The Rolling Stones Top 75 Countdown (#18-16) & This Week's Statistics

Welcome back to our Rolling Stones Top 75 songs' countdown. Today we'll be listening to Nos 18, 17, and 16.

At #18 we find As Tears Go By. When Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham practically locked Jagger and Richards in a kitchen and ordered them to start writing original material, Richards began picking guitar chords, and this melancholy ballad magically appeared. Richards says he and Jagger weren't initially knocked out by it, but Oldham knew a hit when he heard it and cut a version with Jagger's girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull, which hit #9 in the UK and Ireland, and #22 in the US in 1964. It was to be the beginning of a long and fruitful career.

She recorded the song again in 1987 - and this to me is the perfect version: world-weary and haunting, with Marianne now singing in a much lower register, the voice of a Rock 'N' Roll survivor.

The Rolling Stones changed the arrangement from Faithful's 1964 version to one that more closely resembled the arrangement of Yesterday, and released it as a single (not in the UK) in 1965. It made #1 in Canada, #2 in Australia, #6 in the US, #8 in Germany and #22 in France. It's an absolutely lovely version.

Here they are, live in 2008:

At #17 is yet another ballad, which was written almost a decade later, as it was recorded in late 1972 and released in 1973, the first single off the Goats Head Soup album. Angie was one of the band's softest and most tenderhearted ballads (and their only ballad to go to #1 in the US). It also hit #1 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, #2 in Germany, #4 in Denmark, #5 in The UK, #8 in Austria, #9 in Ireland and #16 in Finland.

Angie was written by Richards while he was being treated for heroin addiction at a clinic in Switzerland. "Once I came out of the usual trauma," he recalled, "I didn't feel like I had to shit the bed or climb the walls or feel manic anymore. I just went, 'Angie, Angie.' " Completed during the Goats Head Soup sessions in Jamaica, it became a gently strummed benediction with a processional piano by Nicky Hopkins and strings arranged by Nicky Harrison. Angie has inspired much speculation as to its inspiration. Despite writing it at the time of his daughter Angela's birth, Richards claims the lyrics were just a placeholder that stuck: "I didn't know Angela was going to be called Angela when I wrote Angie," he said. "Sometimes you have a hook, a phrase or a word or a name or something, which maybe you don't even intend to keep. . . . It was just a working title, like, who's gonna call a song Angie, how boring, another chick's name, ya know."

In the documentary Protagonist, the former German terrorist Hans-Joachim Klein remarks that the song inspired him to adopt "Angie" as the moniker he used during his militant activities in the 1970s. In 2005, the German political party CDU used the song in its election campaign for Angela Merkel, although the Rolling Stones had not given them permission to do so.

Finally for today, at #16, there's the lead single and title track of their 1974 album, It's Only Rock n Roll '(But I Like It). The track was written by Jagger, who cut a demo with David Bowie. When Richards heard it, he demanded they "steal that motherf*cker back." A celebration of their music with a dig at rubbernecking fans and journalists – "If I could stick a knife in my heart/Suicide right on stage/Would it be enough for your teenage lust?" – it created a classic catchphrase.

Jagger also has said that as soon as he wrote it, he knew it was going to be a single. He said it was his answer to everyone who took seriously what he or the band did. According to Richards there was opposition to it being a single but they persisted, saying it had to be the next single. He said that to him "that song is a classic. The title alone is a classic and that's the whole thing about it."

The song made #3 in France, #6 in Ireland, #8 in Norway, #10 in the UK, #13 in Canada and the Netherlands and #16 in the US.

Now, let's move on to this week's statistics. This week's most popular topic was Zeki Müren. It was so successful, in fact, that it's already #1 in the monthly list and Top 5 in the all-time list. Also remarkably, a story that was published at the end of June, Labi Siffre, still gathers enough interest to be the #2 popular topic of the week. It's also #2 for the month and #2 in our all-time list.

As for our visitors' weekly Top 10, we have had some changes: Greece has had an excellent week and although it's still at #2, it has two thirds of the visits that the US has, one of the largest percentages to date. The UK also did great, at #3 and Cyprus even more so, managing to reach #4 for the first time. Germany and France had a normal week, Russia not so great compared to older times, but not lower than last week, while we had 3 new entries. Ukraine and the Netherlands have been in the weekly Top 10 before, but if I'm not mistaken, this is Turkey's first time. A most hearty welcome!

The full Top 10 is as follows (there is a 2-way tie at #5 & a 3-way tie at #7):

1. the United States

2. Greece

3. the United Kingdom

4. Cyprus

5. Germany

5. France

7. Russia

7. Turkey

7. Ukraine

10. the Netherlands

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence this week (alphabetically): Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, and Vietnam. Happy to have you all!

Here's the all-time list.

1. the United States = 46.6%

2. Greece = 19.0%

3. Russia = 9.9%

4. Germany = 3.6%

5. France = 2.5%

6. the United Kingdom = 2.3%

7. Canada = 1.09%

8. Ireland = 1.05%

9. Cyprus = 0.91%

10. Italy = 0.62%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!