The Rolling Stones Top 75 Countdown (#33-31) & This Week's Statistics

From today onwards, all the Rolling Stones' songs in the countdown are graded A- (or 19/20), until we reach the 20/20s. Don't worry, I'll let you know in time.

At #33 we find a song about the suburban housewives' Valium craze in the 60s. Mother's Little Helper first appeared as the opening track to the United Kingdom version of their 1966 album Aftermath.  It was released as a single in the United States and peaked at #8 on the Billboard Singles Charts in 1966. It also made #9 in Germany and #14 in Canada.

The song was propelled by an electric guitar imitating a sitar. "Very strange number," Jagger observed "Like a music-hall number." Richards had no problem with his partner's lyrics: "A lot of the stuff Chuck Berry and early Rock writers did was putting down that other generation. We used to laugh at those people."

I especially like how the song ends. It seems that the ending was Wyman's idea.

At #32 is a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, appearing on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. Dead Flowers is a campy honky-tonk jam that is part sendup – "[I] think a lot of country music is sung with the tongue in cheek, so I do it tongue-in-cheek," Jagger said. Yet it's utterly convincing: a boozy dressing-down of a former girlfriend that doubles as a kiss-off to the flower-power Sixties, recorded under the clear influence of Richards' drug buddy Gram Parsons. That balance of revelry and mourning, in fact, is what makes it a great country tune, and why Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle, among the many who have covered it, helped to make it a genre classic.

The lyrics to the song are notably dark, and feature the line, "I'll be in my basement room, with a needle and a spoon", a reference to injecting heroin. What I love most about the song is its cynicism. I don't know what that makes me. Here's the Stones' version:

Here's a live performance of Keith Richards, Willie Nelson & friends:

Finally for today, at #31 we find a cover from the Stones' early days. Not Fade Away is probably the shortest song on our list, with a running time of 1:46. The Stones made this Buddy Holly standard sound demanding and desperate. "[We] put the Bo Diddley beat up front," Wyman said. Andrew Loog Oldham went so far as to say it was "the first song Mick and Keith wrote. The way they arranged it was the beginning of their shaping of them as songwriters."

It was one of their earliest hits, in fact it was their first Top 5 hit in the UK, reaching #3 in early 1964. It also made #5 in Ireland and #33 in Australia. It was the A-side of the band's first US single, where it peaked at #48. Here is the Stones' version:

As far as the original is concerned, it was released as the B-side of the hit single Oh, Boy! in 1957 and was included on the album The "Chirping" Crickets (1958). In 2004, this song was ranked #107 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Now, on to the week's statistics. This week there were no extraordinary occurences. All the big ones did well, except for Ireland, which at least did make an appearance. I'd say that it was France's week to shine. Also the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine did very well.

The full Top 10 is as follows (there is a 2-way tie at #9):

1. the United States

2. Greece

3. France

4. Germany

5. the United Kingdom

6. Russia

7. Cyprus

8. the United Arab Emirates

9. Canada

9. Ukraine

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence this week (alphabetically): Andorra, Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Uganda. Happy to have you all!

As far as the all-time list is concerned, things are more or less the same. Here it is:

1. the United States = 47.1%

2. Greece = 19.4%

3. Russia = 10.9%

4. Germany = 3.4%

5. France = 2.3%

6. the United Kingdom = 2.0%

7. Canada = 1.15%

8. Ireland = 1.01%

9. Cyprus = 0.72%

10. Portugal = 0.50%

Yesterday we have completed 200 entries in this blog. That's one entry every day for the last 200 days. If you wish, I will soon publish all the countries that visited so far, as well as all the 200 posts in order of popularity (the posts, not the countries. For those it will be by continent). Let me know in your comments. It's hard work and I won't do it if you're not interested.

Now, the answer to yesterday's quiz: the song we're looking for is Civil War (1991) by Guns N' Roses, at the time one of the biggest bands in the planet. Here it is:

That little monologue at the start belongs to Cool Hand Luke, one of the finest films of 1967. Directed by Stuart Rosenberg, it stars Paul Newman as the titular character, a guy who is sent to prison because he destroyed some parking meters. Newman, at his most beautiful, was nominated for an Oscar for this film.

Other nominations included Best Musical Score for Lalo Schifrin and Best Adapted Screenplay. It did win one, however: the Best Supporting Actor Oscar went to good character actor George Kennedy. Here's the scene that includes this particular monologue:

That's all folks. I wish you all a healthy and happy new week!