Sticky Fingers

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Template:About Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Italic title {{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |{{#if: Template:Start date | Template:Short description}}}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert1970Exile on Main St.1972studioSticky FingersThe Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers.pngyesthe Rolling StonesTemplate:Start date* 22–31 March 1969

Sticky Fingers is the ninth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was released on 23 April 1971 on the Rolling Stones' new label, Rolling Stones Records.

The Rolling Stones had been contracted by Decca Records and London Records in the UK and the US since 1963. On this album, Mick Taylor made his second full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album (after the live album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!). It was the first studio album without Brian Jones, who had died two years earlier. The original Grammy-nominated cover artwork, conceived and photographed by Andy Warhol, showed a picture of a man in tight jeans, and had a working zip that opened to reveal underwear fabric. The cover was expensive to produce and damaged the vinyl record, so the size of the zipper adjustment was made by John Kosh at ABKCO Records. Later re-issues featured just the outer photograph of the jeans.

The album featured a return to basics for the Rolling Stones. The unusual instrumentation introduced several albums prior was absent, with most songs featuring drums, guitar, bass, and percussion as provided by the key members: Mick Jagger (lead vocals, various percussion and rhythm guitar), Keith Richards (guitar and backing vocals), Mick Taylor (guitar), Bill Wyman (bass guitar), and Charlie Watts (drums). Additional contributions were made by long-time Stones collaborators including saxophonist Bobby Keys and keyboardists Billy Preston, Jack Nitzsche, Ian Stewart, and Nicky Hopkins. As with the other albums of the Rolling Stones late 1960s/early 1970s period, it was produced by Jimmy Miller.

Sticky Fingers is widely regarded as one of the Rolling Stones' best albums. It was the band's first album to reach number one on both the UK albums and US albums charts, and has since achieved triple platinum certification in the US. "Brown Sugar" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. Sticky Fingers was voted the second best album of the year in The Village VoiceTemplate:'s annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1971, based on American critics' votes. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and included in Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

Background

With the end of their Decca/London association at hand, the Rolling Stones were finally free to release their albums (including cover art) as they pleased. However, their departing manager Allen Klein dealt the group a major blow when they discovered that they had inadvertently signed over their entire 1960s American 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 been released solely in America by ABKCO Records.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The band later sued for their return but without success, settling in 1984.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> The band would remain incensed with Klein for decades for that act. Klein died in 2009.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref>

When Decca informed the Rolling Stones that they were owed one more single, the band submitted a track called "Cocksucker Blues",<ref>Sanchez, Tony (1996). Up and Down with the Rolling Stones, p. 195. Da Capo Press. Template:ISBN.</ref> correctly assuming that this would be refused. Instead, Decca released the two-year-old Beggars Banquet track "Street Fighting Man" while Klein retained dual copyright ownership in conjunction with the Rolling Stones of "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses".

Recording

Although sessions for Sticky Fingers began in earnest in March 1970, the Rolling Stones had been recording at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama in December 1969, where they cut "You Gotta Move", "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses". "Sister Morphine", cut during Let It Bleed's sessions earlier in March of that year, had been held over from that release. Much of the recording for Sticky Fingers was made with the Rolling Stones' mobile studio in Stargroves during the summer and autumn of 1970. Early versions of songs that would eventually appear on Exile on Main St. were also rehearsed during these sessions.<ref>Greenfield, Robert (2006). Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones, pp. 95–96. Da Capo Press. Template:ISBN.</ref>

Music and lyrics

Sticky Fingers originally included 10 tracks. The music has been characterised by commentators as hard rock,<ref name="Gramophone">Template:Cite journal</ref> roots rock<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and rock and roll.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Rolling Stone magazine, it is "the Stones' most downbeat, druggy album, with new guitarist Mick Taylor stretching into jazz and country".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Artwork

Standard version

File:Rolling Stones 1971.jpg
The Rolling Stones posing in an ad with covers of Sticky Fingers, with the original artwork, in 1971. Left to right: Charlie Watts, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger

