This week marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the 12th Rolling Stones album ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll’.
‘It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll’ was released on 18 October 1974. It was in between ‘Goat’s Head Soup’ (1973) and ‘Black and Blue’ (1976).
The lead single of ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll’ was the title track ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)’ which is credited to Jagger/Richards but was actually written by Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood before he joined the band. Wood gave up his publishing for the song in exchange with Mick to remove himself from Ron’s solo song ‘I Can Feel The Fire’. That was a costly mistake for Ronnie.
The song ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)’ is even really a Stones song. Bill Wyman, Mick Taylor (Stones guitarist at the time) and Charlie Watts do not play on it. Keith Richards added guitar and vocals during the production of the song. The song was written and recorded in one night at Ron Wood’s house with Mick Jagger on vocals, Ron Wood on guitar, Willie Weeks on bass, Kenney Jones (The Faces) on drums and David Bowie on backing vocals.
The video for the single, with the Stones in sailor suits, was directed by The Beatles ‘Let It Be’ director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who was already a veteran with the band after the live concert movie ‘Rock and Roll Circus’ (1968) and the videos ‘She’s A Rainbow’ (1967), ‘2000 Light Years From Home’ (1967), ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ (1968), ‘Child of the Moon’ (1968), ‘Angie’ (1973), ‘Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)’ (1973), ‘Silver Train’ (1973) and ‘Dancing With Mr D’ (1973).
The album reached no 2 in the UK, no 1 in the USA and no 7 in Australia. Despite the success of the album, only three songs have been played consistently over the decades and four have never been played live at all.
TRACKLIST:
1. If You Can’t Rock Me (performed 132 times, most recently 15 September 2003 in London)
2. Ain’t Too Proud To Beg (performed 110 times, most recently 15 November 2021 in Detroit)
3. It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll (But I Like It) (performed 811 times, most recently 10 July 2024 in Los Angeles)
4. Till The Next Goodbye (never performed live)
5. Time Waits For No One (never performed live)
6. Luxury (performed 14 times, most recently 4 March 1977 in Toronto)
7. Dance Little Sister (performed 3 times, most recently 5 March 1977 in Toronto)
8. If You Really Want To Be My Friend (never performed live)
9. Short And Curlies (never performed live)
10. Fingerprint File (performed 44 times, most recently 8 August 1977 in New York)
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