Stone's Throw from Stardom

For the most part, the Stones were meeting with unqualified success on all fronts. In England, their new single “The Last Time” was number nine on the singles chart, and by February 1965, their U.K. album The Rolling Stones # 2 was number one. They also continued touring England. By 1965, they had toured their homeland a total of seven times!

One thing they had yet to achieve in the United States, though, was a number-one single. On tour in America, Keith and Mick had been struggling to put a song together. They felt like they had something good, but it just would not take shape. Legend has it that Keith fell asleep one night and awoke to find that someone had recorded on his tape machine. When he played it back, he heard himself playing an incredible riff, which he must have done while almost totally asleep. The riff made its way into this new song, and they recorded it at RCA Studios in Los Angeles. The song was called “Satisfaction.”

On June 4, 1965, “Satisfaction” was released in the United States first, and almost immediately it reached number four on the Billboard charts. Within weeks, it topped the charts, and by the time it was released in the United Kingdom, it had been number one for three weeks in the United States.

“Satisfaction” was by far the most popular song yet for the Rolling Stones. Its message tapped into what so many of the teens at the time felt about their square parents, teachers, and bosses. Its snarling dislike and confusion with the ways of the modern world were light-years removed from the classic teen love songs popular at the time. In addition, the music on the record was raw and savage, with the riff Keith had thought up in his sleep ripping through the rest of the music. In 2000, it was even named the best rock and roll song of all time by a poll of artists, producers, and journalists for a television special on the music channel VH1. The Stones had their first lasting classic.