Sleep Tonight
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“Sleep Tonight” | |||||
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Song by The Rolling Stones | |||||
Album | Dirty Work | ||||
Released | 24 March 1986 | ||||
Recorded | 1985 | ||||
Genre | Rock | ||||
Length | 5m:11s | ||||
Label | Rolling Stones/Virgin | ||||
Writer | Jagger/Richards | ||||
Producer | Steve Lillywhite and The Glimmer Twins | ||||
Dirty Work track listing | |||||
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"Sleep Tonight" appeared on The Rolling Stones' 1986 album Dirty Work. It is the second song on the ten-track album where lead vocals are performed by Keith Richards, "Too Rude" being the first. This was the first time two songs sung by Richards appeared on a Rolling Stones album; since Dirty Work all their studio albums have included at least two tracks featuring Richards' lead vocals.
Richards wrote the song (credited as a Jagger/Richards composition) on piano in the Paris recording studio's control room.[citation needed] Ronnie Wood liked the developing song and they recorded it together unaccompanied.[citation needed] Backing vocals and strings were added later. Wood played drums, since Charlie Watts wasn't present for the session, and Watts later said "he could not have done better."[1]
Richards has stated that his singing during the Dirty Work sessions "thickened up" his voice: Since Jagger was absent from the studio much of the time, Richards provided guide vocals for many tracks and learned new microphone techniques.[2][3] His sturdy but smokey vocal presence on "Sleep Tonight" foreshadows the strong and emotive singing on his solo records and later Rolling Stones tracks.
[edit] The song
"Sleep Tonight" is a piano driven ballad, with a restrained string arrangement. Richards sings with an almost gospel tempo as the heavy drum beat marches out the confusion and uncertainty of a loved one possibly lost. Many fans and critics interpreted the lyrics as reflecting mournfulness over the state of the Rolling Stones at the time.[citation needed]
“ | I wish you baby, all the best, If you turn out like all the rest;
This darkness baby, it's chilling me - Stars stare down in sympathy. |
” |
The song shows a maturing musician and songwriter, and is a bridge between the younger Richards "outlaw" songs, and the more soulful ballads he became known for on later Rolling Stones records like "Slipping Away", "Thru and Thru", "How Can I Stop" and "Losing My Touch".[citation needed]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Elliott, Martin (2002). The Rolling Stones: Complete Recording Sessions 1962-2002. Cherry Red Books, pg. 319. ISBN 1-901447-04-9.
- ^ DeCurtis, Anthony. (1988). "Keith Richards: The Rolling Stone Interview". Rolling Stone. No. 536. 6 October 1988
- ^ Bosso, Joseph. "Keith! Tunings, Teles and the Cosmic Shuffle: The Rolling Stone Goes Solo". Guitar World. v. 9, no.11. December 1988.