May 12, 1965: The Rolling Stones Record "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

Left to right: Bill Wyman, Brian Jones,

Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards

May 12, 1965: The Rolling Stones, already the next-biggest British rock and roll band behind The Beatles, record "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." It becomes their signature song, and one of the most popular songs in rock and roll history.

The Stones consisted of lead singer Mick Jagger, lead guitarist Keith Richards, rhythm guitarist Brian Jones, bass guitarist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. Also on the recording were pianists Ian Stewart and Jack Nitzsche, although Jones could also play the piano -- and, as it later turned out, the sitar (on "Paint It, Black") and the recorder (on "Ruby Tuesday"). Andrew Loog Oldham produced the record.

Richards claimed he wrote the opening riff for the song at his apartment in St. John's Wood, North-West London. Then he recorded it on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Then he fell asleep. When he played the tape in the morning, he found it contained 2 minutes of acoustic guitar, "and then me snoring for the next 40 minutes." It became one of the most famous opening riffs in rock and roll history. He said Jagger wrote the lyrics by the pool in Clearwater, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area.

They recorded the song on May 12, 1965, at the studio of Chess Records on the South Side of Chicago, home to Richards' hero Chuck Berry, and to blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon. The studio's address became the title of an instrumental the Stones later recorded, "2120 South Michigan Avenue."

The song was released on June 5, and was so damn catchy that, despite the bad grammar of the title, Billboard magazine listed it as the Number 1 song in America in their July 10 issue. It remains the Stones' most familiar song. As Jagger put it: 

It was the song that really made The Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band... It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kinds of songs... Which was alienation.

There are 3 surviving musicians from the recording session on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction": Jagger, Richards and Wyman. Oldham is also still alive. Jones died in 1969, Stewart in 1985, Nitzsche in 2000, and Watts in 2021.

*

May 12, 1965 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 2-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Bill Monbouquette threw a 6-hit shutout, to outpitch Jim Bouton. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at Shea Stadium. Jack Fisher went the distance for the win. Lou Brock went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Pete Rose went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson did not play.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 5-2 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Joe Torre and Felipe Alou hit home runs for the Braves. Hank Aaron did not, but did go 3-for-5. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Kansas City Athletics, 7-4 and 6-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew hit 2 home runs.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Don Drysdale went the distance for the win.

* And the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Willie Mays went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Ron Santo of the Cubs and Willie McCovey of the Giants hit home runs.