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Some Girls is the 14th British and 16th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1978 on Rolling Stones Records, catalogue COC 39108. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200, and became one of the band's biggest-selling albums in the United States, and has been certified by the RIAA as having six million copies sold as of 2000.

History [link]

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With the advent of punk rock, The Rolling Stones, among many of their musical contemporaries, were being targeted by some in the movement as cultural dinosaurs, compromising their standing. Mick Jagger felt invigorated by the provocations and was determined to answer them lyrically. It helped, however, that almost all the punks had, openly or not, idolised the Stones in the 1960s and were heavily influenced by the band's rebellious records from that era.

At least as important for the band's reinvigoration was the addition of Ronnie Wood to the line-up, as Some Girls was the first album recorded with him as a full member. His guitar playing style meshed with, and was similar to, that of Keith Richards. Wood's slide guitar playing would become one of the band's hallmarks, and his unconventional uses of the instrument are prominent on Some Girls. In addition, Jagger, who had learned to play guitar over the previous decade, contributed a third guitar part to many songs. This gave songs like "Respectable" a three-guitar line-up.

Jagger is generally regarded as the principal creative force behind Some Girls, a conception that, though disputable (Richards was present at all of the sessions), is plausible considering Richards' various legal entanglements at the time (see below). Jagger claimed in a 1995 interview to have written a great number of the album's songs (though when the amount was pointed out to him he denied that the record was mostly his own), including its signature song, "Miss You". In addition to punk, Jagger claims to have been influenced by dance music, most notably disco, during the recording of Some Girls, and cites New York City as a major inspiration for the album, an explanation for his lyrical preoccupation with the city throughout.

The inspiration for the record was really based in New York and the ways of the town. I think that gave it an extra spur and hardness. And then, of course, there was the punk thing that had started in 1976. Punk and disco were going on at the same time, so it was quite an interesting period. New York and London, too. Paris—there was punk there. Lots of dance music. Paris and New York had all this Latin dance music, which was really quite wonderful. Much more interesting than the stuff that came afterward.^[1]

For the first time since 1968's Beggars Banquet, the core band — now Jagger, Richards, Wood, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman — would be the only musicians on a Rolling Stones album, with few extra contributors. Ian McLagan, Wood's bandmate from The Faces, played keyboards, harmonica player Sugar Blue contributed to several songs, in addition to saxophonist Mel Collins and Simon Kirke, who played percussion (the three jokingly credited as "1 Moroccan, 1 Jew, 1 WASP"). Jagger's guitar contributions caused the band's road manager, Ian Stewart, to be absent from many of the sessions as he felt piano would be superfluous, making this a rare Rolling Stones album on which he did not appear. An alternate story has Stewart pointedly boycotting most of the sessions, claiming the band was sounding like 'bloody Status Quo!'

A serious concern was the issue of Keith Richards and his highly-publicized heroin possession bust in Toronto, Ontario in early 1977; resulting in a very real possibility that he might be sent to jail for years. However, due to the judgement that Richards was very separate from the usual theft and anti-social culture that is associated with heroin use, he was sentenced very lightly. He was ordered to perform a charity show for The Canadian National Institute for the Blind.^[2] As a commemoration of his second lease on life following the end of his heroin addiction, Keith reverted his surname to "Richards" with an "s" for Some Girls, after fifteen years without it.

The sessions for Some Girls began in October 1977, breaking before Christmas and starting up again after New Year's before finishing in March 1978. Under their new British recording contract with EMI (remaining with Warner Music in North America only), they were able to record at EMI's Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris, a venue at which they would record frequently for the next several years. The Rolling Stones ended up recording about fifty new songs, several of which would turn up in altered forms on Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You. These sessions have also served as a prime source for many bootleg compilations over the years. Engineer for the sessions was Chris Kimsey, whose approach to recording breathed life into the somewhat dense sounding recordings like Goats Head Soup and It's Only Rock 'n' Roll albums. Kimsey's direct method of recording, together with the entrance of the then state-of-the-art Mesa/Boogie Mark I amps instead of the Ampeg SVT line of amps, yielded a bright, direct and aggressive guitar sound. In fact, there have been few Stones sessions as widely bootlegged as these.

There was some controversy surrounded the lyrics to the title song, an extended musing on women of various nationalities and races. The line "Black girls just wanna get fucked all night" drew strong protests from various groups, including Jesse Jackson's PUSH. Jagger famously replied, "I've always said, you can't take a joke, it's too fucking bad," although he was reportedly more conciliatory to Jackson in private, as he claimed the song was intended as a parody of racist attitudes. Saturday Night Live cast member Garrett Morris would have the final say on the controversy with a mock-editorial on the show's Weekend Update segment: After giving the impression that he was going to openly criticise the Stones, he quoted a sanitised version of the "Black girls just..." line, then stated "I have one thing to say to you, Mr. Mick Jagger... where are these women?!?"

