“Midnight Rambler” by The Rolling Stones

"Midnight Rambler" is the black heart of Let It Bleed, the Rolling Stones' 1969 album, a loose, leering portrait of Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed to being the Boston Strangler. Strange, then, that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote it on holiday in the sunny Italian hill town of Positano, Jagger blowing harmonica in little cafés while Richards worked the guitar, tempo changes and all. Richards later called it a blues opera and insisted no other writers could have come up with it.

It plays like one: a slinking groove that speeds up, drops to a menacing crawl, then lunges again, Charlie Watts steering every gear change, Bill Wyman's bass prowling, Jagger's harp wailing and Brian Jones on percussion. Jimmy Miller produced and Glyn Johns engineered.

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