Voodoo Lounge | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 11 July 1994 | |||
Recorded | September, 3 November – 11 December 1993 | |||
Studio | Ronnie Wood's house, Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin; mixed and overdubbed at A&M Studios, Los Angeles and Right Track Recording, NYC [1] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 62:08 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Producer | Don Was, The Glimmer Twins | |||
The Rolling Stones chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Voodoo Lounge | ||||
|
Voodoo Lounge is the twentieth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 11 July 1994. The album was their band's first release under their new alliance with Virgin Records and their first studio album in five years, since the release of Steel Wheels in 1989. Voodoo Lounge is also the band's first album without original bassist Bill Wyman, who left the band in early 1991, though the Stones did not announce his departure until two years later, in 1993. [2] In 2009, the album was remastered and reissued by Universal Music. This album was released as a double vinyl and as a single CD and cassette.
After the departure of Wyman, the Stones chose not to officially replace him as a band member and continued as a four-piece with Mick Jagger (vocals), Charlie Watts (drums), Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood (both guitars). Wyman was unofficially replaced by Darryl Jones, who performed with the Stones in the studio and on tour as a contracted player. Keyboards were provided by Chuck Leavell. Jones and Leavell, though not band members, would remain collaborators with the group from that point on. Don Was was brought in to produce the album alongside Jagger and Richards.
Voodoo Lounge sold well, reaching either gold or platinum status in several countries, but failed to produce a US top 40 hit. The song "Love Is Strong" and "You Got Me Rocking" peaked at No. 14 and No. 23 in the UK, respectively, and "You Got Me Rocking" became a staple on most subsequent Stones tours. The album received several positive reviews and won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 1995.
Sections of the Keith Richards song "Thru and Thru" from Voodoo Lounge are woven throughout the HBO television series The Sopranos' second-season finale "Funhouse" (episode no. 26 overall), and plays in its entirety during the episode's closing sequence and end credits.
Following the release of Keith Richards' Main Offender and Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit in 1992 and 1993, respectively, both leaders of the Rolling Stones began composing new songs in April 1993, deciding upon Don Was as co-producer for the upcoming sessions. In November, after rehearsing and recording at Ronnie Wood's house in Ireland that September, the Stones shifted to Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin and began cutting Voodoo Lounge. Although not joining the band officially, Darryl Jones would be taking Bill Wyman's place as the group's regular bassist, at the suggestion of drummer Charlie Watts.
Don Was, noted for his retro rock production sensibilities, was reportedly responsible for pushing the band towards more conventional territory in an attempt to reproduce the archetypal "Rolling Stones" sound. Although this approach pleased critics and the Stones rock-oriented fan base, Jagger in particular expressed some dissatisfaction with Was's aesthetic, commenting in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone :
... there were a lot of things that we wrote for Voodoo Lounge that Don steered us away from: groove songs, African influences and things like that. And he steered us very clear of all that. And I think it was a mistake. [3]
Was responded that he was not "anti-groove, just anti-groove without substance, in the context of this album. They had a number of great grooves. But it was like, 'OK, what goes on top of it? Where does it go?' I just felt that it's not what people were looking for from the Stones. I was looking for a sign that they can get real serious about this, still play better than anybody and write better than anybody." [4]
The result was an essentially classicist recording that drew on the blues, R&B, and country that had informed the Stones classic late 1960s/early 1970s recordings. Jagger would insist on a more diverse, contemporary production cast for the subsequent Bridges to Babylon (1997). After a period of recording in Los Angeles in the first few months of 1994, Voodoo Lounge was complete and The Rolling Stones moved onto the rehearsals for the Voodoo Lounge Tour, which would begin in August.
