“Elephant Stone” by The Stone Roses

"Elephant Stone" was the Stone Roses' third single and their first for Silvertone, out in October 1988, and it's the sound of a guitar band finding its hips, all fresh swagger and dance-floor rhythm. Ian Brown and John Squire wrote it, and New Order bassist Peter Hook produced it at his own studio, with Squire on guitar, Gary Mounfield on bass and Reni drumming and singing backup.

It had been meant for Rough Trade until the Silvertone deal came through, after which John Leckie remixed it. The first cut ran close to five minutes, opening on a long drum intro with the bass up front; the later three-minute edit stacked on wah-wah guitar. It missed the chart first time out and turned up on American pressings of the debut album in 1989, then climbed to number 8 on its March 1990 reissue.

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