When the Rolling Stones would write certain songs, it would only take four or five days. There was a pattern there. However, when it came time to record “Start Me Up,” it was a longer process. It took years. About 10 of them.
“I remember ‘Start Me Up’ was 10 years from the writing of it to when it came out,” Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones guitarist among other things, told People.
Getty“It’s like wine, good wine, some of it’s better aged,” Richards continued, before revealing, “I remember the first hundred takes were reggae rhythm. It went through a lot of styles before we said, ‘Hey, why don’t we just play rock and roll?’”
Richards then said, “That’s the one that made it.”
Richards in an archived web interview, detailed the long process.
GettyThe (Long) History of ‘Start Me Up’
Somewhere in the middle of a break, just to break the tension, I just… (mimics hitting guitar chord) and we hit the – Charlie and I hit the rock and roll version. And five years later, when somebody sifted all the way through these – after about 70 takes of Start Me Up and found that one in the middle, you know, it was just buried in there. Nobody remembered cutting it (laughs), nobody remembered doing it. You know, it was like time out kind of thing. And so we leapt on it and we did a few overdubs on it and… It was like a GIFT, you know, like all songs are gifts really.
And it’s an excuse to listen to it …
There were countless takes with the reggae version, and after some attempts, Richards even said to scrub the tape. Record producer and musician Chris Kimsey, who also has a history of working with Paul McCartney and Elton John, brought it back. He ignored Richards’ request a few years later and presented them to lead singer Mick Jagger.
GettyAfter some new drafts of lyrics, they recorded at a mobile recording unit in Paris.
“He’d give it the full performance, moving all over the place,” Kimsey told U Discover Music in 2025. “It was great to watch and equally great to record. He knows how to work a microphone.”
It took from January 1978 to June 1981 (off and on) just to record it.
Worth the Wait
The lyrics were sharpened and it ultimately turned into metaphors for motorcycles. “Start Me Up.”
In 1981, when the song came out, it reached the Top 10 in the United Kingdom and the US. Number One in Australia and the Billboard Top Tracks.