During the recording of the album, Richards adopted a stray cat in Barbados which he named Voodoo, because they were in Barbados, and the kitten had survived the odds. He dubbed the terrace of the house Voodoo's Lounge. "Sparks Will Fly" was written by Richards after a blow-up with Jerry Lee Lewis in Ireland. Richards invited Lewis to Wood's home to jam on a few songs. Lewis took it seriously and thought they were making an album, and upon playback of the session, he started to pick apart Richards' band, which outraged Richards. [5]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [6] |
Christgau's Consumer Guide | [7] |
Entertainment Weekly | C+; originally B [8] |
Los Angeles Times | [9] |
Q | [10] |
Rolling Stone | [11] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [12] |
Tom Hull | B+ (*) [13] |
Vox | 8/10 [14] |
Released in July 1994, Voodoo Lounge received generally positive reviews and debuted at No. 1 in the UK (their first chart-topper there since 1980's Emotional Rescue ) and No. 2 in the US (behind the soundtrack to The Lion King) where it went double platinum.
David Cavanagh of Q Magazine wrote that "musically, these 15 songs represent the Stones at their all-time least newsworthy," adding that "Voodoo Lounge is no classic, but nor is it the resounding hound it could have been." Though he was disappointed in the inconsistency of the album's second half, he called the trio of opening rockers "exuberant and on the warm side" despite their lyric shortcomings and hailed the next four songs as an extremely good stretch with "Out of Tears" in particular showing "tantalizing glimmers of genius." [10]
Writing for Vox magazine in August 1994, Steven Dalton thought that the album's strongest tracks were filled with "echoes of the band's halcyon days", most notably 1972's Exile on Main Street and 1978's Some Girls . [14] He went on to surmise that Voodoo Lounge "reminds us why we liked the Stones in the first place," and singled out "New Faces", "Out of Tears" and "Blinded by Rainbows" as the album's highlights, despite also stating that the record contained "too many sketchy, arsing-around-in-the-studio jobs" to be considered one of the group's overall best albums. [14]
Jon Pareles of The New York Times found Voodoo Lounge to be disappointing, arguing that the album "rings hollow, as if it were made not to shake things up but simply to fuel the machine." He harshly criticized the songwriting, arguing that "for much of the album, Jagger and Richards seem determined to write the most generic love songs possible...Flip over the sentimentality, and the Stones offer some of their least convincing leers." [15]
Robert Christgau didn't believe the album warranted a full review, consigning it to his column's list of "honorable mentions" and commenting only that the Stones had become the "world's greatest roots-rock band." [7] Tom Hull similarly listed it as an "honorable mention," conceding that the album "feels like they're just going through the motions." [13]
Alexis Petridis of The Guardian would later rank Voodoo Lounge as one of their weakest albums, writing that "this isn't a bad album, exactly, but it sounds as if hard work was involved, the product of craft rather inspiration: tough coming from a band that, at their best, made it all seem effortless." Petridis also felt that the 62-minute album was much too long, joking that "it goes on for about six weeks." [16] David Marchese of New York expressed a similar criticism, writing that Voodoo Lounge "would’ve killed at 45 minutes" while pointing out the weakest songs as he reviewed the album track-by-track. [17]
In early 1995, while the Voodoo Lounge Tour was still underway until August, Voodoo Lounge won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.
In 2009, Voodoo Lounge was remastered and reissued by Universal Music.
"Love Is Strong", which was inspired by Richards' solo "Wicked as It Seems", was released as the first single, reaching No. 14 in the UK. However, although the track was a hit on US rock radio, it stalled on the singles chart at No. 91, and (at least in the US) became the Rolling Stones' worst performing lead single from an album up to that time. Two follow-up US singles also received strong rock radio airplay, but failed to cross over into top-40 hits: "Out of Tears" peaked at No. 60, and "You Got Me Rocking" fared even worse, peaking at No. 113. Consequently, Voodoo Lounge would be the first Rolling Stones album to not produce significant hits in the US, even with two million copies sold. In the UK, "Love Is Strong", "You Got Me Rocking", "Out of Tears", and "I Go Wild" were all top-40 chart hits.
The song "Thru and Thru", which features Keith Richards on lead vocals, appears several times in "Funhouse", the second-season finale of The Sopranos , including over the end credits.
The Voodoo Lounge Tour was the setting for most of a 1994 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 .
