived by a band from England.” PM This “all-out rocker” JG dates back to October 1969 when it was recorded at Elektra Studios in Los Angeles in acoustic form. CC It features “a rip-roaring Taylor slide solo.” CC

Stop Breaking Down The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Robert Johnson Recorded: June 7 – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.68 streaming About the Song: Stop Breaking Down, “a luxurious cover version” JG of a Robert Johnson song, “shows their undeniable respect for American blues.” CD “This was exactly the kind of song Brian Jones wanted the Stones to make during the Beggars Banquet sessions.” CC

Shine a Light The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June and Oct. 21-31, 1970 at Olympic Sound Studios in London; June – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: 32 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 39.06 streaming About the Song: “Shine a Light and Soul Survivor sound as energetic and powerful as they did when recorded 38 years ago.” CQ “The gospel-influenced reckoning of” JG “Shine a Light” “begins deceptively with a flashback of electronically generated psychedelic sound, before Jagger sermonizes to the sound of Billy Preston’s hotline-to-heaven organ playing.” CC “The band weren’t afraid to experiment, as the highly echoed guitar, and an ‘underwater effect’ on the backing vocals, amply illustrate.” CC The song “provides a contrast to the narcotic murk and sudden snarls that preceded it.” JG

Soul Survivor The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Recorded: June – Oct. ’71 at Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Nellcote, France; Nov. – Dec. ’71 and Jan. – Mar. ’72 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles Released: Exile on Main Street (1972) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.98 streaming About the Song: “Soul Survivor” “provides a fitting end to the Stones’ finest hour.” CC “The song captures the band at their best; getting the most out of a riff, verses that shy clear of melodic flamboyance, and a deceptively rousing non-chorus.” CC “It’s one of the last truly awesome expressions of the Stones’ greatness.” CC

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine AZ1 Amazon review by Steve Knopper AZ2 Amazon review by Rickey Wright BN Barnes & Noble review by Martin Johnson CD Cd Universe CC Chris Charlesworth, editor (2008). 25 Albums That Rocked the World!. Omnibus Press: London, England. Pages 106-114. CQ Consequence.net (9/12/2022). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” CM Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson (2012). 100 Best Albums of All Time. Hardie Grant Books. Page 120. EW’93 Entertainment Weekly (10/29/1993). “100 Greatest CDs: A Love-It-Or-Loathe It Guide to the Essential Disc Library” EW’12 Entertainment Weekly (9/27/2012). “Top 100 Albums” JG Jimmy Guterman (1992). The Best Rock ‘N’ Roll Records of All Time: A Fan’s Guide to the Stuff You Love. Citadel Press Book: New York, NY. Pages 4-5. MG Philippe Margotin & Jean-Michel Guesdon (2022). The Rolling Stones: All the Songs. Hachette Book Group: New York, NY. PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” PK Pop Kulcher/Marc Fagel Greatest Rock & Roll Albums of All Time RV The Review (Oct./Nov. 2001). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher RS Rolling Stone review by Lenny Kaye. Originally in print issue 112. TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 152. TL Time Magazine (11/13/2006). “All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light UT USA Today (12/5/2003). “Top 40 Albums – the USA Today Way” Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/23/2008; last 10/1/2026.