By: Lucy Harbron
It might be expected that no one could spot a hit like the artists themselves. It would be easy to believe that the musician should be the ultimate authority on their music, having some kind of mythic connection to the songs that would tell them exactly which ones will work, which will sell best or which will secure their place in history. But time and time again, it’s proved that really all of it is up to chance. The music business is a fickle and funny thing, as Mick Jagger learnt in the early 1970s.
There is no singular recipe for success. When it comes to music, the moment a song or an album is handed over to the public marks the point where an artist can do nothing but cross their fingers. They hold their breath as their creative endeavours wander out into the world, hoping that the time, effort and energy they’ve put into it will pay off. Perhaps they think the track deserves to be a huge hit, spending time in the studio carefully crafting an anthemic tune with that goal. Or maybe it’s a more introspective, emotive ballad that they hope will resonate with listeners on a more intimate level. But either way, the second the song is out there, they have no control.
That fact is exactly why record labels and external voices step in to guide those creators. There comes a point in the music-making process where the tunes demand unbiased eyes. When it comes to making serious business decisions and attempting to figure out which new song might be a bestseller or might hook new fans in, the artists themselves can often be too clouded to make a judgment call. They’re still too fresh from the studio and too invested, still fighting the battle for the song they like best or worked hardest on to be treated as the golden single. However, time and time again, it has been proven that the song the band cares about most isn’t the one the public loves or the songs they brush off as B-sides become their biggest hit to date.
Mick Jagger learnt that well when he essentially gave up his single-picking privileges after a failure. “I picked ‘Tumbling Dice’ to be a single,” he said in 1973 before sheepishly admitting, “It didn’t do that well.” While the Exile on Main St. track remains a mainstay in the Stones’ live set and a real fan-favourite anthem, the response when it first came out wasn’t their strongest. It plateaued at number five in the UK chart and only number seven in the US. With a long list of number-one hits under their belt by this point, that result was disappointing.
So when it came to choosing the single for their next album, Goats Head Soup, Jagger surrendered his control. After years of hi-octane rock and roll hits, they decided to try something different when they released ‘Angie’ as the record’s lead single.
It’s a different choice for the band. Sure, they’d released slower songs as a single before, with ‘Wild Horses’ proving to be a huge success for the band with its country sound. But ‘Angie’ was looser, more ambiguous and altogether less polished or produced than the Stones songs that had come before. But just as it still remains a standout in their discography today thanks to the song’s tender emotional core, that same special quality stood out then.
That is, it stood out to everyone except Jagger. “I didn’t really pick it, you know, to be quite honest,” he said at the time, “It wasn’t my sort of pick.” But after the ‘Tumbling Dice’ flop, he decided to surrender to the opinions of others. “Everyone said ‘oh, ‘Angie’, I think that’s a single’. So I said, ‘Well, I don’t know.’”
But instantly, it worked. It went straight to the top of the US chart, as well as giving them a number one in Australia, France, Canada and beyond, as well as a number five position in the UK. It’s proof that while the artist might know best when it comes to creative decisions, sometimes the business is best left to someone else.
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