The Rolling Stones – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” – Single by the Rolling Stones
B-side “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man” (US) / “The Spider and the Fly” (UK)
Released 4 June 1965 (US) / 20 August 1965 (UK)
Label London (US) / Decca (UK)
Songwriters Jagger–Richards
Producer Andrew Loog Oldham
Charted No.1 in US, UK, Sweden, Netherlands, West Germany, Ireland, Austria, Australia.

Video: performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on February 13, 1966.

On May 6, 1965, The Rolling Stones played to about 3,000 people at Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater, Florida while on their first US tour. According to an article in the St. Petersburg Times, about 200 young fans got in an altercation with a line of police officers at the show, and The Stones made it through just four songs as chaos ensued. That night, Keith Richards woke up in his hotel room with the guitar riff and lyric “can’t get no satisfaction” in his head. He recorded it on a portable tape deck, went back to sleep, and brought it to the studio that week. The tape contained his guitar riff followed by the sounds of him snoring.

Richards was staying at the Fort Harrison Hotel (known at the time as the Jack Tar Harrison Hotel) when he rolled out of bed with the idea for this song.

Mick Jagger wrote all the lyrics except the line “can’t get no satisfaction.” The lyrics deal with what Jagger saw as the two sides of America: the real and phony. The song is about a man looking for authenticity but not being able to find it through the haze of marketing. Jagger experienced the vast commercialism of America in a big way on their tours and later learned to exploit it, as The Rolling Stones made truckloads of money through sponsorships and merchandising in the US.

It is one of the world’s most popular songs, and was No. 31 on Rolling Stone magazine’s “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list in 2021. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. The song was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2006, the first and so far only Rolling Stones recording to be included in the Registry.

In the decades since its release, “Satisfaction” has repeatedly been acclaimed by the music industry. In 1976, Britain’s New Musical Express listed “Satisfaction” 7th among the top 100 singles of all time. There was a resurgence of interest in the song after it was prominently featured in the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now. In 1991, Vox listed “Satisfaction” among “100 records that shook the world”.[24] In 1999, BMI named “Satisfaction” as the 91st-most performed song of the 20th century. In 2000, VH1 listed “Satisfaction” first among its “Top 100 Greatest Rock Songs”;[25] the same year, “Satisfaction” also finished runner-up to “Yesterday” in a list jointly compiled by Rolling Stone and MTV.[26] In 2003, Q placed the song 68th out of its “1001 Best Songs Ever”. Newsweek magazine has called the opening riff “five notes that shook the world”.

The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger – vocals, harmonica
Keith Richards – backing vocals, fuzz guitar, electric lead guitar, acoustic guitar
Brian Jones – electric rhythm guitars, acoustic guitar, harmonica, piano, organ
Bill Wyman – bass
Charlie Watts – drums

Additional personnel
Jack Nitzsche – piano, organ, tambourine
Ian Stewart – piano, organ, marimba