In July 2014, Guitar World placed Voodoo Lounge at number 42 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list. [18]
An interactive CD-ROM titled Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge CD ROM was published by GTE Interactive Media in 1995, to mixed reception. It uses early QuickTime video technology for Windows 3.1 and Macintosh. [19]
All tracks are written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Love Is Strong" | 3:46 |
2. | "You Got Me Rocking" | 3:34 |
3. | "Sparks Will Fly" | 3:14 |
4. | "The Worst" | 2:24 |
5. | "New Faces" | 2:50 |
6. | "Moon Is Up" | 3:41 |
7. | "Out of Tears" | 5:25 |
8. | "I Go Wild" | 4:19 |
9. | "Brand New Car" | 4:13 |
10. | "Sweethearts Together" | 4:46 |
11. | "Suck on the Jugular" | 4:26 |
12. | "Blinded by Rainbows" | 4:33 |
13. | "Baby Break It Down" | 4:07 |
14. | "Thru and Thru" | 5:59 |
15. | "Mean Disposition" | 4:09 |
Title | Notes |
---|---|
"The Storm" | "Love Is Strong" B-side |
"So Young" | |
"Jump on Top of Me" | "You Got Me Rocking" B-side |
"I'm Gonna Drive" | "Out of Tears" B-side |
The Rolling Stones
Additional personnel
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Argentina | — | 90,000 [49] |
Australia (ARIA) [50] | Gold | 35,000^ |
Austria (IFPI Austria) [51] | Gold | 25,000* |
Belgium (BEA) [52] | Gold | 25,000* |
Canada (Music Canada) [53] | 3× Platinum | 300,000^ |
France (SNEP) [54] | 2× Gold | 200,000* |
Germany (BVMI) [55] | Platinum | 500,000^ |
Ireland (IRMA) [56] | Silver | 5,000 [57] |
Italy | — | 250,000 [58] |
Japan (RIAJ) [59] | Gold | 172,410 [45] |
Mexico (AMPROFON) [60] | Platinum | 250,000^ |
Netherlands (NVPI) [61] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [62] | Gold | 7,500^ |
Norway (IFPI Norway) [63] | Gold | 25,000* |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [64] | Gold | 50,000^ |
Sweden (GLF) [65] | Gold | 50,000^ |
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [66] | Gold | 25,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [67] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [68] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
Summaries | ||
Europe (IFPI) [69] | Platinum | 1,000,000* |
Worldwide | — | 6,000,000 [70] |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Exile on Main St. is the tenth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 12 May 1972, by Rolling Stones Records. The 10th released in the UK and 12th in the US, it is viewed as a culmination of a string of the band's most critically successful albums, following Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969) and Sticky Fingers (1971). Exile on Main St. is known for its murky, inconsistent sound due to more disjointed musicianship and production, along with a party-like atmosphere heard in several tracks.
Sticky Fingers is the ninth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was released on 23 April 1971 on the Rolling Stones' new label, Rolling Stones Records. The Rolling Stones had been contracted by Decca Records and London Records in the UK and the US since 1963. On this album, Mick Taylor made his second full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album. It was the first studio album without Brian Jones, who died two years earlier. The original cover artwork, conceived by Andy Warhol and photographed and designed by members of his art collective, the Factory, showed a picture of a man in tight jeans, and had a working zip that opened to reveal underwear fabric. The cover was expensive to produce and damaged the vinyl record, so the size of the zipper adjustment was made by John Kosh at ABKCO records. Later re-issues featured just the outer photograph of the jeans.
Steel Wheels is the nineteenth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 29 August 1989 in the US and on 11 September in the UK. It was the final album of new material that the band recorded for Columbia Records.
Goats Head Soup is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 31 August 1973 by Rolling Stones Records. Like its predecessor Exile on Main St., the band composed and recorded much of it outside of the United Kingdom due to their status as tax exiles. Goats Head Soup was recorded in Jamaica, the United States and the United Kingdom. The album contains 10 tracks, including the lead single "Angie" which went to number one as a single in the US and the top five in the UK.
Black and Blue is the thirteenth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 23 April 1976 by Rolling Stones Records.
