Between the Buttons

Between the Buttons
Studio album by The Rolling Stones
Released 20 January 1967
Recorded 3–11 August, 8–26 November, and 13 December 1966
Genre Rock, baroque pop, psychedelic rock
Length 38:51
Language English
Label Decca
Producer Andrew Loog Oldham
The Rolling Stones British chronology
Aftermath
(1966)		 Between the Buttons
(1967)		 Their Satanic Majesties Request
(1967)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic (UK) [1]
Allmusic (US) [2]

Between the Buttons is the fifth British and seventh American studio album by The Rolling Stones. It was released on 20 January 1967 in the United Kingdom and 11 February 1967 in the United States as the follow-up to the ambitious Aftermath. Between the Buttons is seen as the beginning of the Stone's first complete departure from their R&B roots and the beginning of their brief foray into psychedelia.

In 2003, the American version of the album featuring "Ruby Tuesday" and "Let's Spend the Night Together" was ranked number 355 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[3]

Contents

Recording and background

Initial sessions for the album began during the Rolling Stone's 1966 American Tour at Los Angeles' RCA Studios on 3 August 1966 and lasted until the 11th. Dave Hassinger was the engineer. During this time several songs were worked on and the backing tracks for six songs that would appear on the album were recorded. Also completed was the backing track for "Let's Spend the Night Together" and the R&B throwback "Who's Driving Your Plane?", which would appear as a B-side to the somewhat psychedelic "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" single in late September. The band returned to London where sessions continued at IBC Studios on 31 August and lasted until 3 September. This session was dedicated largely to completing "Have You Seen Your Mother..." for single release. Following the release of that single on 23 September, the Stones embarked on their 7th British tour which lasted into early October 1966. It would be their last UK tour for 3 years.

The second block of recording sessions for Between the Buttons began on 8 November at the newly opened Olympic Sound Studios in Barnes, London and alternated between there and Pye Studios until 26 November. During this time the bulk of the album was completed including vocal overdubs of the previously recorded backing tracks, mixing and arranging. "Ruby Tuesday" was also completed. Around the same time producer Andrew Loog Oldham was also preparing the US-only live album Got Live If You Want It!, a contractual requirement from London Records which contained live performances from their British tour 2 months prior mixed with studio tracks overdubbed with fake audience noise. After that album's release on 10 December, a final overdubbing session for Buttons was held at Olympic Studio on 13 December 1966 before Oldham took the tapes back to RCA Studios in Hollywood for final mixing and editing.

The entire album was recorded using a 4-track machine in which certain tracks were bounced down for overdubs, so much so that Mick Jagger felt the songs lost clarity. He commented during an interview, "We bounced it back to do overdubs so many times we lost the sound of it. [The songs] sounded so great, but later on I was really disappointed with it."[4]

Between the Buttons proved to be the last album produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, with whom The Rolling Stones would have a creative falling-out in mid-1967 during the arduous and meandering recording sessions for Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Artwork

The photo shoot for the album cover took place in November 1966 on Primrose Hill, an ancient megalithic mound in North London. The photographer was Gered Mankowitz who also shot the band photos for the cover of Out of Our Heads. The shoot took place at 5:30 in the morning following an all night recording session at Olympic Studios. Using a home-made camera filter constructed of black card, glass and vaseline, Mankowitz created the effect of the Stones dissolving into their surroundings. The goal of the shoot was, in Mankowitz's words, "to capture the ethereal, druggy feel of the time; that feeling at the end of the night when dawn was breaking and they'd been up all night making music, stoned."[5] Brian's disheveled and ghostly appearance on the cover disturbed many of his fans, and critic David Dalton wrote that he looked "like a doomed albino raccoon."[4]

"Brian [Jones] was lurking in his collar," Mankowitz commented years later, "I was frustrated because it felt like we were on the verge of something really special and he was messing it up. But the way Brian appeared to not give a shit is exactly what the band was about."[6] Outtakes from this photo session were later used for the cover and inner sleeves of the 1972 ABKCO compilation release More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies).

The back cover of Between the Buttons is dominated by a six-panel cartoon accompanied by a rhythmic poem drawn by drummer Charlie Watts. When Watts asked Andrew Oldham what the title of the album would be, he told him it was "between the buttons", a term meaning "undecided". Charlie gave the phrase to the title of his cartoon which in turn became the title of the album.[4]

Release and reception

Much like Aftermath, Between the Buttons saw some differences in its UK and US versions. The UK edition (in the form producer Andrew Loog Oldham and The Rolling Stones intended it) was issued on January 20, 1967 (Mono, LK 4852;Stereo, SKL 4852) on Decca Records, concurrently with a separate single, "Let's Spend the Night Together" b/w "Ruby Tuesday". Because of common practice in the British record industry at the time, the single did not appear on the album. Generally well-received (although the critics took note of their influences), Between the Buttons reached #3 in the UK.

The album was reviewed critically by Mick Jagger himself. When asked why he didn't like it, he responded, "I don't know, it just isn't any good. 'Back Street Girl' is about the only one I like."[7] In an interview with New Music Express, he even called the rest of the album "more or less rubbish."[8]

In August 2002 both editions of Between the Buttons were reissued in a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records.[9] All reissues of the album since 1968 have been in stereo; the album's mono mix has yet to see an official CD release. While most reissues have used the US track-listing to maximize profit by featuring the two hit singles, the UK version was re-issued by ABKCO in 2003 on 180 gram vinyl in the US.

