| Sticky Fingers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Rolling Stones | ||||
| Released | 23 April 1971 | |||
| Recorded | 2–4 December 1969, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sheffield, Alabama, United States; 17 February, March–May, 16 June – 27 July, 17–31 October 1970, and January 1971, Olympic Studios, London, United Kingdom; except "Sister Morphine", begun 22–31 March 1969 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 46:25 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Rolling Stones, Atlantic | |||
| Producer | Jimmy Miller | |||
| The Rolling Stones chronology | ||||
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| Russian cover | ||||
| Spanish cover | ||||
| Singles from Sticky Fingers | ||||
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Sticky Fingers is the ninth British and eleventh American studio album by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in April 1971. It is the band's first album of the 1970s and its first release on the band's newly formed label, Rolling Stones Records, after having been contracted since 1963 with Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US. It is also Mick Taylor's first full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album, and the first not to feature any contributions from founding guitarist Brian Jones. In 2003, Sticky Fingers was listed as number 63 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[1]
Contents |
Although sessions for Sticky Fingers began in earnest in March 1970, The Rolling Stones had recorded at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama in December 1969 and "Sister Morphine", cut during Let It Bleed's sessions earlier in March of that year, was held over for this release. Much of the recording for Sticky Fingers was made with The Rolling Stones' mobile studio unit in Stargroves during the summer and autumn of 1970. Early versions of songs that would appear on Exile on Main St. were also rehearsed during these sessions.[2]
With the end of their Decca/London association at hand, The Rolling Stones would finally be free to release their albums (cover art and all) as they pleased. However, their leaving manager Allen Klein dealt the group a major blow when they discovered that they had inadvertently signed over their entire 1960s copyrights to Klein and his company ABKCO, which is how all of their material from 1963's "Come On" to Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert has since come to be released by ABKCO Records. The band would remain incensed with Klein for decades over the act.
When Decca informed The Rolling Stones that they were owed one more single, they cheekily submitted a track called "Cocksucker Blues",[3] which was guaranteed to be refused. Instead, Decca released the two-year-old Beggars Banquet track "Street Fighting Man" while Klein would have dual copyright ownership, with The Rolling Stones, of "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses".
In 1994 Sticky Fingers was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, again in 2009 by Universal Music Enterprises, and once more in 2011 by Universal Music Enterprises in a Japanese only SHM-SACD version.
The album's artwork emphasizes the suggestive innuendo of the Sticky Fingers title, showing a close-up of a jeans-clad male crotch; the cover of the original (vinyl) release featured a working zipper and mock belt buckle that opened to reveal cotton briefs. The vinyl release displayed the band's name and album title along the image of the belt; behind the zipper the white briefs were seemingly rubber stamped in gold with the name of American pop artist Andy Warhol, below which read "THIS PHOTOGRAPH MAY NOT BE--ETC."[4] While the artwork was conceived by Warhol, photography was by Billy Name and design by Craig Braun.
The cover photo of Joe Dallesandro's crotch clad in tight blue jeans, was assumed by many fans to be an image of Mick Jagger, however the people actually involved at the time of the photo shoot claim that Warhol had several different men photographed (Jagger was not among them) and never revealed which shots he used. Among the candidates, Jed Johnson, Warhol's lover at the time, denied it was his likeness, although his twin brother Jay is a possibility. Those closest to the shoot, and subsequent design, name Factory artist and designer Corey Tippin as the likeliest candidate. After retailers complained that the zipper was causing damage to the vinyl (from stacked shipments of the record), the zipper was "unzipped" slightly to the middle of the record, where damage would be minimized.
The album features the first usage of the band's "tongue & lips" logo, which was originally designed by Ernie Cefalu. Although Ernie's version was used for much of the merchandising and was the design originally shown to the band by Craig Braun, the design used for the album was illustrated by John Pasche.[5]
In 2003, the TV network VH1 named Sticky Fingers the "No. 1 Greatest Album Cover" of all time.
In Spain, the original cover was replaced with a "Can of fingers" cover, and "Sister Morphine" was replaced by the Chuck Berry composition "Let It Rock".
In 1992, the LP release of the album in Russia featured a similar treatment as the original cover; but with Cyrillic lettering for the band name and album name, a colourized photograph of blue jeans with a zipper, and a Soviet Army uniform belt buckle that shows a hammer and sickle inscribed in a star. The model appears to be female.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [6] |
| BBC | (favourable)[7] |
| Blender | [8] |
| Robert Christgau | (A)[9] |
| Rolling Stone | [10] |
| Yahoo! Music | (favourable)[11] |
All songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, except where noted.
| Side one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Brown Sugar" | 3:48 | |||||||
| 2. | "Sway" | 3:50 | |||||||
| 3. | "Wild Horses" | 5:42 | |||||||
| 4. | "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" | 7:14 | |||||||
| 5. | "You Gotta Move" (Fred McDowell/Gary Davis) | 2:32 | |||||||
| Side two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 6. | "Bitch" | 3:38 | |||||||
| 7. | "I Got the Blues" | 3:54 | |||||||
| 8. | "Sister Morphine" (Jagger/Richards/Marianne Faithfull) | 5:31 | |||||||
| 9. | "Dead Flowers" | 4:03 | |||||||
| 10. | "Moonlight Mile" | 5:56 | |||||||
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | UK Top 50 Albums | 1[12] |
| 1971 | Billboard Pop Albums | 1[13] |
| 1971 | Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart | 1 |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | "Brown Sugar" / "Bitch" & "Let It Rock" | UK Top 50 Singles | 2[12] |
| 1971 | "Brown Sugar" | The Billboard Hot 100 | 1[14] |
| 1971 | "Wild Horses" | The Billboard Hot 100 | 28[14] |
| Country | Provider | Certification (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|---|
| United States | RIAA | 3× Platinum |
| France | SNEP | Gold |
| Preceded by 4 Way Street by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young |
Billboard 200 number-one album 22 May – 18 June 1971 |
Succeeded by Tapestry by Carole King |
| Preceded by Cocker Happy by Joe Cocker |
Australian Kent Music Report number-one album 26 July – 8 August 1971 |
Succeeded by Daddy Who? ... Daddy Cool by Daddy Cool |
| Preceded by Motown Chartbusters Volume 5 by Various artists Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney |
UK Albums Chart number-one album 8 May – 5 June 1971 19–26 June 1971 |
Succeeded by Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney Tarkus by Emerson, Lake & Palmer |
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