5 Times The Rolling Stones Struck It Big With Cover Songs

The Rolling Stones‘ original songbook stands out as one of the most imposing and impressive in the history of rock and roll. In addition to that, this band was always adept at delivering outstanding cover material, as they’ve always displayed the ability to put a decisive stamp on anything they touched.

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It’s rare to find a Rolling Stones album without any cover songs on it. Here are five covers, released at different points throughout their career, that have become favorites within their vast catalog.

“Time Is on My Side” from The Rolling Stones No. 2 (1964)

The Stones were just a bit behind The Beatles when it came to their American breakthrough. They scored a pair of minor hits in 1964 with “Tell Me” (a Jagger/Richards original) and “It’s All Over Now” (a cover). It took “Time Is on My Side,” a soul ballad, to really give put them across as the song became their first U.S. Top 10. The song was written by Jerry Ragovoy and first recorded by a jazz trombonist named Kai Winding. But it was the version by Irma Thomas, an American R&B chanteuse, that caught the Stones’ ear and gave Mick Jagger an ideal showcase for his emotive style.

“Love in Vain” from Let It Bleed (1969)

We’d argue there haven’t been too many sedate years in the history of the Stones, but 1969 really ratcheted up the tumult. In the midst of it all, they were able to focus and deliver a classic album in Let It Bleed, one on which the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards songwriting partnership hit another level. But one of the album’s most poignant moments when the band took on Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain.” Like just about every artist in rock and roll history, the band owed a great debt to the seminal songs of Johnson. They pay proper homage here with the help of expert mandolin work from special guest Ry Cooder.

“Stop Breaking Down” from Exile on Main St. (1972)

Here’s the band having another go at a Robert Johnson classic. Where they kept “Love in Vain” on the quieter side to somewhat mimic Johnson’s spare original, they beefed things up considerably on “Stop Breaking Down.” After all, this was recorded during the combustible Exile on Main St. sessions, which were imbued with a spirit of daring. In this case, the song benefits from Mick Taylor’s wailing slide action and Mick Jagger’s harmonica. On the whole, it’s a raucous, fiery take that, as the lyrics promise, will indeed bust your brains out.

“Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” from It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (1974)

By 1974, the Stones had emerged from the blues-drenched, career-high period that ran from Beggars Banquet to Exile on Main St., segueing into what you might call their professional rock band stretch. Maybe they didn’t dig quite as deep on those mid-’70s records, but their talents carried the day anyway. Perhaps it’s fitting then they were doing Motown covers instead of Robert Johnson by that time. The Temptations’ original take on “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” is definitive. But the Stones, thanks to drummer Charlie Watts’ relentless beat, give it some punch and ended up with a Top-20 hit out of it.

“Harlem Shuffle” from Dirty Work (1986)

Locate any online list ranking the Stones’ albums, and five will get you 10 that Dirty Work is right down near, if not at, the absolute bottom. The album was recorded at a time of profound rancor between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and none of the band seemed all that dialed in to making something special. But lo and behold, they came out of the thing with an unlikely hit single in “Harlem Shuffle.” They went way deep to uncover this minor R&B hit from 1963 by Bob & Earl. The song allowed them to get deep into a classic groove, unlike the metallic, unswinging nature of the rest of that album.

Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns