Bill Wyman claims neither Keith Richards or Mick Jagger thought (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction should have been released as a single
Almost 60 years on from its 1965 release, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction has stood the test of time. The track’s riff is instantly recognisable and continues to transcend generations, but two Rolling Stones members weren’t quite satisfied with the track originally.
Ex-bassist Bill Wyman has revealed that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger didn’t even want Satisfaction to be a single. “Five voted for (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, and two voted against,” he tells Classic Rock. “The two against were Mick and Keith.”
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Wyman’s admission may come as somewhat of a shock; 60 years after its release it’s still considered one of rock and roll’s greatest hits, with hundreds of millions of streams, a #31 placement on Rolling Stone‘s 2004 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, and an entry into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
But Wyman asserts that Richards and Jagger weren’t impressed. Thankfully, their vote was outnumbered: “When we were voting on what was gonna be the single from the album, there were seven of us that voted – all the Stones, [manager and producer] Andrew Oldham, and Dave Hassinger, the engineer at RCA Studio.”
The bassist also reveals some of the track’s history, noting that it “started off as a bloody country ballad, until we got stuck into it!”
A 1975 interview with People magazine sheds some light on why Jagger was reluctant to release (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction as a single. In the interview, he admitted “I’d rather be dead than sing ‘Satisfaction’ when I’m 45.”
Considering the track is a cheeky ode to sexuality and sexual frustration, Jagger seemingly didn’t want it to be something he’d be forced to sing up into his older years. But, of course, he is – and, even into his 80s, he’s still able to inject something sultry into the track.
Jagger also opened up about the track in 1995 in conversation with Rolling Stone, admitting that “Keith didn’t want it to come out as a single.” He didn’t reveal that he had also voted against the track.
He notes that the track was the Stones’ “monster,” transforming the group from “just another band into a huge, monster band.”
“You always need one song,” he said. “We weren’t American, and America was a big thing, and we always wanted to make it here. It was very impressive the way that song and the popularity of the band became a worldwide thing.”
He also noted that Satisfaction will always be “a signature tune” in the Stones’ catalogue. “It has a very catchy title, it has a very catchy guitar riff,” he noted. “It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kind of songs.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
