Let's Spend the Night Together

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“Let's Spend the Night Together”
Single by The Rolling Stones from the album Between the Buttons (U.S. version)
A-side	"Ruby Tuesday" (Double A-side)
Released	13 January 1967
Format	7" single
Recorded	3-11 August & 8-26 November 1966
Genre	Rock and roll
Length	3:36
Label	London Records
Writer(s)	Jagger/Richards
Producer	Andrew Loog Oldham
The Rolling Stones singles chronology
"Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" (1966) "Let's Spend the Night Together/Ruby Tuesday" (1967) "We Love You/Dandelion" (1967) Alternate cover French 7-inch single cover

"Let's Spend the Night Together" is a song by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, originally released by The Rolling Stones in 1967. It has been covered by various artists, most famously David Bowie in 1973.^[1]

Contents 1 Rolling Stones version 1.1 Track listing 1.2 Personnel 1.3 Other releases 1.4 Live performances 2 David Bowie version 2.1 Track listing 2.2 Personnel 2.3 Live versions 2.4 Other releases 3 Notes

[edit] Rolling Stones version

Released in the UK as a single in January 1967, "Let's Spend the Night Together" reached #3 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was included on the U.S. version of the Stones' album Between the Buttons, and was also released there as a single. However, due to the then-controversial nature of the lyrics (proposing a sexual encounter) most radio stations opted to play the flip side "Ruby Tuesday" instead.^[1] The two songs charted separately on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, "Let's Spend the Night Together" stalling at #55 while "Ruby Tuesday" became a #1 hit. Both "Ruby Tuesday" and "Let's Spend the Night Together" feature piano by Jack Nitzsche.

In one of the more famous examples of musical censorship, on The Ed Sullivan Show, the band was initially refused permission to perform the number. Sullivan himself told Jagger, "Either the song goes or you go".^[2] A compromise was reached to substitute the words "let's spend some time together" in place of "let's spend the night together"; Jagger agreed to change the lyrics but ostentatiously rolled his eyes at the TV camera whilst singing them. In April 2006, for their first-ever performance in China, authorities prohibited the group from performing the song due to its "suggestive lyrics".^[3]

[edit] Track listing

1. "Let's Spend the Night Together" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 3:26
2. "Ruby Tuesday" (Jagger, Richards) – 3:12

[edit] Personnel

• Mick Jagger – lead vocal, backing vocals
• Keith Richards – electric guitars, bass, piano, backing vocals
• Brian Jones – organ, backing vocals
• Charlie Watts – drums

• Jack Nitzsche – piano

[edit] Other releases

"Let's Spend the Night Together" was released on the following studio albums:

• Between the Buttons (1967) (U.S.)
• Flowers (1967)
• Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (1969)
• Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (1972)
• Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones (1975)
• Singles Collection: The London Years (1989)
• Forty Licks (2002)
• Singles 1965-1967 (2004)

A live version appeared on "Still Life" (American Concert 1981) (1982).

[edit] Live performances

After performing the song on a 28-date European tour in spring 1967, it was not until 1981 that The Rolling Stones next played "Let's Spend the Night Together" live in concert. It was often performed on the 1981 and 1982 tours before being again retired for 15 years. The song has been a mainstay of their live performances during their two-year A Bigger Bang Tour.

• 1967 European Tour
• 1981 American Tour
• 1982 European Tour
• 1997 North American Tour
• 1998 Spring Tour (North America), European Tour
• 2005-2006 USA & Canada
• 2006 Asia & Australasia, Europe, USA & Canada
• 2007 European Tour

[edit] David Bowie version

“Let's Spend the Night Together”
Single by David Bowie from the album Aladdin Sane
B-side	"Lady Grinning Soul"
Released	July 1973
Format	7" single
Recorded	Trident Studios, London 9 December 1972 – 24 January 1973
Genre	Glam rock
Length	3:03
Label	RCA
Writer(s)	Jagger/Richards
Producer	Ken Scott, David Bowie
David Bowie singles chronology
"Time" (1973) "Let's Spend the Night Together" (1973) "Life on Mars?" (1973)
Aladdin Sane track listing
"The Prettiest Star" (7) "Let's Spend the Night Together" (8) "The Jean Genie" (9)

David Bowie recorded a glam rock cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together" for his Aladdin Sane album, released in April 1973. It was also issued as a single by RCA Records in the U.S. and Europe. The single did not chart.

