- Sleep Tonight
Infobox Song
Name = Sleep Tonight
Artist =The Rolling Stones
Album = Dirty Work
Released=24 March 1986
track_no = 10
Recorded = 1985
Genre = Rock
Length = 5m:11s
Writer =Jagger/Richards
Label = Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer =Steve Lillywhite andThe Glimmer Twins
[ Chart position = ] |
prev = "Had it With You"
prev_no = 9"Sleep Tonight" appeared onThe Rolling Stones ' 1986 album "Dirty Work". It is the second song on the ten-track album where lead vocals are performed byKeith Richards , "Too Rude" being the first. This was the first time two songs sung by Richards appeared on a Rolling Stones album; since "Dirty Work" all their studio albums have included at least two tracks featuring Richards' lead vocals.Richards wrote the song (credited as a
Jagger/Richards composition) on piano in theParis recording studio 's control room.Fact|date=March 2008Ronnie Wood liked the developing song and they recorded it together unaccompanied.Fact|date=March 2008 Backing vocals and strings were added later. Wood played drums, sinceCharlie Watts wasn't present for the session, and Watts later said "he could not have done better."cite book |last=Elliott |first=Martin |title= The Rolling Stones: Complete Recording Sessions 1962-2002 |publisher=Cherry Red Books |date=2002 |id=ISBN 1-901447-04-9 |page=pg. 319]Richards has stated that his singing during the "Dirty Work" sessions "thickened up" his voice: Since Jagger was absent from the studio much of the time, Richards provided guide vocals for many tracks and learned new microphone techniques. [DeCurtis, Anthony. (1988). "Keith Richards: The Rolling Stone Interview". "Rolling Stone". No. 536. 6 October 1988] [Bosso, Joseph. "Keith! Tunings, Teles and the Cosmic Shuffle: The Rolling Stone Goes Solo". "Guitar World". v. 9, no.11. December 1988.] His sturdy but smokey vocal presence on "Sleep Tonight" foreshadows the strong and emotive singing on his solo records and later Rolling Stones tracks.
The song
"Sleep Tonight" is a
piano drivenballad , with a restrained string arrangement. Richards sings with an almostgospel tempo as the heavy drum beat marches out the confusion and uncertainty of a loved one possibly lost. Many fans and critics interpreted the lyrics as reflecting mournfulness over the state of the Rolling Stones at the time.Fact|date=March 2008cquote|"I wish you baby, all the best, If you turn out like all the rest;""This darkness baby, it's chilling me - Stars stare down in sympathy".
The song shows a maturing musician and songwriter, and is a bridge between the younger Richards "outlaw" songs, and the more soulful ballads he became known for on later Rolling Stones records like "Slipping Away", "Thru and Thru", "How Can I Stop" and "Losing My Touch".Fact|date=March 2008
Notes
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