The Rolling Stones scored their fifth number-one single 50 years ago today (August 23rd, 1969), when “Honky Tonk Women” topped the Billboard Hot 100.
Here is Keith Richards on the song:
“‘Honky Tonk Women’ started in Brazil. Mick and I sitting on the porch of this ranch house and I started fooling around with an old Hank Williams idea because we really felt that there’s like real cowboys, ‘honky tonk woman.’ And we’re sitting in the middle of nowhere with all these horses. And then a couple of months later we’re writing songs and recording and somehow by some metamorphosis it suddenly went into this real swampy-like black thing, blues thing.”
Richards says new guitarist Mick Taylor — doing his very first recording with the Stones — helped turn it into something else entirely. Taylor thought he was brought in to do some overdubs because Brian Jones couldn’t make the session. It turned out to be his audition to join the band.
Three days after topping the chart, where it stayed for four weeks, “Honky Tonk Women” was certified gold by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). The Stones’ previous number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 were:
“(I Cant Get No) Satisfaction” – May 1965
“Get Off of My Cloud” – September 1965
“Paint It, Black” – May 1966
“Ruby Tuesday” – January 1967
