Black and Blue
Thirteenth studio album by the Rolling Stones.
The Rolling Stones released their thirteenth studio album, Black and Blue, on April 23, 1976. Guitarist Mick Taylor had left the band the previous December, prompting auditions for a replacement. The album blends their classic rock with reggae and funk, and was produced by Jagger and Richards as the Glimmer Twins.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- the Rolling Stones
- Released
- 23 April 1976
- Recorded
- 5 December 1974 – 4 April 1975; 19 October 1975 – February 1976 (overdubs)
- Studio
- Musicland (Munich)
- Rolling Stones Mobile (Rotterdam)
- Mountain Recording (Montreux) (overdubs)
- Genre
- Rock
- blues rock
- disco
- funk rock
- reggae rock
- soul
- Label
- Rolling Stones
- Producer
- The Glimmer Twins
Facts from the source article.
Track listing
Side one
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot Stuff | 5:21 |
| 2 | Hand of Fate | 4:28 |
| 3 | Cherry Oh Baby | 3:54 |
| 4 | Memory Motel | 7:06 |
| Total length | 20:49 | |
Side two
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hey Negrita (inspiration by Ronnie Wood) | 4:58 |
| 2 | Melody (inspiration by Billy Preston) | 5:48 |
| 3 | Fool to Cry | 5:02 |
| 4 | Crazy Mama | 4:32 |
| Total length | 20:20 | |
Track listing from the source article.
Recording
In December 1974, the Rolling Stones were back at Musicland Studios in Munich, where they had cut It's Only Rock 'n Roll the year before. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, working as the Glimmer Twins, started producing a new album. Just as they were about to record "Fool to Cry" and a cover of Eric Donaldson's 1971 reggae track "Cherry Oh Baby," guitarist Mick Taylor quit. According to Richards, this sudden exit turned the recording sessions into a tryout for guitarists. The band was already a mess, dealing with legal and corporate headaches, personal distances, and Richards' heroin habit. After a holiday break, they gathered in Rotterdam to audition replacements. Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman suggested Peter Frampton. Others in the running included Steve Marriott, Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins, Robert A. Johnson, and Ronnie Wood. Mandel, Perkins, and Wood all ended up playing on the finished album. The group felt strongly that the new member should be English. Wood joined the summer tour and officially became a Rolling Stone in February 1976. Jeff Beck dropped by for a jam, but he was content with his solo work, joking that in two hours he only got to play three chords. Ian Stewart brought in Rory Gallagher for an audition in January 1975. Jagger was impressed by his professionalism, and the press reported Gallagher was the pick. But Gallagher had to leave for a tour of Japan before a decision came. He later recognized the riff from "Miss You" as something he had played for the band in Rotterdam.
Songs
Black and Blue jumps between hard rock, funk, reggae, blues, and soft rock. Harvey Mandel of Canned Heat plays lead guitar on "Hot Stuff," which nods to the disco craze of the era. Wayne Perkins, recommended to the Rolling Stones by Eric Clapton, handles the leads on "Hand of Fate." The band's cover of Eric Donaldson's "Cherry Oh Baby" stays close to the original. On "Memory Motel," Keith Richards steps back from guitar, letting Perkins play acoustic and Mandel electric, while Richards joins Mick Jagger and Billy Preston on keyboards and sings a duet with Jagger. Ron Wood inspired "Hey Negrita" and trades licks with Richards on the track. "Melody" borrows from Billy Preston's 1973 song "Do You Love Me," but the album credits Preston only with "inspired by," not as a co-writer; Preston felt cheated, which drove a wedge between him and the band. That song also contains the first audible count-off on a Stones record. The album's sole hit, "Fool to Cry," was so sleepy that Richards nodded off during a 1976 performance. "Crazy Mama" showcases the growing chemistry between Richards and Wood, setting the stage for the band's next chapter. Two leftover tracks from the Rotterdam sessions, "Slave" and "Worried About You," later appeared on Tattoo You, with Perkins adding a guitar solo to the latter.
Release and reception
Black and Blue came out on April 23, 1976. Its first single, "Fool to Cry," landed in the top 10 around the world. The album hit number two in the UK and spent four non-consecutive weeks at number one in the US, where it went platinum. The promotional push was a brutal spectacle orchestrated by Mick Jagger. He wanted a model who wasn't conventionally attractive to appear bruised and beaten, bound with her legs apart, positioned above a picture of the band. The ad carried the line, "I'm Black and Blue from the Rolling Stones – and I love it!" Jagger believed many women "want to be chained up." Atlantic Records also made radio spots where a woman, after a whip crack, moaned, "Ooooh, beat me, beat me, make me 'Black and Blue'...I love it." The campaign appeared in print and on a 14-by-48-foot billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. That billboard sparked a multiyear protest from Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW). The billboard came down, and the radio ads were pulled, but the print ads had already spread. WAVAW checked record stores and found other covers they considered problematic, like Cold Blood's Thriller and Eric Gale's Ginseng Woman, plus titles such as Kiss's Love Gun, which they felt mixed sex with violence. The controversy over the tasteless marketing drowned out the album's release. The label's standard denials that it wasn't endorsing violence didn't satisfy WAVAW, who launched a boycott. Their pressure lasted until November 1979, when Warner Communications, Atlantic's parent company, agreed with WAVAW to screen future releases for depictions of violence against women. Reviews for Black and Blue were split, as often happened with mid-career albums from established acts. Some critics enjoyed it, others were confused, and several found it weaker than Exile on Main St. from 1972, widely seen as the band's peak.
Reissues
In 1994, Virgin Records reissued a remastered Black and Blue Collector's Edition CD. A super deluxe reissue was released in November 2025, featuring a remix by Steven Wilson, unreleased jams and outtakes, and a 1976 live performance at Earls Court. It includes a cover of Shirley & Company's "Shame, Shame, Shame" with Jagger overdubbing vocals with Chanel Haynes. Rolling Stone gave the reissue four stars out of five; Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it three stars.
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