On This Day in 1965, Keith Richards Woke up in a Florida Hotel Room and Wrote the Rolling Stones’ First US No. 1

On this day (May 6) in 1965, Keith Richards woke up in a Florida hotel room with a guitar riff and the line “can’t get no satisfaction” in his head. He recorded the riff, went back to sleep, and shared the idea with the rest of the Rolling Stones a week later. The song that found him in his sleep became “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Two months later, it was an international smash hit and their first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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The nocturnal inspiration came after the Stones played at the Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater, Florida. The concert ended in chaos after a large group of fans clashed with police. They had only played four songs when authorities shut things down. The band then retired to the Jack Tar Harrison Hotel for the evening. They had no idea they were just hours away from the spark that led to one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

[RELATED: 62 Years Ago, the Rolling Stones Kicked Off Decades of Legendary Tunes With a Collection of Covers—and a Few Original Songs]

Keith Richards Finds an Iconic Riff and Sound

According to Songfacts, Richards woke up, grabbed his guitar, and recorded the riff he heard in his dreams on a portable tape deck. When he took the recording to the studio a week later, it contained the song’s main riff followed by Richards’ snoring. He had woken up just long enough to capture an iconic riff before sawing logs once again.

Waking up with the riff in his head isn’t the only thing that led Richards to the now-iconic riff. Gibson had just sent him a Fuzz Box distortion pedal. At the time, very few musicians were recording distorted guitars. Richards didn’t like the sound but recorded a demo of the riff, trying to sketch out a horn section for the track. However, the band liked the sound and convinced him to keep it. Decades later, distorted guitars are one of the hallmarks of rock and roll.

The Rolling Stones’ First Billboard No. 1 Was About America

The Rolling Stones are a British band, but they had spent enough time in the United States for Mick Jagger to get a feel for the country and its culture. As a result, he wrote “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” about commercialism in the United States.

The song is about a man who is looking for authenticity. He can’t find it, though, thanks to the constant marketing that attempts to tell him how to think and what to buy. As a result, “Satisfaction” is a song that only gets more relevant as it ages.

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