![\"THE-ROLLING-STONES-Issue-No30\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/THE-ROLLING-STONES-Issue-No30.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nOn May 7, 1965, Keith Richards woke up in the middle of the night at a Florida hotel with a melody in his head. Fumbling in the dark, he grabbed his guitar next to the bed and a cassette recorder on the nightstand\u2014and played an eight-note riff into it. It was accompanied by the mumbled vocal line, \u201cI can\u2019t get no satisfaction.\u201d Then he fell back asleep.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the tape you can hear me drop the pick,\u201d Richards later recalled. \u201cThe rest is me snoring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rolling Stones were in the middle of their second headlining U.S. tour, having already scored two Top 10 hits\u2014\u201cTime Is on My Side\u201d and \u201cThe Last Time.\u201d But in the ranks of the British Invasion, they still remained a notch below Herman\u2019s Hermits. They needed a defining single.<\/p>\n
Richards didn\u2019t initially recognize that his motel riff was exactly what the Stones were looking for. \u201cI never thought it was commercial enough to be a single,\u201d he said. Mick Jagger added, \u201cHe was too close to it and just felt it was kind of silly.\u201d But Jagger was inspired and quickly wrote a lyric.<\/p>\n
During their tour, the Stones had been stopping at various American studios to record their ideas. A few days after Richards\u2019 midnight ramble, they entered Chess Studios in Chicago. As home to some of their biggest influences including Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters, Chess seemed the perfect location to lay down their new tune.<\/p>\n
With manager Andrew Loog Oldham producing, the group cut an acoustic, countryish version of \u201cSatisfaction\u201d that sounded like Bob Dylan. The sexy swagger that would mark the finished version was completely absent.<\/p>\n
Two days later in L.A., the Stones checked into RCA Studios and tried again. Motivated by Richards\u2019 recently acquired Maestro Fuzz-Tone pedal, the tracks offered a more aggressive feel. Plus, famed arranger Jack Nitzsche pitched in with tambourine and piano, adding a Motown-style groove.<\/p>\n
The band loved the result. But Richards wasn\u2019t convinced. He was now hearing the song as a tribute to Martha and the Vandellas\u2019 \u201cDancing in the Street,\u201d declaring that his fuzz guitar line was only intended as a sketch for a horn section when the band came to record the final version.<\/p>\n
But as the Stones resumed touring, Oldham started promoting the new song. Knowing the tune\u2019s suggestive lyrics\u2014especially the line about \u201ctrying to make some girl\u201d\u2014might prevent the song from getting airplay, Oldham decided to bury it in the mix.<\/p>\n
Despite the murky vocals, the song became a target for the antirock establishment. Newsweek<\/i> dubbed the Stones a \u201cleering quintet\u201d and said \u201cSatisfaction\u201d was full of \u201ctasteless themes.\u201d But even a radio ban in certain cities couldn\u2019t stop the song\u2019s rise\u2014and in July, a month after its release, the song topped the charts for the first of four weeks.<\/p>\n
In 1988, when Rolling Stone<\/i> voted it the Greatest Pop Single of the previous 25 years, Richards confessed, \u201cI hear \u2018Satisfaction\u2019 in \u2018Jumpin\u2019 Jack Flash.\u2019 I hear it in half of the songs that the Stones have done.\u201d In 2000, a VH1 poll of 700 music industry movers and shakers voted \u201cSatisfaction\u201d as the top rock song of all time.<\/p>\n
Though he\u2019s been happily playing the song in concert for the last 50 years, Richards admits, \u201cIf I\u2019d had my way, \u2018Satisfaction\u2019 would never have been released. The song was as basic as the hills, and I thought the fuzz-guitar thing was a bit of a gimmick.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013Bill DeMain<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201c(I Can\u2019t Get No) Satisfaction\u201d \u00a0 THE ROLLING STONES On May 7, 1965, Keith Richards woke up in the middle of the night at a Florida hotel with a melody in his head. Fumbling in the dark, he grabbed his guitar next to the bed and a cassette recorder on the nightstand\u2014and played an eight-note […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5264],"tags":[7299,10166,5085],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11368"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11372,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11368\/revisions\/11372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}