Bowie's rendition featured pulsating synthesizer effects. The singer added his own words as part of the finale:

They said we were too young

Our kind of love was no fun

But our love comes from above

Let's make... love

Author Nicholas Pegg describes the recording as "faster and raunchier" than the Stones' performance with "a fresh, futuristic sheen",^[4] while NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray considered Bowie to have performed "the unprecedented feat of beating the Stones on one of their own songs", remarking on the track's "polymorphous perversity" and "furious, coked-up drive".^[5] However, Rolling Stone's contemporary review found the Bowie version "campy, butch, brittle and unsatisfying", suggesting that "one of the most ostensibly heterosexual calls in rock is made into a bi-anthem".^[6]

[edit] Track listing

1. "Let's Spend the Night Together" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 3:03
2. "Lady Grinning Soul" (David Bowie) – 3:46

The Italian release featured "Watch That Man" on the B-side.

[edit] Personnel

• David Bowie – guitar, harmonica, keyboards, saxophone, vocals
• Mick Ronson – guitar, piano, vocals
• Trevor Bolder – bass
• Mick "Woody" Woodmansey – drums
• Mike Garson – piano
• Ken Fordham – saxophone
• Brian "Bux" Wilshaw – saxophone, flute
• Linda Lewis – backing vocals
• Juanita "Honey" Franklin – backing vocals
• G.A. MacCormack – backing vocals

[edit] Live versions

• A live version recorded by Bowie at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on July 3, 1973 appears on the album Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture (1983).

[edit] Other releases

In addition to its appearance on Aladdin Sane, Bowie's version of "Let's Spend the Night Together" was included on the following compilations:

• The Best of David Bowie (Japan 1974)
• The Best of 1969/1974 (1997)

[edit] Notes

v • d • e The Rolling Stones singles Decca/London singles 1963: Come On, I Wanna Be Your Man • 1964: Not Fade Away, It's All Over Now, Tell Me, Time Is on My Side, Little Red Rooster, Heart of Stone • 1965: The Last Time / Play with Fire, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Get off of My Cloud, As Tears Go By • 1966: 19th Nervous Breakdown, Paint It, Black, Mother's Little Helper / Lady Jane, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow? • 1967: Let's Spend the Night Together / Ruby Tuesday, We Love You / Dandelion, In Another Land, She's a Rainbow • 1968: Jumpin' Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man • 1969: Honky Tonk Women • Rolling Stones/ Atlantic singles 1971: Brown Sugar, Wild Horses • 1972: Tumbling Dice, Happy • 1973: Angie, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) • 1974: It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It), Ain't Too Proud to Beg • 1976: Fool to Cry, Hot Stuff • Rolling Stones/Virgin singles 1978: Miss You, Beast of Burden, Respectable, Shattered • 1980: Emotional Rescue, She's So Cold • 1981: Start Me Up, Waiting on a Friend • 1982: Hang Fire, Going to a Go-Go (live), Time Is on My Side (live) • 1983: Undercover of the Night • 1984: She Was Hot • 1986: Harlem Shuffle, One Hit (to the Body) • 1989: Mixed Emotions, Rock and a Hard Place • 1990: Almost Hear You Sigh, Terrifying • 1991: Highwire, Ruby Tuesday (live) • Virgin singles 1994: Love Is Strong, You Got Me Rocking, Out of Tears • 1995: I Go Wild • 1997: Anybody Seen My Baby? • 1998: Saint of Me, Out of Control • 2002: Don't Stop, Sympathy for the Devil (remix) • 2005: Streets of Love / Rough Justice, Rain Fall Down • 2006: Biggest Mistake •