Song · The Rolling Stones
“Sweet Virginia” by The Rolling Stones
From the album Exile on Main St. (1972)
“Sweet Virginia” by The Rolling Stones appears on 4 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2001 and 2020. It was first released in 1972 on the album Exile on Main St.. Its best result is #492 on the WYEP 913 Essential Songs. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,939 indie & aaa song of all time.
"Sweet Virginia" comes sixth on Exile on Main St., the Rolling Stones' 1972 double album, and it finds the band at their most back-porch: a slow, country-leaning Jagger-Richards tune with Charlie Watts laying down a country shuffle, Ian Stewart on piano, Mick Jagger taking a harmonica solo and Bobby Keys blowing one on saxophone. Jimmy Miller produced, and it belongs to the sprawl the band recorded mostly at Villa Nellcôte in France and at Olympic Studios, with vocal overdubs added at Sunset Sound early in 1972.
It has led a busy afterlife. In Japan it was the B-side of "Rocks Off", an alternate take without the backing singers circulated on bootlegs, the version the band recut for Stripped turned up in Martin Scorsese's 1995 film Casino, and the original rolls over the closing credits of Rian Johnson's Knives Out from 2019.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1331 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2009 | 492 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Essential Songs | 913 |
| 2016 | 912 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Countdown 2016 | 913 |
| 2020 | 1822 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
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