The Rolling Stone’s “Brown Sugar” Turns 50 This Year

“Brown Sugar” is a song recorded by the English rock band The Rolling Stones. Written primarily by Mick Jagger, it is the opening track and lead single from their album Sticky Fingers. It became a number one hit in both the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it charted number two. In the United States, Billboard ranked it as the number 18 song for 1971. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 495 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and at number five on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.

“Brown Sugar” was released in April 1971 as the first single from the album. While the US single featured only “Bitch” as the B-side, the British single featured that track plus a live rendition of Chuck Berry’s “Let It Rock”, recorded at the University of Leeds during the 1971 tour of the United Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom, the single was originally issued in mono using a now-rarely heard bespoke mono mix. This mono mix has never been used on any compilation.

The song was performed routinely during the Stones’ 1970 European Tour, occupying a prominent spot near the end of the set list even though audiences were unfamiliar with it. The band opened the shows of their infamous 1972 American Tour with “Brown Sugar”, and it has since become a Stones concert staple. However, in more recent times Jagger has changed some of the more controversial lyrics when performing the song live. For example the first verse line ‘I hear him whip the women just around midnight’ has been replaced with the more simple ‘you should have heard him just around midnight.’

Writing for Sounds in 1971, Penny Valentine praised “Brown Sugar”, stating that it was her “choice as the best track”. Writing for The Rag, rock critic Mike Saunders found the single to be the “only especially noteworthy” track of Sticky Fingers (1971). Little Richard recorded a rendition of “the song for his album The King of Rock and Roll, released in 1971.

Listen to the iconic song here.

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