{"id":449840,"date":"2026-02-28T06:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T06:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/449840\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T06:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T06:42:09","slug":"did-the-rolling-stones-release-the-worst-number-one-in-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/449840\/","title":{"rendered":"Did The Rolling Stones release the worst number one in 1971?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Sat 28 February 2026 2:00, UK <\/p>\n

When you flick back through the musical history book, one page jumps out as the potential number one year of them all \u2013 1971 was an unrivalled year of musical greatness, which saw some of the very best records<\/a> of all time released.<\/p>\n

Marvin Gaye\u2019s What\u2019s Going On, Carole King\u2019s Tapestry<\/a> and Joni Mitchell\u2019s Blue were but a few that came out on this since-unmatched year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also came at a great time, for music needed originality desperately. The Beatles had split up<\/a> at the end of the previous decade, leaving a seismic hole in the industry, and while they weren\u2019t solely responsible for the great era of innovation seen in the 1960s, they were undoubtedly the leaders, and so in this fresh new decade, an atmosphere of uncertainty beckoned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But instead of hesitating, the music world responded and seized the open window of creative exposure. Myriad artists took the mantle of diverse innovation set out by the Fab Four and collaborated to take it into new worlds. All of a sudden, genres had multiple subgenres and within them were artists who would shape the trajectory of modern music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was also a big year of opportunity for the band\u2019s once-bitter rivals<\/a>, The Rolling Stones. Having lived under the spotlight of their Liverpudlian compatriots, The Stones now had the opportunity to seize the throne and operate without comparison. While this new era for The Stones brought with it an introduction of their own material, there was perhaps a misguided sense of arrogance that came with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their position within rock royalty encouraged an error of judgment and lapse of accountability, which resulted in perhaps their worst song in history, and undoubtedly the very worst number one of 1971: \u2018Brown Sugar\u2019.<\/p>\n

Why was \u2018Brown Sugar\u2019 the worst number one of 1971?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little to no nuance in The Stones\u2019 track that unashamedly objectifies a brutal social history in America, sexualising the grim reality of slavery, heroin, cunnilingus and rape.<\/p>\n

It was The Stones at their most obnoxious, revelling in the liberation of their own sexuality to a point where they thought their own boundaries were limitless in that regard. What\u2019s worse is that the song can\u2019t be used in a feigned attempt to plead ignorance. Instead, their desire to be provocative is so confrontational that you can only perceive it for what it truly was, a gross attempt to offend as a form of sexual rebellion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the band have acknowledged the problematic nature of the song, with Jagger confessing, \u201cI never would write that song now.\u201d He continued,\u00a0\u201cI would probably censor myself. I\u2019d think, \u2018Oh God, I can\u2019t. I\u2019ve got to stop. I can\u2019t just write raw like that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding, \u201cGod knows what I\u2019m on about in that song. It\u2019s such a mishmash. All the nasty subjects in one go. [It was a] very instant thing,\u201d he concludes. While the album from which the song came, 1973\u2019s Sticky Fingers, was a compelling move in the right direction of artistic autonomy, the lyrics were a step too far and an abuse of the power they were beginning to establish for themselves in the music industry. The \u201870s were indeed an exciting and innovative time for music, but societally, they still had a long way to go.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Sat 28 February 2026 2:00, UK When you flick back through the musical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[42201,162942,4622,96,128,160184,15747,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-449840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1970s","tag-162942","tag-charts","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-number-ones","tag-the-rolling-stones","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}