The artwork emphasized the innuendo of the Sticky Fingers title, showing a close-up of a jeans-clad male crotch with the visible outline of a penis. The cover of the original vinyl LP featured a working zipper and perforations around the belt buckle that opened to reveal a sub-cover image of white briefs. The vinyl release displayed the band's name and album title along the belt; behind the zipper, the underpants were seemingly rubber stamped in gold with the stylized name of American pop artist Andy Warhol, below which read "THIS PHOTOGRAPH MAY NOT BE—ETC." The artwork was conceived and photographed by Warhol, and the design by Craig Braun. Billy Name is sometimes accredited as the photographer, however, Braun believes Warhol shot the Polaroid photos for the album, and the Factory associates who were involved in the photo shoot have claimed that Warhol took the photos.<ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Braun and his team suggested wrapping the album in rolling paper – a concept later used by Cheech & Chong in Big Bambu – but Jagger was enthused by Warhol's concept. Warhol duly sent Braun Polaroid pictures of a model in tight jeans.<ref name=tongue/>

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We manufactured those kind of one-off packages, because a lot of conventional record suppliers were a bit baffled as to how to make them. I'd already done a few of them for bands like The Temptations, The Supremes, Joe Cocker and a teen idol named Bobby Sherman, where a band would be selling in sufficient quantities – maybe a million-plus – to have a custom-made sleeve. So when there was a big act like the Stones, you knew the initial release would be a million-plus, and a custom package could be made without costing the label too much of a premium. So the Stones' managers came to me and asked what I could do.{{#if:|

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Fans assumed the cover photo of the crotch to be Jagger, but he revealed that it was one of Warhol's "protégés."<ref name=":7">Template:Cite book</ref> Jagger said it was Jay Johnson,<ref name=":8">Template:Cite book</ref> but the general consensus is that Warhol used his lover Jed Johnson as the model for the cover.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":9">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It remains uncertain exactly who appears on the cover because Warhol photographed several men and never publicly revealed which photos he used.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":9" /> Braun thought it was Jed Johnson on the cover, but he later said Warhol's business manager Fred Hughes told him it was makeup artist Corey Tippin,<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":3" /> with which Tippin concurs, saying "I know my anatomy."<ref name=":4" /> Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro also claimed to be the model on the cover, but Braun is sure it was not him.<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Former Interview magazine editor Bob Colacello said, "When the album came out, Glenn [O'Brein] was certain that it was he on the inside and Jay Johnson on the outside, but Andy would never say exactly whose crotch he had immortalized."<ref name=":6">Template:Cite book</ref> O'Brien, who was an editor for Warhol's Interview magazine, was "100 percent certain" he was the underwear model: "I knew it was me because it was my underwear!"<ref name=":4" /> O'Brien initially stated that Jed Johnson was the model for the cover, but he later claimed that it was Tippin.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":4" /> He added that Warhol might not even have known who he selected. "He probably took these Polaroids, put them on the table, and picked ones he liked. I don't think it mattered to him [who it was]," said O'Brien.<ref name=":4" />

For the initial vinyl release, the album title and band name is smaller and at the top on the American release. For the UK release, the title and band name are in bigger letters and on the left. Reportedly, when retailers complained that the zipper damaged the vinyl (from stacked shipments), the zipper was "unzipped" slightly to the middle of the record, where damage would be minimized.<ref name=tongue/>

Sticky Fingers earned a Grammy nomination for Best Album Cover at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards in 1972.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The album introduced the tongue and lips logo of Rolling Stones Records, designed by John Pasche in 1970. Jagger suggested to Pasche that he copy the out-stuck tongue of the Hindu goddess Kali. Pasche felt that would date the image to the Indian culture craze of the 1960s, but seeing Kali changed his mind. Before the end of that year, his basic version was faxed to Craig Braun by Marshall Chess. The black and white copy was modified by Braun and his team, resulting in the popular red version: the slim one with the two white stripes on the tongue.<ref name=tongue>Template:Cite news</ref>

Critic Sean Egan wrote: "Without using the Stones' name, it instantly conjures them, or at least Jagger, as well as a certain lasciviousness that is the Stones' own… It quickly and deservedly became the most famous logo in the history of popular music."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The tongue and lips design was part of a package that, in 2003, VH1 named the "No. 1 Greatest Album Cover" of all time.<ref name="Goldstein">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Alternative version and covers

In Spain, the original cover was censored by the Franco regime and replaced with a "Can of fingers" cover, designed by John Pasche and Phil Jude,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and "Sister Morphine" was replaced by a live version of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This track was later included on the CD compilation Rarities 1971–2003 in 2005.

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 colourised 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Release and reception

Template:Music ratings

Sticky Fingers was released on 23 April 1971<ref name="BBCchrisjones">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and reached number one on the UK Albums Chart in May 1971, remaining there for four weeks before returning at number one for a further week in mid June. In the US, the album hit number one within days of release, and stayed there for four weeks. The album spent a total of 69 weeks on the Billboard 200.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> According to BillboardTemplate:'s Top 200 list, it was one of the albums that topped the German chart that year.

In a contemporary review for the Los Angeles Times, music critic Robert Hilburn said that although Sticky Fingers is one of the best rock albums of the year, it is only "modest" by the Rolling Stones' standards and succeeds on the strength of songs such as "Bitch" and "Dead Flowers", which recall the band's previously uninhibited, furious style.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Subscription required</ref> Jon Landau, writing in Rolling Stone, felt that it lacks the spirit and spontaneity of the Rolling Stones' previous two albums and, apart from "Moonlight Mile", is full of "forced attempts at style and control" in which the band sounds disinterested, particularly on formally correct songs such as "Brown Sugar".<ref name="Landau">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Writing for Rolling Stone in 2015, David Fricke called it "an eclectic affirmation of maturing depth" and the band's "sayonara to a messy 1969".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In a positive review, Lynn Van Matre of the Chicago Tribune viewed the album as the band "at their raunchy best" and wrote that, although it is "hardly innovative," it is consistent enough to be one of the year's best albums.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Subscription required</ref> Writing for Slate, Jack Hamilton praised the album in a retrospective review, stating that it was "one of the greatest albums in rock 'n' roll history."<ref name=":2" />

Sticky Fingers was voted the second best album of the year in The Village VoiceTemplate:'s annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1971.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Lester Bangs voted it number one in the poll and said that it was his most played album of the year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked the album 17th on his own year-end list.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In a 1975 article for The Village Voice, Christgau suggested that the release was "triffling with decadence", but might be the Rolling Stones' best album, approached only by Exile on Main St. (1972).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), he wrote that it reflected how unapologetic the band was after the Altamont Free Concert and that, despite the concession to sincerity with "Wild Horses", songs such as "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "I Got the Blues" are as "soulful" as "Good Times", and their cover of "You Gotta Move" is on-par with their previous covers of "Prodigal Son" and "Love in Vain".<ref name="Christgau">Template:Cite book</ref>

Re-releases

In 1994, Sticky Fingers was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records. This remaster was initially released in a Collector's Edition CD, which replicated in miniature many elements of the original vinyl album packaging, including the zipper. Sticky Fingers was remastered again in 2009 by Universal Music Enterprises and in 2011 by Universal Music Enterprises in a Japanese-only SHM-SACD version; the latter was also used in 2013 for SHM-CD and Platinum SHM-CD, and then again in 2020 for another Japanese-only (standard) SHM-CD version.