Emotional Rescue is the fifteenth studio album by English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 23 June 1980 by Rolling Stones Records. Following the success of their previous album, Some Girls, their biggest hit to date, the Rolling Stones returned to the studio in early 1979 to start writing and recording its follow-up. Full-time members Mick Jagger (vocals), Keith Richards (guitar), Ronnie Wood (guitar), Bill Wyman (bass) and Charlie Watts (drums) were joined by frequent collaborators Ian Stewart (keyboards), Nicky Hopkins (keyboards), Bobby Keys (saxophone) and Sugar Blue (harmonica).
Dirty Work is the eighteenth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was released on 24 March 1986 on the Rolling Stones label by CBS Records, their first under their new contract with Columbia Records. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album was recorded during a period when relations between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had soured considerably, according to Richards' autobiography Life.
Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones is the sixth official compilation album by the Rolling Stones. It was initially released worldwide, except in the US, in 1993. The American release came on 24 August 2004.
A Bigger Bang is the twenty-second studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released through Virgin Records on 5 September 2005. It was the band's last album of original material recorded entirely with Charlie Watts on drums before his death in 2021.
Undercover is the seventeenth studio album by English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 7 November 1983 by Rolling Stones Records. The band would move the label to Columbia Records for its follow-up, 1986's Dirty Work.
Still Life is a live album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 1 June 1982. Recorded during the band's 1981 American tour, it was released in time for their 1982 European tour.
Flashpoint is a live album by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, their first since 1982's Still Life. Compiled from performances on the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour by Chris Kimsey with the assistance of Chris Potter, it was released in 1991. Steel Wheels Live (2020) includes a complete 1989 concert along with a selection of live rarities.
Stripped is a live album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones released in November 1995 after the Voodoo Lounge Tour. It contains six live tracks and eight studio recordings. The live tracks were taken from four 1995 performances, at three small venues, and include a cover of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", which was the first single from the album. The remaining eight tracks were acoustic studio re-recordings of songs from the Stones' previous catalogue, the exception being a cover of Willie Dixon's "Little Baby". The studio performances were recorded "live," i.e., without overdubs.
Bridges to Babylon is the twenty-first studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released by Virgin Records on 29 September 1997. Released as a double album on vinyl and as a single CD, it was supported by the year-long worldwide Bridges to Babylon Tour that was met with much success.
No Security is a live album by the Rolling Stones released by Virgin Records in 1998. Recorded over the course of the band's 1997–1998 worldwide Bridges to Babylon Tour, it was the band's eighth official full-length live release.
"Love Is Strong" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones, released as the opening track, and first single, from their 20th British and 22nd American studio album, Voodoo Lounge (1994). Issued as a single on 4 July 1994 by Virgin, the song preceded the release of Voodoo Lounge by a week. "Love Is Strong" peaked at No. 14 in the band's native United Kingdom and at No. 2 in Canada and Finland but stalled at No. 91 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Despite this, it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. The song's accompanying music video received heavy rotation on MTV Europe.
"I Go Wild" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1994 studio album, Voodoo Lounge. Credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "I Go Wild" is largely a Jagger composition. "I Go Wild" was released as the fourth and final single from Voodoo Lounge. Following its UK release on 3 July 1995, it reached number 29 on the UK Singles Chart.
Voodoo Lounge Live is a concert video by the rock band the Rolling Stones. It was filmed on 25 November 1994 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida during the Voodoo Lounge Tour. The concert was broadcast as a pay-per-view special.
GRRR! is a greatest hits album by the Rolling Stones. Released on 12 November 2012, it commemorates the band's 50th anniversary. The album features two new songs titled "Doom and Gloom" and "One More Shot", which were recorded in August 2012.
Hyde Park Live is a live album by the Rolling Stones, released in 2013. It was recorded at Hyde Park, London on 6 and 13 July 2013 during the band's 50 and Counting Tour. The album was released exclusively as a digital download through iTunes on 22 July 2013 for a limited time of four weeks. The album debuted at No. 16 in the UK and No. 19 in the US. The same concert was later issued on DVD as Sweet Summer Sun: Live in Hyde Park.
e alla luce di un album molto riuscito come "Voodoo Lounge" che in Italia ha venduto oltre 250 mila copie