Packaging and artwork [link]

The album cover for Some Girls was designed by Peter Corriston, who would design the next three album covers as well, with illustrations by Hubert Kretzschmar. An elaborate die-cut design, with colours varying on different sleeves, it featured The Rolling Stones in garish drag alongside select female celebrities and lingerie ads. The cover immediately ran into trouble when Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Liza Minnelli (representing her mother Judy Garland), Raquel Welch, and the estate of Marilyn Monroe threatened legal action.

The album was quickly reissued with a revised cover that removed all the celebrities whether they had complained or not, and were replaced with black and punk style garish colours with the phrase PARDON OUR APPEARANCE - COVER UNDER RE-CONSTRUCTION (found on most reissues since). Jagger later apologised to Minnelli when he encountered her during a party at the famous discothèque Studio 54.

There also existed a third version of the album cover with hand-drawn women (found on the 1986 CD reissue).

A fourth amended version that included Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Britt Ekland and Jimmy Carter in drag was not published.

Release and legacy [link]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Blender	link
Sputnikmusic	link
Robert Christgau	(A) link
Rolling Stone	link
Uncut	link
The A.V. Club	(A) link

In May 1978, the first single from the album, "Miss You", a prowling, moody number built on a stripped-down disco beat and bluesy pop harmonies, was released to very strong response, garnering The Rolling Stones their last US #1 hit and reaching #3 in the UK. Some Girls appeared in June to a very welcoming audience, reaching #1 in the US and #2 in the UK, becoming their biggest-selling studio album in the process (currently certified six times platinum in the US alone). It was also a major critical success, with many reviewers calling it a classic return to form, and their best album since 1972's Exile on Main St. "Beast of Burden", "Respectable" (in the UK) and "Shattered" (in the US) would follow as the next singles, all becoming minor hits as well.

The Stones embarked on their summer US Tour 1978 in support of the album, which for the first time saw them mount several small venue shows, sometimes under a pseudonym.

In 2003 Some Girls was ranked number 269 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

In 1986, the first compact disc version of the album was issued by the Stones' new label distributor, Columbia Records, as Rolling Stones/Columbia CK-40449. In 1994, with the acquisition of the Rolling Stones Records catalogue by Virgin Records, Some Girls was remastered and reissued with a partial restoration of the original cover art. The first pressing was packaged in a replica of the original vinyl packaging. In 2009, the album was remastered and reissued by Universal Music, restoring the original color scheme of the cover.

"Some Girls" was re-issued on 21 November 2011 in a 2 CD Deluxe edition, including 12 previously unreleased songs from that era. A Super-Deluxe edition, also included a single for "Beast of Burden".^[3] The album re-entered the charts at #58 in the UK and #46 in the US. ^[4] In 2012 it was released by Universal Music Enterprises in a Japanese only SHM-SACD version.

Track listing [link]

All songs written and composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, except where noted. 

• North American copies of the album on 8-track tape format contain extended versions of "Miss You" and "Beast of Burden" and edited versions of the songs "Imagination", "Far Away Eyes" and "Shattered".

2011 Reissue Bonus Track Listing [link]

All songs written and composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, except where noted. 

Personnel [link]

The Rolling Stones

• Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals, electric guitar, piano on "Faraway Eyes", BONUS TRACKS: piano on "Petrol Blues", electric piano on "No Spare Parts", harmonica on "When You're Gone" and "Keep Up Blues", handclaps on "Tallahasse Lassie"
• Keith Richards – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Before They Make Me Run", bass guitar on "Some Girls" and "Before They Make Me Run", piano on "Faraway Eyes", BONUS TRACKS: lead vocals on "We Had It All", piano on "No Spare Parts" and "I Love You Too Much", electric piano on "You Win Again"
• Ronnie Wood – electric, acoustic, pedal steel and slide guitar, backing vocals, bass guitar on "Shattered", bass drum on "Shattered"
• Charlie Watts – drums
• Bill Wyman – bass guitar, synthesizer on "Some Girls", BONUS TRACKS: marimba on "Don't Be a Stranger"

Additional personnel

• Sugar Blue – harmonica on "Miss You", "Some Girls" BONUS TRACKS: "Don't Be a Stranger" and "We Had It All"
• Ian McLagan – electric piano on "Miss You", organ on "Just My Imagination"
• Mel Collins – saxophone on "Miss You"
• Simon Kirke – congas on "Shattered"
• Ian Stewart – BONUS TRACKS: piano on "Claudine", "So Young", "Do You Think I Really Care?", "Tallahasse Lassie", "You Win Again", and "Petrol Blues"
• Chuck Leavell – BONUS TRACKS: piano solo on "So Young"
• Don Was – BONUS TRACKS: bass guitar on "Don't Be a Stranger", handclaps on "Tallahasse Lassie"
• John Fogerty – BONUS TRACKS: handclaps on "Tallahasse Lassie"
• Matt Clifford – BONUS TRACKS: percussion on "Don't Be a Stranger"

Chart positions [link]

Certifications [link]

References [link]