MUSIC HISTORY 101 JULY 15, 1978 - The Rolling Stones started a two-week run at #1 on the U.S. album chart with “Some Girls”, the groups seventh #1 album in America. The cover was an elaborate die-cut design, with colors varying on different sleeves and featuring 20 cutouts, which matched up with facial photos on the inner record sleeve. With the sleeve put inside the cover, these showed the members of the Stones, plus several select female celebrities, in what appeared to be ads for wigs. Designed by Peter Corriston, the cover immediately ran into trouble when Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Liza Minnelli (representing her mother Judy Garland), Raquel Welch, and the estate of Marilyn Monroe all threatened legal action. With the threat of multiple copyright infringement lawsuits pending, the album was quickly reissued with a revised cover that removed all the celebrities whether they had complained or not, and were replaced with black and punk style garish colors with the phrase PARDON OUR APPEARANCE - COVER UNDER RE-CONSTRUCTION (found on most reissues since). Jagger later apologized to Minnelli when he encountered her during a party at the famous NYC discothèque Studio 54. The only celebrity whose face was not removed was that of ex-Beatle George Harrison. There also existed a third version of the album cover with hand-drawn women (found on the 1986 CD reissue with none of them resembling celebrities), and a fourth amended version that included Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Britt Eklund, and Jimmy Carter in drag that was never published. Some Girls was released at a time when punk was in its prime and established rockers like Jagger were seen as old fogies past their prime and creativeness. Recorded between October 1977 and March 1978 Some Girls, with its obvious punk influences, was seen as Jaggers reaction to this attitude. But beyond punk and its even more obvious disco/dance influences Some Girls was really Jaggers paean to New York City (the song Shattered with lyrics like Lifes just a cocktail party on the street, Big Apple people dressed in plastic bags directing traffic or Miss You with Jagger singing how I been walking Central Park - are among the albums many examples) with countless references and nods throughout to the Big Apple. Considered a highlight of their output and the best of their post-Exile on Main St. records, the album revitalized the band’s career upon its release and re-established The Rolling Stones as a vital rock and roll band in an era infused with punk rock and disco. It also became the band’s biggest-selling album in the United States, with more than six million copies to date. Rolling Stone (the magazine) lists it at #270 on their compilation of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. SONGS: 1) Miss You 2) When the Whip Comes Down 3) Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) 4) Some Girls 5) Lies 6) Far Away Eyes 7) Respectable 8) Before They Make Me Run 9) Beast of Burden 10) Shattered READ MORE: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Girls rollingstones/release/some-girls/
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 20:24:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015