Start Me Up

"Start Me Up"
Single by The Rolling Stones
from the album Tattoo You
B-side	"No Use in Crying"
Released	14 August 1981
Format	7"
Recorded	January–March 1978 (Basic Track), April–June 1981 (Vocals and overdubs)
Genre	Hard rock[1]
Length	3:34
Label	Rolling Stones
Writer(s)	Jagger/Richards
Producer(s)	The Glimmer Twins
The Rolling Stones singles chronology
"She's So Cold" (1981) "Start Me Up" (1981) "Waiting on a Friend" (1981)
Tattoo You track listing 11 tracks Side one "Start Me Up" "Hang Fire" "Slave" "Little T&A" "Black Limousine" "Neighbours" Side two "Worried About You" "Tops" "Heaven" "No Use in Crying" "Waiting on a Friend" Music video "Start Me Up" on YouTube

"Start Me Up" is a song by The Rolling Stones featured on the 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album's lead single, it reached #1 on Australian Kent Music Report, #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 on the UK Singles Chart.

Writing and recording

The basic track "Start Me Up" was recorded between the January and March 1978 sessions for the Rolling Stones' album Some Girls^[2] The song was at first cut as a reggae-rock track named 'Never Stop', but after dozens of takes the band stopped recording it and it was shelved. "Start Me Up" failed to make the cut for the album, being shelved into the vault. Of the song's history, Richards has commented:

"It was one of those things we cut a lot of times; one of those cuts that you can play forever and ever in the studio. Twenty minutes go by and you're still locked into those two chords... Sometimes you become conscious of the fact that, 'Oh, it's "Brown Sugar" again,' so you begin to explore other rhythmic possibilities. It's basically trial and error. As I said, that one was pretty locked into a reggae rhythm for quite a few weeks. We were cutting it for Emotional Rescue, but it was nowhere near coming through, and we put it aside and almost forgot about it."^[3]

In 1981, with the band looking to tour, engineer Chris Kimsey proposed to lead singer Mick Jagger that archived songs could comprise the set. While searching through the vaults, Kimsey found the two takes of the song with a more rock vibe among some fifty reggae versions. Overdubs were completed on the track in early 1981 in New York at the recording studios Electric Ladyland and the Hit Factory.^[2] On the band's recording style for this track in particular, Kimsey commented in 2004:

"Including run-throughs, 'Start Me Up' took about six hours to record. You see, if they all played the right chords in the right time, went to the chorus at the right time and got to the middle eight together, that was a master. It was like, 'Oh, wow!' Don't forget, they would never sit down and work out a song. They would jam it and the song would evolve out of that. That's their magic..."^[2]

The infectious "thump" to the song was achieved using mixer Bob Clearmountain's famed "bathroom reverb", a process involving the recording of some of the song's vocal and drum tracks with a miked speaker in the bathroom of the Power Station recording studio in New York City.^[2][4] It was there where final touches were added to the song, including Jagger's switch of the main lyrics from "start it up" to "start me up."

The song opens with what has since become a trademark riff for Richards. It is this, coupled with Charlie Watts' steady backbeat and Bill Wyman's echoing bass, that comprises most of the song. Lead guitarist Ronnie Wood can clearly be heard playing a layered variation of Richards' main riff (often live versions of the song are lengthened by giving Wood a solo near the middle of the song, pieces of which can be heard throughout the original recording). Throughout the song Jagger breaks in with a repeated bridge of "You make a grown man cry", followed by various pronouncements of his and his partner's sexual nature.

Percussion (cowbell and guiro) by Mike Carabello and handclaps by Jagger, Chris Kimsey and Berry Sage were added during overdub sessions in April and June 1981.^[5]

Release

"Start Me Up" peaked at #7 on the UK Singles Charts in September 1981, where it remains a significant single as the Rolling Stones have not been back into the UK top 10 since. In Australia, the song reached #1 in November 1981. In the US, "Start Me Up" spent three weeks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in October and November 1981, kept from the summit by "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross and "Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates.^[6] It also spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard Top Tracks chart.^[7]

The B-side is a slow blues number called "No Use in Crying" which also featured on Tattoo You.

