Days after teasing their new single with Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga, The Rolling Stones have officially released “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.” The bluesy tune proves that rock and roll and soul music can live harmoniously. Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger takes lead vocals while Gaga turns into a bonafide soul singer as Wonder shows off his musicianship by playing piano and the Moog synthesizer.
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I smell the sweet scents / Sweet scents of Heaven / Tumblin’ down tumblin’ down to the earth / I hear the sweet sounds / The sweet sounds (Ooh, the sweet sounds) of children / And they’re praisin’ / The land of their birth, they sing in the truly epic number that runs more than seven minutes long.
“Jagger was at his home in London one sunny afternoon, the leaves were rustling as the wind blew through the trees around outside, and he started playing a chord pattern of C, F and B Flat on his piano,” a press release explained of how the track that was written by Jagger and bandmate Keith Richards came into fruition.
“Sweet Sounds of Heaven” is the second single from the Stones’ upcoming album, Hackney Diamonds, out on October 20. The album’s producer, Andrew Watt, pitched the idea of having Wonder and Gaga on the track.
This isn’t the first time both artists have worked with the Stones. Gaga joined the iconic rock band onstage during their 2012 50 & Counting Tour to perform “Gimme Shelter,” which later ended up on the 2023 live album, GRRR Live! Wonder’s history with the Stones goes back decades, as he opened for them on their 1972 American Tour and would join them at the end of their set to perform a pair of their hits, “Satisfaction” and “Uptight (Everything’s Alright).”
Hackney Diamonds is the Stones’ first studio album of all new songs since A Bigger Bang was released in 2005. Wonder and Gaga aren’t the only elite artists who appear on the album, as Paul McCartney and Elton John also guest star.
Photo Credit: Mark Seliger/Courtesy of Rogers & Cowan PMK
