In the heyday of the vinyl era, few bands’ albums were as anticipated as a new disc by The Rolling Stones. And you usually could be certain the band had something great waiting to start off the flip side of those albums.
Narrowing this list to five was an absolute bear, because we had to leave off some doozies. Nonetheless, here are our choices for the best Side Two starters in Rolling Stones history.
5. “Sweet Virginia” from Exile on Main St. (1972)
Technically, there were two flip-side starters on this double-album, with “All Down the Line” starting off the second side of the second disc. While that bluesy, driving track is good stuff, we prefer the shambolic charm of “Sweet Virginia.” There are several points in the recording where it seems like the song is going to just break down completely, so lazy and loping is the pace. But the center holds, thanks to Mick Jagger’s blurry but amusing vocals, backing vocals that come from all corners of the recording, and Bobby Keys’ punchy sax solo.
4. “She’s a Rainbow” from Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)
The Stones themselves would be the first to tell you they dropped the ball on their attempt at a kind of darker Sgt. Pepper’s. Not because they were incapable of doing it, but because they were too distracted to pull Their Satanic Majesties Request together properly. Nonetheless, “She’s a Rainbow” shows they certainly could deliver that kind of Day-Glo vibe that was so prevalent at the time, and they could do it as well as anybody. Their arrangement is endlessly inventive, and they had a secret weapon in piano genius Nicky Hopkins, who magically trips up and down the ivories.
3. “Worried About You” from Tattoo You (1981)
What a wild experience it is listening to Tattoo You, as all the ghosts of the past decade or so of Stones records seem to pass before your ears. In the case of “Worried About You,” that ghost is the aching lead guitar work of Wayne Perkins, one of the candidates to replace Mick Taylor used on the Black and Blue album. This song isn’t just a beauty of a ballad all on its own. It’s placement at the start of Side Two on the album is also quite strategic, because it lets listeners know the Stones are downshifting from the rabble-rousing first side to give us all the slow, soulful stuff on the flip.
2. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” from Out of Our Heads (1965)
By the time Out of Our Heads was released, “Satisfaction” was already a runaway worldwide hit. It’s fitting that it appears on this particular album, because Out of Our Heads finds Mick Jagger and Keith Richards starting to emerge a bit more as songwriters (they wrote half the tracks on the record). And this is their first iconic co-written track. “Satisfaction” is one of those songs that’s so influential it’s near impossible to properly judge it now, because echoes of it can be heard in so many rock songs that followed its example. Still, with every fresh listen, you can always hear the Stones becoming the Stones as we would know them for the next six decades and counting.
1. “Street Fighting Man” from Beggars Banquet (1968)
Exile on Main St. and Sticky Fingers probably nip it at the line in terms of being the Stones’ best overall album. But there’s no more important album in the band’s history than Beggars Banquet. It’s the one where the band recommitted to the blues and all its permutations, and did so with a force and freshness that helped to send the genre rocketing into the modern day. On “Street Fighting Man,” the lyrical insight gets overlooked in the face of the ringing guitars and thundering groove. Check those words out closely, and you’ll hear a band taking the temperature of the times as well as anyone.
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