Credit: Far Out / Press
Wed 5 August 2026 18:00, UK
With over 32 studio albums across more than 60 years of rock and roll rebellion, it must be rather tricky for The Rolling Stones to keep track of all their records. For Mick Jagger, though, it is the more disappointing efforts that tend to stand out from the rest.
Inevitably, with the sheer number of studio albums boasted by the blues-rock heroes, there are more than a few regrettable, forgettable, or plain bad albums among them – even the most blindly devoted of Stones fanatics must surely concede that. If you were to ask those fans for their favourite LPs produced by the group, though, there is a not-insignificant chance they would select one of the multiple fan-favourite records that Mick Jagger himself would sooner forget about.
While Jagger is on record as citing the likes of Beggars Banquet and Sticky Fingers as the greatest Rolling Stones albums (an argument that is, admittedly, difficult to argue against), he has also rallied against the likes of Their Satanic Majesties Request. Despite typifying the sound of the psychedelic age and featuring some of the band’s most innovative compositions of the 1960s, neither Jagger nor the rest of the group holds that 1967 effort in the esteem that it perhaps deserves.
It isn’t the only underappreciated effort in their discography, either. Back in 1995, for instance, Jagger shared in an interview that he had always been quite disappointed with The Rolling Stones’ 1966 record, Between the Buttons.
On paper, that LP was something of a triumph for the group, reaching number three in the UK album charts and two in the US, and producing one of the band’s most iconic singles in the form of ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’. For Jagger, though, commercial success takes a back seat to artistic accomplishment. “Frank Zappa used to say he really liked it,” he said in that 1995 interview. “It’s a good record, but it was unfortunately rather spoiled.”
According to the frontman, the LP was a victim of being over-developed, to the point of losing the spontaneity and energy that made The Stones so revolutionary. “We recorded it in London on 4-track machines,” he recalled. “We bounced it back to do overdubs so many times, we lost the sound of a lot of it.”
If the sound of that album truly was lost, then mass audiences certainly didn’t notice. Even Jagger himself, in fact, can admit that the record has a few highlights. “‘Connection’ is really nice,” he affirmed. “‘My Obsession’, that’s a good one. They sounded so great, but then, later on, I was really disappointed with it.”
Further reading: From The Vault
“Isn’t ‘Ruby Tuesday’ on there or something? I don’t think the rest of the songs are that brilliant,” he continued. “I don’t think I thought they were very good at the time, either.” Given that ‘Ruby Tuesday’ wasn’t included on the UK version of the album, despite being one of only three tracks from that period that Mick Jagger seemed to like, his disappointment with Between the Buttons is easy to understand.
Along with the quality of the material itself, it is worth remembering just how busy The Rolling Stones were back in 1966, constantly on the road or in the recording studio, all the while being hounded by the tabloid press. With that background, it is perhaps no wonder that Jagger doesn’t look back upon Between the Buttons with the kind of rose-tinted view with which most ordinary people recall their youth.
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