Today marks the 50th anniversary of the release of The Rolling Stones‘ classic 11th U.S. studio album, Sticky Fingers.
Sticky Fingers started a streak of eight consecutive #1 studio albums for The Stones, and spent four weeks at the top the Billboard 200 chart in May and June of ’71.
The album features an eclectic stylistic mix of songs that includes the gritty, blues-y chart-topping hit “Brown Sugar,” as well as the country ballad “Wild Horses,” which reached #28 on the Billboard Hot 100. Among Sticky Fingers’ other memorable tunes are the R&B-infused “Bitch” and “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” the country-rock gem “Dead Flowers,” and the melodic “Sway” and “Moonlight Mile.”
Sticky Fingers also features famous cover art, conceived by pop-art legend Andy Warhol, boasting a photo of the crotch of a man wearing tight blue jeans. The original cover included a working zipper.
Sticky Fingers has gone on to sell more than 3 million copies in the U.S. and was ranked #104 on Rolling Stone’s 2020 list “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” It also was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty, a longtime Stones fan, tells ABC Audio that he was impressed how the band was able to follow its 1969 #1 hit “Honky Tonk Women” with a similarly great song; that is, “Brown Sugar.”
“‘Honky Tonk Women’ was such an amazing single, and then they followed it up with something equal at least,” Fogerty gushes, “which is so hard to do.”
Meanwhile, another lauded Stones-loving rocker, Peter Frampton, says of Sticky Fingers, “I thought the sound on it was great. I thought the songs on it were great.”
Here’s the full Sticky Fingers track list:
“Brown Sugar”
“Sway”
“Wild Horses”
“Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
“You Gotta Move”
“Bitch”
“I Got the Blues”
“Sister Morphine”
“Dead Flowers”
“Moonlight Mile”
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