THE ROLLING STONES : LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER [DECCA - ESP 1967] 7'

The Rolling Stones  "Let's Spend The Night Together"  single 7"

(Decca)  1967  made in Spain

cat. num. MO 2001

#rock  #pop rock

Although it didn't sound very controversial several decades later, "Let's Spend the Night Together" was the most controversial single the Rolling Stones had ever released when it first came out in early 1967. With the title alone, the group was spelling out, pretty much, the implications of many of the songs they had sung over the last few years -- not to mention of many, perhaps most, songs in popular music. As sexual mores loosened in the late 20th century, the title expression would come to be seen as a normal, even healthy way of consolidating affection, and certainly not grounds for censorship. This was not the case in early 1967, when Mick Jagger was coerced into mumbling the title when it was performed on television, and limited radio airplay caused the flip side of the record, "Ruby Tuesday," to become the hit in the United States. All of this notoriety has tended to overshadow the considerable musical merits of the song. "Let's Spend the Night Together" was actually a pleasant, mid-tempo piano-based rocker, with rather charming harmonies of nonsense doo wop syllables and an enthusiastic, lusty vocal by Jagger that nonetheless certainly did not cross the line into offensive crudeness. The role of backup vocalists on 1960s Rolling Stones records is often overlooked, and there are some nice responsive lines throughout the verses. Jagger did effectively bring out some of the more sexual implications of the lyric by lingering on and elongating the final phases of the verses, but if that's too hot for you to handle, you have probably wandered into the wrong section of this database by mistake. The chorus, on which Jagger is joined by other members of the Stones, is downright celebratory and infectious. There's also a cool, brief bridge in which the tempo dramatically slows, Jagger emphasizing how tonight he really doesneed her more than ever. Harmonies start to swirl behind him, and then he summons his studly energy once more to lead a charge back into the verse, with his most forceful vocals of the song. A buzzing organ nicely underscores the mood during the elongated fadeout. Undoubtedly the most notorious version of this notorious song was recorded by David Bowie, who did a radically different version for his 1973 Aladdin Sane album that, in the minds of some critics, made the kinkiness implicit in the original much more explicit.