Track listing

All songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Yesterday's Papers"   2:04
2. "My Obsession"   3:17
3. "Back Street Girl"   3:27
4. "Connection"   2:08
5. "She Smiled Sweetly"   2:44
6. "Cool, Calm & Collected"   4:17
Side two
No. Title Length
7. "All Sold Out"   2:17
8. "Please Go Home"   3:17
9. "Who's Been Sleeping Here?"   3:55
10. "Complicated"   3:15
11. "Miss Amanda Jones"   2:47
12. "Something Happened to Me Yesterday"   4:55

American release

Between the Buttons
Studio album by The Rolling Stones
Released 11 February 1967
Recorded 3–11 August, 8–26 November, and 13 December 1966
Genre Rock, baroque pop, psychedelic rock
Length 38:42
Language English
Label London
Producer Andrew Loog Oldham
The Rolling Stones American chronology
Got Live If You Want It!
(1966)		 Between the Buttons
(1967)		 Flowers
(1967)

In the US, the album was released by London Records on February 11, 1967 (Mono, LL 3499;Stereo, PS 499). "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" were slotted onto the album while "Back Street Girl" and "Please Go Home" were removed (these would be included on the following US odds-and-ends release, Flowers in July 1967). With "Ruby Tuesday" reaching #1, Between the Buttons shot to #2 in the US, going gold.

Christopher Walsh of Billboard reviewed the album in 2002 and said it "reveals a pensive and somewhat fatigued Rolling Stones" but went on to say, "it's brimming with overlooked gems, the band delivering a captivating blend of folky, Beatles-esque pop and tough bluesy rockers."[9]

In 2003, the American version of the album album was ranked number 355 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[3]

Track listing

All songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Let's Spend the Night Together"   3:38
2. "Yesterday's Papers"   2:01
3. "Ruby Tuesday"   3:16
4. "Connection"   2:08
5. "She Smiled Sweetly"   2:44
6. "Cool, Calm & Collected"   4:17
Side two
No. Title Length
7. "All Sold Out"   2:17
8. "My Obsession"   3:20
9. "Who's Been Sleeping Here?"   3:55
10. "Complicated"   3:15
11. "Miss Amanda Jones"   2:47
12. "Something Happened to Me Yesterday"   4:55

Personnel

Additional musicians

Chart positions

Album
Year Chart Position
1967 UK Albums Chart #3[10]
1967 Billboard 200 #2[11]
Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1967 "Let's Spend the Night Together/Ruby Tuesday" UK Top 40 Singles #3[10]
1967 "Let's Spend the Night Together" The Billboard Hot 100 #55[12]
1967 "Ruby Tuesday" The Billboard Hot 100 1[12]

Certifications

Country Provider Certification
(sales thresholds)
United States RIAA Gold

References

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Allmusic review
  3. ^ a b "Between the Buttons". rollingstone.com. January, 2003. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/between-the-buttons-the-rolling-stones-19691231. Retrieved August 19, 2011. 
  4. ^ a b c Davis, Stephen (2001). Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones. Broadway Books. ISBN 978-0-7679-0956-3. 
  5. ^ Craske, Oliver (2004). Rock Faces - The World's Top Rock 'n' Roll Photographers and Their Greatest Images. Rotovision. pp. 89. ISBN 978-2880467814. 
  6. ^ Woolridge, Max (2002). Rock 'N' Roll London. Singapore: New Holland Publishers. pp. 72. ISBN 0-312-30442-0. 
  7. ^ Torres, Ben Fong (1981). The Rolling Stone Interviews: 1967-1980. New York: Rolling Stone Press. pp. 48–49. ISBN 0-312-03486-5. 
  8. ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits (5th ed.). New York: Billboard Books. pp. 1301. ISBN 0-8230-7677-6. 
  9. ^ a b Walsh, Christopher (24 August 2002). "Super audio CDs: The Rolling Stones Remastered". Billboard (Billboard): pp. 27. 
  10. ^ a b http://www.everyhit.com/ Type in "Rolling Stones" under "Name of Artist"
  11. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p5298/charts-awards/billboard-albums
  12. ^ a b http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p5298/charts-awards/billboard-singles
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The Rolling Stones album discography
UK studio albums
1964–1967

The Rolling Stones (1964) · The Rolling Stones No. 2 (1965) · Out of Our Heads (1965) · Aftermath (1966) · Between the Buttons (1967)
US studio albums
1964–1967

The Rolling Stones (England's Newest Hit Makers) (1964) · 12 X 5 (1964) · The Rolling Stones, Now! (1965) · Out of Our Heads (1965) · December's Children (And Everybody's) (1965) · Aftermath (1966) · Between the Buttons (1967)
Studio albums
1967–present

Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967) · Beggars Banquet (1968) · Let It Bleed (1969) · Sticky Fingers (1971) · Exile on Main St. (1972) · Goats Head Soup (1973) · It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974) · Black and Blue (1976) · Some Girls (1978) · Emotional Rescue (1980) · Tattoo You (1981) · Undercover (1983) · Dirty Work (1986) · Steel Wheels (1989) · Voodoo Lounge (1994) · Bridges to Babylon (1997) · A Bigger Bang (2005)
UK EPs
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