The Rolling Stones did cause controversy regarding some of their lyrics or themes. However, one song garnered issue from their audience over the genre they chose to cover. Looking back on it, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have no regrets over this song and find the controversy surrounding it to be “ridiculous.”
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards think the controversy regarding ‘Miss You’ is unfounded
“Miss You” was released in 1978 as the first single for The Rolling Stones album Some Girls. While the song was a hit, it was divisive with fans of the Stones at that time. The track saw the Stones taking on the disco genre, which grew in popularity during the 1970s. Many hated the track and felt the band was selling out by moving away from their rock n’ roll roots.
In a 2011 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards looked back on Some Girls and the controversy that “Miss You” started. Richards said the inspiration for the song was picked up by going to clubs and hearing what got the crowd moving. They didn’t see it as disco, but rather another version of R&B music.
“And the disco thing, I don’t know, that was just what was going on in clubs, and you sort of picked up a beat. And we just decided to do a disco song,” Richards added. “At the time, it wasn’t necessarily ‘disco music’ to us; it was just another rhythm-and-blues beat. No doubt hanging around in bars and clubs a lot had something to do with it.”
Jagger thought the mixed reaction to the track was “ridiculous.” Artists experimented with different genres frequently, and it was silly for purists to freak out whenever it happened.
“Yeah, I mean, now it’s ridiculous to even think about,” Jagger shared. “It’s a bit like Bob Dylan going electric, isn’t it? It’s ridiculous to even think that people made a fuss about it. Now you look back and think, ‘How stupid was that?’ There were a lot of people that were very narrow-minded about it. To me, I wasn’t brought up on rock music so much as blues and soul music, and a lot of that music was dance music. It was specifically made to dance to.”
“You know, I like dancing, so as far as I’m concerned, all sorts of fast songs for me were all made to dance to,” he continued. “So, obviously, I’d be very interested in making dance music. And that particular groove was the groove of the moment. You don’t really play the grooves of yesteryear when you make records; you play the grooves of now. And that sort of beat was the thing that was going around at the time. For some people, it was a very big hit, but not everyone liked it.”
How did ‘Miss You’ perform on the charts?
Despite its mixed reception from fans, “Miss You” peaked at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 4 on the U.K. Singles chart. It was also a top 10 hit in many other countries. The album Some Girls reached No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 2 in the U.K. While critics were mixed on it in 1978, it has a much fonder legacy now, with many seeing it as one of The Rolling Stones’ catchiest tracks.
It may have received controversy at the time, but it seems like folks have come around to it, much to the delight of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
