Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones

Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones' ninth studio album, rolled out on 23 April 1971 as the very first release on the band's own Rolling Stones Records, and it's the sound of the Stones shaking off the old Decca and London deal and a lot of excess baggage with it. Brian Jones had been dead two years; this was their first studio album without him, and Mick Taylor's first full studio outing with them after the live Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!.

Jimmy Miller produced again, and the band stripped the sound back to the bone. The exotic instruments of the late-'60s records are gone. What's left is Jagger's vocals, rhythm guitar and shakers, Keith Richards and Taylor weaving guitars, Bill Wyman's bass and Charlie Watts' drums, with old friends dropping by: Bobby Keys blowing sax, and Billy Preston, Jack Nitzsche, Ian Stewart and Nicky Hopkins on keys. "Brown Sugar" struts and leers, "Bitch" bares its teeth, "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" grinds and sways, and "Wild Horses", "Dead Flowers" and "Moonlight Mile" show the dusty, heartsick side of a band usually too busy snarling to ache.

Then there's the sleeve: Andy Warhol's idea and photo, a tight pair of jeans with a real zipper that opened on underwear, a Grammy-nominated gag that cost a fortune and scratched the records. It was their first album to hit number one in both Britain and America, "Brown Sugar" topped the Hot 100, critics placed it second in the Pazz & Jop poll for 1971, and it has since gone triple platinum in the US and into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.