Around 1990 I was playing a club and we usually got off around 2am in the morning. Early on a Sunday morning around 2:30…the guitar player and I packed the car and headed out to Pensacola Florida. One of those spontaneous trips. On the way, we listened to a Dennis Leary comedy tape and The Rolling Stone’s Tattoo You. This is the song that stuck with me on that trip for some reason.
Tattoo You was made up of outtakes and songs that were almost a decade old going back to Emotional Rescue, Black and Blue, and the Goats Head Soup album. Tattoo You to me…was their last great album. They originally recorded this song around 1972 (that version at the bottom). They worked on this song at least 4 different times. : Dynamic Sounds Studios, Kingston, Jamaica, Nov. 25-Dec. 21 1972; Village Recorders, Los Angeles, USA, Jan.13-15 1973; EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris, France, Jan. 5-March 2 1978; June 10-Oct. 19 1979. In 1981 Mick redid all of his vocals to the song.
Even though he had left the band seven years earlier, Mick Taylor’s guitar solo was left on this track and it is fantastic. Pianist Nicky Hopkins also appears on the track, as does the band’s old producer Jimmy Miller, who plays percussion.
Associate producer Chris Kimsey remembers there was a need to put an album out very quickly. A tour was already planned and Mick and Keith were not talking that much at the time. Kimsey told the band that he could probably make an album just out of the unused songs they had going back to 1972. Despite coming from different eras the songs fit together quite nicely. Personally, I think the album was much better than it’s predecessor Emotional Rescue.
The song was written by Jagger/Richards and was pulled from 10 years prior…it was one of the few not pulled as a single.
A version they recorded in 1972
The Tattoo You version from 1981
Tops
Every man is the same, come on
I’ll make you a star
I’ll take you a million miles from all this
Put you on a pedestal
Come on (come on, come on)
Have you ever heard those opening lines?
You should leave this small town way behind
I’ll be your partner, show you the steps
With me behind, you’re tasting of the sweet wine of success
‘Cause I’ll, I’ll take you to the top, baby (hey, baby)
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top, baby
I’ll take you to the top
Step on the ladder, toe in the pool
You’re such a natural, you don’t need no acting school
Don’t need no casting couch or be a star in bed
And never, never let success go to you pretty head
‘Cause I’ll, I’ll take you to the top, baby
I swear I would never gonna stop, baby
I’ll take you to the top
Don’t let the world pass you by
Don’t let the world pass you by
Don’t let the world pass you by
You take your chance now, baby
I’m sorry for the rest of your sweet loving life, baby
Oh, sugar
Hey sugar, I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top, sugar
I’ll take you to the top
Oh, baby
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
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kind of cool that they did this, i had no idea about the backstory of this album
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Thanks for reading Beth!
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I can safely say haven’t heard this song since I listened with my friends back in the day. Thanks for the post, I quite like the Stones like this, the album cut is great, cool to hear the original!
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I didn’t know about the original until I wrote this…I never knew this one went back that far. Pretty good album made of outtakes.
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Absolutely
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This is cool. There’s still a hint of disco in the drum beat. And only Mick could make ‘star’ rhyme with ‘pedestal’…
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lol…his manipulating slurring of words came in handy for him….
I’ve told singers that cover him in bands…just sing it how it sounds NOT the real words or it won’t be the same.
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I have heard this song before, but it did not get much play as far as I could tell, and I only heard it on the album. The Rolling Stones sure mad a lot of music releasing 30 studio albums, 13 live albums, 28 compilation albums, 3 extended plays, 121 singles, 33 box sets, 51 video albums, 2 video box sets and 77 music videos.
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Yes they did make a lot. As you know this album was pretty much a patch album…using outtakes. To me…this was their last…well great album.
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Great backstory Max as Tattoo You was my first ever purchased Stones album after I watch Casey Kasem’s Top 10 Tv show every Saturday at noon. I saw the video for Start Me Up and thought well these dudes look old lol but thats a catchy rock song ….so I bought it…the album that is with my allowance..
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Look how all of that is changed now… they were only in their late 30s early 40s…hell now that is when people release their debuts lol. The album had some great singles and more importantly…some great album cuts like this one.
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I think the Georgia Satellites were into there 30s when they hit it big in 86 but yeah your right 40 year olds are coming out with debuts now lol
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not a bad one I’ve probably heard no more than three or four times total, and not in the last 30 years. I didn’t go ga-ga for ‘Tattoo You’ (I did like ‘Waiting on a Friend’ a lot though) but it is a very good record considering how they spliced it together using all the old outtakes and unfinished songs from the previous decade.
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To me Dave….it was their last brush with greatness…after this came Undercover and the terrible Dirty Work.
They did bounce back with Steel Wheels.
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Same page here Max and Dave- Undercover was under par, Dirty Work was just hard work to listen to; but ‘Saint Of Me’ is one that still works, for me at least. But the one high point on Babylon. Still, as an album Steel Wheels was the last one of real spark and quality.
Tatoo You did work well for a stich-up, and ‘Black Limosine’ rolls and sways along nicely.
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Yes I agree with Steel Wheels. I dont’ know if you agree with me…but I think the last truly great album they did was Some Girls…although yes…I did like Steel Wheels and Tatto You…as far as comparing with the 5 great stretch…I also held Some Girls high.
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First time remembering hearing this tune. It definitely has its charm. Not sure if I’d trust this smooth-talking man…
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LOL…no…he is smooth alright
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Oh, well, I like it, I like it, I like it! That said, I don’t remember having heard “Tops” before. I mostly know “Tattoo You” because of “Start Me Up” and “Waiting On a Friend” – I guess I must have skipped all the other tracks in-between! 🙂
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You probably heard “Hang Fire” and Keith’s Little T&A….just guessing
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Okay, so yes, “Hang Fire” definitely sounds familiar. No sure about “Little T&A”.
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Little T&A is classic Keith…I called it Before They Make Me Run Part II lol
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Why do they remaster things so they sound “nice”? !
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To re-sell that album to the public as “new.” 99 times out of one hundred I don’t like it…but…there is always an exception. To me that would be….and you have heard of this…The White Album. The original was muddy sounding and they cleared it up…every other Beatle or Stones remix… they can have.
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When I think of all the times I must have heard this entire album back then, yet this song I don’t remember. There’s a lot in it to keep me listening. I really like the harmonies.
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This one and Worried About You are the two that get overlooked. I went to Florida with a friend in 1991 (after a gig)…and I had this album as we drove all night…so I know this Stones album better than any other…because of that trip.
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Yes, driving all night would give you a lot of time to listen to it!
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Nice review Max. I love this track and album. One of my first LPs ever.
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Thank you!
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I think most people prefer this one over their albums around this time. I think it’s much stronger than Some Girls, even. Waiting on a Friend is eerily similar to Joni Mitchell’s Hejira.
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It’s their last album that I truly love..and it’s better than Emotional Rescue by a long shot…but personally I could not put this over Some Girls.
The only song I don’t like on that album is Lies….and maybe MIss You because I’m so tired of it…but that is true with many older ones.
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Yeah, I’m really low on Some Girls compared to everyone else. Miss You, Before They Make Me Run, Beast of Burden, and Just My Imagination are the keepers for me, maybe Shattered.
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A part of you I would think likes Faraway Eyes…maybe not…yea it’s more of a parody but it’s funny.
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I feel like they’ve done the country thing a lot better, eg Dead Flowers. And a country parody doesn’t sit quite right with me, from them, maybe?
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I can see that side…but I have to admit I do like it. It reminds me of an AM country stations in the middle of the sticks…mixing country and gospel by some no named country singer.
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