"Start Me Up" is often used to open the Rolling Stones' live shows and has been featured on the live albums Still Life, Flashpoint, Live Licks, Shine a Light, and Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live. It also features on several Stones live concert films: Let's Spend the Night Together (1983), Stones at the Max (1992), The Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge Live (1995), Bridges to Babylon Tour '97–98 (1998), Four Flicks (2004), The Biggest Bang (2007), Shine a Light (2008), and Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live (2013).

The song has been included on every major Stones compilation album since its release, including Rewind (1971–1984), Jump Back, Forty Licks and GRRR!.

Charts

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[8]	14
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[9]	7
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[10]	2
Germany (Official German Charts)[11]	36
Ireland (IRMA)[12]	11
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[13]	5
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[14]	33
Norway (VG-lista)[15]	8
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[16]	14
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[17]	5
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[18]	7
US Billboard Hot 100[19]	2

Music video

A popular music video was produced for the single, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

Pop culture

• The song was one of three played by the Rolling Stones at halftime during Super Bowl XL in 2006 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. It was speculated that some of the more objectionable lyrics along with those in "Rough Justice" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" had been censored without the singer's consent. It was later discovered that Jagger had agreed prior to leave out the lyrics.^[20]
• Microsoft paid about US$3 million to use this song in their Windows 95 marketing campaign ^[21][22] This was the first time that the Rolling Stones allowed a company to use their songs in an advertising campaign.^[23] Several users considered the advertisement quite ironic, considering the several bugs present in Windows 95 and the bridge of "You make a grown man cry". The advertisement however did not feature those lyrics and instead cut away after "Start me up".
  • This advertisement was parodied by Bob Rivers in a song called Windows 95 Sucks.^[24] It is often misattributed to Weird Al Yankovic.
• Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the 8th Best Sports Anthem.^[25]
• In 2012, a remixed version of the song was used as the soundtrack to an Omega advertising campaign for their role as official timekeepers of the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[26]

References

1. "The Top Hard Rock Songs". Allmusic.
2. Buskin, Richard. "Classic Tracks: Start Me Up". Sound on Sound. SOS Publications. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
3. "Start Me Up". Time Is On Our Side. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
4. Jackson, Blair. The Rolling Stones "Start Me Up". Mix Magazine Online. 1 June 2002 (accessed 12 April 2007).
5. "The Complete Works of the Rolling Stones - Database". Nzentgraf.de. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
6. Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of #1 Hits, 5th Edition (Billboard Publications), pages 548–549.
7. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 539.
8. "Austriancharts.at – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
9. "Ultratop.be – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
10. "The Rolling Stones – Chart history" Canadian Hot 100 for The Rolling Stones. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
11. "Offiziellecharts.de – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
12. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Start Me Up". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
13. "Dutchcharts.nl – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
14. "Charts.org.nz – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
15. "Norwegiancharts.com – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up". VG-lista. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
16. "Swedishcharts.com – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up". Singles Top 100. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
17. "Swisscharts.com – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
18. "Rolling Stones: Artist Chart History" Official Charts Company. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
19. "The Rolling Stones – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for The Rolling Stones. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
20. "Stones self-censor - Salon.com". Web.archive.org. 2006-02-06. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
21. McNamara, Paul (2011-06-29). "What Microsoft paid The Stones to help launch Windows 95". Network World. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
22. "Toronto’s Jingle King still crooning". Toronto Star, Christopher Reynolds June 5, 2016
23. "Michael Gartenberg - The Story behind "Start Me Up" and Windows 95". Web.archive.org. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
24. "Windows 95 Sucks - Bob Rivers Music Video". YouTube. 2006-08-29. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
25. "Music | New Music News, Reviews, Pictures, and Videos". Rollingstone.com. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
26. Stone, Rolling (2012-05-31). "Rolling Stones Help Launch Omega Olympic Campaign with 'Start Me Up'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2016-10-25.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics