The Rolling Stones, so many good songs so few choices otherwise you the reader will be here all day.

There are songs from basically every decade from the 1960s up for consideration

I’m going to pick a few songs from throughout The Rolling Stones history, we’ll start with the sixties, move into 70s and the 80s then go into the 2000’s and finally 2023 with ‘Angry’.

It’s All Over Now

This colourised version of the early hit by the Rolling Stones was written by Bobby and Shirley Womack for Bobby’s group The Valentinos.

Bobby Womack did not want The Rolling Stones to record the song but was convinced by The Valentinos producer (and singing legend) Sam Cooke to let them record it, the song hit No. 1 in the UK and No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, and when Bobby Womack got the royalties cheque (check), Mick Jagger could have any Womack song he wanted.

Get Off Of My Cloud

This Mick Jagger and Keith Richards composition hit No. 1 in the UK and America and No. 2 in Australia.

The drumming is considered to be Charlie Watts’ greatest work as a member of The Rolling Stones; it is definitely something you can take great delight in listening to.

Paint It Black

This song is iconic for two reasons, Charlie Watts on the drums and Brian Jones on the Sitar, Brian’s playing really does set up the song,

The song is about ‘grief suffered by someone stunned by the sudden and unexpected loss of a partner’ and the song was a No. 1 hit in the UK and in America.

Angie

Angie was another massive hit for The Rolling Stones as it peaked at No. 1 in Australia, Canada and America, for the former two it was No. 1 for five weeks.

The song is a ballad that characterises the end of a relationship with the guitar the main instrument in this song as you can see Keith Richards and Mick Taylor both playing acoustic guitars.

In an episode of Sliders, the earth that the character Maggie came from had band called The Rolling Who and they had a musical called Angie, of course on our Earth it is The Who and the musical was Tommy.

The music video is notable for Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts hardly being seen in the video, Bill is standing to the right of Mick (from Mick’s point of view) while Charlie is at the back on the drums.

The first three notes of the song make it iconic and then you got the drums and the bass and of course Ron Wood’s guitar work added in, and you got a song that taken ‘Start Me Up’ to No. 1 in Australia and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It is interesting how music video makers used freeze frame to end a song instead of a fade out, some songs end with a singer or a band in an awkward pose, the band has an interesting array of fashion, Charlie Watts of course is in a suit, music’s best dressed drummer.

Doom and Gloom

The Rolling Stones and Die Hard? It really did happen when the song ‘Doom and Gloom’ featured in the fifth Die Hard movie ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’.

‘Doom and Gloom’ is quite appropriate for a Die Hard movie considering the amount of death and destruction that went on in the franchise.

Angry

A lot of attention about the music video to ‘Angry’ was towards Sydney Sweeney but for those who love a Rock song, this song is pretty good, and it is nice to have some 2020’s Rolling Stones music in the collection.

One thing overlooked is the billboards in the song, technology is wonderful, we live in great times when technology is used for the right reasons.