Wild Horses (Rolling Stones song)

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"Wild Horses"
Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones Japanese vinyl.jpg
Japanese single picture sleeve
Single by the Rolling Stones
from the album Sticky Fingers
B-side"Sway"
ReleasedJune 12, 1971 (US)
RecordedDecember 1969 – February 1970
Studio
GenreCountry rock[1]
Length5:38
LabelRolling Stones (RS-19101)
Songwriter(s)Jagger/Richards
Producer(s)Jimmy Miller
Rolling Stones US singles chronology
"Brown Sugar"
(1971) 		"Wild Horses"
(1971) 		"Tumbling Dice"
(1972)

"Wild Horses" is a song by the Rolling Stones from their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. It was also released on June 12, 1971 as a single, with "Sway" as its B-side. Rolling Stone ranked the song number 334 in its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list in 2004.

Inspiration and recording[]

In the liner notes to the 1993 Rolling Stones compilation album Jump Back, Jagger states, "I remember we sat around originally doing this with Gram Parsons, and I think his version came out slightly before ours. Everyone always says this was written about Marianne but I don't think it was; that was all well over by then. But I was definitely very inside this piece emotionally." Richards says, "If there is a classic way of Mick and me working together this is it. I had the riff and chorus line, Mick got stuck into the verses. Just like "Satisfaction", "Wild Horses" was about the usual thing of not wanting to be on the road, being a million miles from where you want to be."[2]

Originally recorded over a three-day period at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama during 2–4 December 1969 while Albert and David Maysles were shooting for the film that was titled Gimme Shelter, the song was not released until over a year later due to legal wranglings with the band's former label.[citation needed] Along with "Brown Sugar", it is one of the two Rolling Stones compositions from Sticky Fingers (1971) over which ABKCO Records co-owns the rights along with the Stones. It features session player Jim Dickinson on piano, Richards on electric guitar and 12-string acoustic guitar, and Mick Taylor on acoustic guitar. Taylor uses Nashville tuning, in which the EADG strings of the acoustic guitar are strung one octave higher than in standard tuning. Ian Stewart was present at the session, but refused to perform the piano part on the track due to the prevalence of minor chords, which he disliked playing.[3]

Music video[]

A music video, filmed in black and white, was produced to promote an acoustic version in 1995.[4]

Release and legacy[]

Released as the second US-only single in June 1971, "Wild Horses" reached number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

An early, acoustic take of "Wild Horses" was released on the Deluxe and Super Deluxe versions of the reissued Sticky Fingers album on 8 June 2015.

A reworked studio version recorded in 1995 appeared on the album Stripped. This version was released as a single in early 1996.

The song appears on a handful of the Rolling Stones' concert DVDs: Bridges to Babylon Tour '97–98 (1998), Rolling Stones - Four Flicks (2003), and The Biggest Bang (2007).

Jagger's ex-wife, Jerry Hall, has named "Wild Horses" as her favourite Rolling Stones song.[5]

"Wild Horses" figures prominently in the films Adaptation (2002) and Camp (2003). On television, the song was played during Parks and Recreation in the episode "Li'l Sebastian" (S3: E16) as background music to Li'l Sebastian's memorial service, and was used during the Season 1 finale of Bojack Horseman in the episode "Later".

An instrumental version of the song is featured during the end credits of Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones documentary film Shine a Light (2008).

Personnel[]

The Rolling Stones[]

  • Mick Jagger – vocals
  • Keith Richards – twelve string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, backing vocals
  • Mick Taylor – acoustic guitar
  • Bill Wyman – bass guitar
  • Charlie Watts – drums

Additional personnel[]

Charts[]

Chart (1971) Peak
position
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[6] 11
US Billboard Hot 100[7] 28
Chart (1996) Peak
position
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[8] 59
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40 Tipparade)[9] 4
Netherlands (Dutch Single Tip)[10] 2
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[11] 53

First issued version[]

The first issued version of "Wild Horses" was released by The Flying Burrito Brothers on their 1970 album, Burrito Deluxe, almost a year before it appeared on The Rolling Stones release of Sticky Fingers. Keith Richards had given Burrito Bros. member Gram Parsons a demo tape of "Wild Horses" on December 7, 1969, the day after the Altamont Free Concert.[12][page needed]

References[]

  1. ^ Dowley, Tim (1983). The Rolling Stones. Hippocrene Books. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-85936-234-4. 'Dead Flowers' and 'Wild Horses' have them playing a kind of country rock.
  2. ^ "Wild Horses". Time Is On Our Side. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  3. ^ Wyman 2002. p. 482.
  4. ^ "Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones 1995". YouTube. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  5. ^ Odell, Michael (29 April 2007). "This much I know: Jerry Hall, actor and model, 50, London". The Observer. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
  6. ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 5351." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  7. ^ "The Rolling Stones Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  8. ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 2933." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  9. ^ "The Rolling Stones – Wild Horses" (in Dutch). top40.nl. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  10. ^ "THE ROLLING STONES - WILD HORSES [STRIPPED]" (in Dutch). dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  11. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – The Rolling Stones – Wild Horses". Singles Top 100. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  12. ^ Davis, Stephen. Old Gods Almost Dead. Broadway Books, New York, 2001,

External links[]

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