In June 2015, the Rolling Stones reissued Sticky Fingers in its 2009 remastering in a variety of formats to coincide with a concert tour, the Zip Code Tour. The Deluxe and Super Deluxe versions of the reissue featured previously unreleased bonus material (depending on the format): alternative takes of some songs, live tracks recorded on 14 March 1971 at the Roundhouse in London and the complete 13 March 1971 show at Leeds University. It re-entered the UK Albums chart at number 7, extending their UK Top 10 album chart span beyond 51 years and 2 months since their self-titled debuted at number 7 on 23 April 1964.<ref name="The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers lives again">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers Rerelease June 2015">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers Rerelease">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers Details">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It also re-entered the US Albums chart at number 5, extending their US Top 10 album chart span beyond 50 years and 6 months since 12 x 5 on 14 December 1964.<ref name="The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers lives again" /><ref name="The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers Rerelease June 2015" /><ref name="The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers Rerelease" /><ref name="The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers Details" />

Legacy

Sticky Fingers was ranked number ten in the 1994 first edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. He stated, "Dirty rock like this has still to be bettered, and there is still no rival in sight."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In a retrospective review, Q magazine said that the album was "the Stones at their assured, showboating peak ... A magic formula of heavy soul, junkie blues and macho rock."<ref name="muze">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> NME wrote that it "captures the Stones bluesy swagger" in a "dark-land where few dare to tread."<ref name="NME" /> Record Collector magazine said that it showcases Jagger and Richards as they "delve even further back to the primitive blues that first inspired them and step up their investigations into another great American form, country."<ref name="muze" /> In his review for Goldmine magazine, Dave Thompson wrote that the album still is superior to "most of The Rolling Stones' catalog."<ref name="Thompson">Template:Cite journal</ref> In a 2018 retrospective review, The Guardian's Alexis Petridis ranked it the best album the band had ever produced, stating "their claim to be The Greatest Rock’n’Roll Band in the World has no more compelling evidence than the flawless 46 minutes of music here."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

David Hepworth wrote in his 2016 book Never a Dull Moment that the contributions of guest performers such as Keys, Jim Dickinson, and Preston gave the album "more musical range than any other Rolling Stones album," including "Dickinson's honky-tonk piano on 'Wild Horses'" and "Preston's churchy organ solo on 'I Got the BluesTemplate:' ".<ref name="Hepworth" /> Hepworth also suggested that Taylor's "Latin-flavored guitar solo" on "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" was influenced by Santana's 1970 album Abraxas.<ref name="Hepworth">Template:Cite book</ref>

Sticky Fingers was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was listed as No. 63 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> No. 64 in a 2012 revised list,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and No. 104 in a 2020 reboot of the list.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Track listing

Template:Track listing Template:Track listing

Deluxe edition (2015)

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Super Deluxe edition (2015)

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Personnel

  • Track credits are noted in parentheses and based on CD numbering where the titles of the second side are numbered from 6 to 10.<ref>Sticky Fingers CD</ref>

The Rolling Stones

Additional personnel

Technical

Charts

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Weekly charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart
1971 weekly chart performance for Sticky Fingers
Chart (1971) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name=AUS>Template:Cite book</ref> 1
Belgian Albums (HUMO)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 1
Finland (The Official Finnish Charts)<ref name=FINI>Template:Cite book</ref> 1
Italian Albums (Musica e Dischi)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}} Set "Tipo" on "Album". Then, in the "Artista" field, search "Rolling Stones".</ref>

5
Japanese Albums (Oricon)<ref name="JPN">Template:Cite book</ref> 9
Spanish Albums Chart<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 1
Swedish Kvällstoppen Chart<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}Note: Kvällstoppen combined sales for albums and singles in the one chart; Sticky Fingers peaked at the number-two on the list, behind "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" by Middle of the Road.</ref>

1
Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart
2015 weekly chart performance for Sticky Fingers
Chart (2015) Peak
position

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Year-end charts

1971 year-end chart performance for Sticky Fingers
Chart (1971) Position
Australian Albums Chart<ref name="auchart">Template:Cite book</ref> 18
Dutch Albums Chart<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1
French Albums Chart<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

24
German Albums Chart<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

13
UK Albums Chart<ref name="UKYearend">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

3
US Billboard 200<ref name="USYearend71">Template:Cite book</ref> 21

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Certifications

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See also

References

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Further reading

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