Rolling Stones 21003
Producers: The Glimmer Twins
Track listing: Start Me Up / Hang Fire / Slave / Little T&A / Black Limousine / Neighbours / Worried about You / Tops / Heaven / No Use in Crying / Waiting on a Friend
September 19, 1981
9 weeks
Following the release of Emotional Rescue, the animosity between Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards had become so acute that the pair, known as the “Glimmer Twins,” had stopped speaking to each other. “Tattoo You really came about because Mick and Keith were going through a period of not getting on,” says associate producer and engineer Chris Kimsey. “There was the need to have an album out, so I suggested that I could go in and make an album of what I knew was still there in the vaults.”
During the Some Girls and Emotional Rescue sessions, the Stones cut dozens of additional tracks that didn’t appear on the albums. For example, Richards’s “Litte T&A,” an ode to his girlfriend Patti Hansen, was originally cut during the Emotional Rescue sessions. Kimsey also turned to some earlier sessions. “‘Waiting on a Friend’ and ‘Tops’ were from Goats Head Soup, ‘Slave’ was from the Black and Blue period, and ‘Start Me Up’ was recorded on the same day as ‘Miss You’ [from Some Girls],” he says. “Mick or Keith thought it sounded familiar, like something on the radio at the time, so it was just sort of forgotten about,” Kimsey says of the latter track, which would eventually become a number two hit.
Jagger and Richards may have forgotten about the early version of “Start Me Up,” but not Kimsey. “I knew that was there in the vaults,” he says. “That was my ground base for the album. On all the albums I worked on, I would keep a comprehensive log and I always made a point that if anything was happening I would record it, even if it was old Jimmy Reed blues covers.”
Despite the fact that the album was mostly comprised of material culled from the vaults, it took several months to put together. The Stones had to regroup to finish some of the songs, but Jagger was busy pursuing his film career, appearing on location for a film called Fitzcarraldo, that was shot in Peru. “Mick was doing the movie, so it was difficult to pin him down,” Kimsey says. “It must have taken us a good nine months to do the album.”
When the Stones did finally regroup, they returned to Pathe-Marconi Studios in Paris. “Paris was a very good environment for them and a great place for them to work,” says Kimsey. “When they did get back together, they were all happy.”
When the album was completed, Bob Clearmountain was called in to remix several tracks, including “Start Me Up.” Although much of the material was old, the Stones sounded rejuvenated on Tattoo You, which may have said more about the faltering state of the band’s artistry than was intended. In any event, Tattoo You was certainly a better album than Emotional Rescue, and fans responded accordingly. While the album followed the same path as Black and Blue and Emotional Resue to the peak — debuting at number eight before hitting the Number One spot in its second week on the chart — it had more staying power. Its nine-week run at the top represented the longest stay of any Stones album.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of September 19, 1981
1. Tattoo You, The Rolling Stones
2. Bella Donna, Stevie Nicks
3. Escape, Journey
4. 4, Foreigner
5. Don’t Say No, Billy Squier