Rolling Stones – "Let's Spend the Night Together" (1967)

I'll satisfy your every need

And I now know you will satisfy me

“Let’s Spend the Night Together” is one of the Rolling Stones’ most iconic songs, but it peaked at #55 on the Billboard “Hot 100.”

That’s because most American radio stations chose not to play “Let’s Spend the Night Together” . . . for obvious reasons.  

Ed Sullivan personally told Mick Jagger not to even think about playing the song on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967.  Jagger agreed to sing “Let’s spend some time together” instead of “Let’s spend the night together,” rolling his eyes at the camera as he did so.

The Rolling Stones on the Sullivan show

(Times have changed in the United States since then, but not in China.  When the Stones toured China in 2006, authorities told them not to play “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Woman,” and “Beast of Burden.”)

The Rolling Stones appeared on Sullivan’s show six times.  Click here if you’d like to order a DVD with those six Sullivan shows in their entirety.  

I vividly remember the group’s first appearance on October 25, 1964, when they closed the show with “Time Is On My Side.”  (As I recall, they didn’t appear live that night, but on tape.)

The group’s last Sullivan appearance was on November 23, 1969, when they opened the show with “Gimme Shelter” – imagine that – and closed it with “Love In Vain” and “Honky Tonk Woman.”  The other guests that night included Ella Fitzgerald, Rodney Dangerfield, and Topo Gigio.

Ed Sullivan has a heart-to-heart
with Mick Jagger

There’s no doubt that the Stones’ music was much more sexual than the Beatles.  I can’t think of a single Beatles song that is nearly as explicit “Let’s Spend the Night Together” – much less “Stray Cat Blues.”

There’s very little guitar in this song.  It relies on Jack Nietzsche’s piano and Brian Jones’s organ.  (For some reason, Bill Wyman didn’t play bass on “Let’s Spend the Night Together” – Keith Richards did.) 

This song is one hot mess, boys and girls.  Don't sleep on just how good the Stones were in their prime.

Here’s “Let’s Spend the Night Together”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Vanilla Fudge -- "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (1967)

Why don't you get out of my life

And let me make a new start?

(So have you figured out the two themes of this year's 29 Posts in 28 Days?)

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" was probably the Supremes' best single ever.  (Keep in mind that the Supremes had no fewer than twenty top-ten singles between 1964 and 1970 – including twelve number one singles.)

Why Vanilla Fudge chose to cover that particular song is a mystery to me.  Their over-the-top, take-no-prisoners style of playing wouldn't seem to be a good fit for a classic Motown pop song.

But the quartet from Long Island knocked it out the park . . . as this absolutely maniacal video of Vanilla Fudge's live performance of the song on The Ed Sullivan Show demonstrates:

(I need to go lie down with a cool washcloth on my forehead.  Can you excuse me for a few minutes?)

The video of the boys performing the song on The Ray Anthony Show is almost as bizarre as the Ed Sullivan performance.  The quartet of go-go girls who cluelessly gyrate to the music are fascinating to watch, but the quality of the video and the sound is not as good:

Click here to buy the album version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On," which was released in the summer of 1967 on Vanilla Fudge's eponymous debut album.  (That album consisted of covers of relatively recent pop songs, including the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" and "Eleanor Rigby," the Zombies' "She's Not There," and Cher's "Bang Bang."