Writers: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham
Recorded: 1965, Chess Studio, Chicago, and RCA Studio, Hollywood, California
Released: May 27, 1965
| Players: | Mick Jagger–vocals, harmonicas Keith Richards–guitars Brian Jones–guitars, keyboards Bill Wyman–bass Charlie Watts–drums, percussion Ian Stewart–keyboards Jack Nitzsche–keyboards, percussion Phil Spector–zoom bass |
| Album: | Out Of Our Heads (London, 1965) |
“Satisfaction” entered the pop chart at Number 67 in the U.S., but went on to became the Rolling Stones' first Number One hit in America.
An earlier Stones single, “The Last Time,” hit the top 10, but “Satisfaction” immediately launched the group past Herman's Hermits, Peter & Gordon, the Animals,Manfred Mann, and Freddie & the Dreamers, and up to the Beatles' popularity level.
Singer-guitarist Keith Richards came up with the powerful, distinctive guitar sound while fooling with his new Gibson fuzz box late at night at a hotel. He came up with a riff that stuck in his head with such force that he had to bang on lead singer Mick Jagger's door in the middle of the night. Later, Jagger wrote the lyrics, which, according to the book Rock Of Ages, gave the Stones “their own built-in paradox by musically delivering what the lyrics insisted was unattainable.”
Richards has also perpetuated the story that he woke up one night with the riff in his head, recorded it and then promptly fell back asleep. “There was two minutes of music and a half-hour of me snoring on the tape,'' he said.
Critic Robert Christgau wrote that the song “dominated the summer of 1965, securing a pop audience half of which was content to shout “I can't get no” while the other half decided that the third verse was about a girl who wouldn't put out during her period.”
