(Credits: Far Out / Album Cover / Alamy)
Mon 9 February 2026 20:00, UK
There’s an irony to the success of The Rolling Stones that only becomes clear once you dig through their greatest hits of the 1970s.
Because at a glance, The Rolling Stones were the definitive band of the decade. In an era free of The Beatles’ domination and one that championed the liberated hedonism that they embodied, it was a decade destined to be theirs. But a quick flick through their greatest hits tells somewhat of a different story, and reminds you just how longstanding their presence in music is.
It began in the 1960s, when they finally shook themselves loose of the cover songs they garnered fame for and started writing their own material. Their mid-60s haunting blues rock anthems ‘Paint It Black’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ became their two biggest hits of all time, proving that they were more than just a support act for The Beatles.
Then their third biggest hit, ‘Start Me Up’, came from the glittering 1980s, and so it begged the question, where were they in the ‘70s? Well, they were right there, of course, but delivering songs that existed in the wider lens of an album, as opposed to outright singles. Some Girls and Sticky Fingers acted as their biggest records of the year and strengthened their ability to write something more focused and longer form.
Unsurprisingly, their biggest-selling singles from that decade largely come from both of those records, and together, they highlight just how the band’s sound pivoted throughout the era. It started off with the gritty blues palette of Sticky Fingers, before shifting into the worlds of disco-tinged rock with Some Girls, but no matter what it was, it still landed the band at the very top of the charts.
The highest-selling Rolling Stones songs from the ’70s: