Rolling Stones songs: Keys to Your Love
*Click for MORE ROLLING STONES SONGS 1962-PRESENT

Watch out baby, I put a spell on you/ You can’t resist it, I just hoodoo you…

Written by: Jagger/Richards
Recorded: Studio Guillaume Tell, Paris, France, May 13-June 8 2002
Guest musicians: Darryl Jones (bass), Chuck Leavell (keyboards)
*Data taken from Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012

From the The Rolling Stones – All the Songs book:
“Keys to Your Love” is another of the songs recorded by the Stones during
the May–June 2002 sessions at the Guillaume Tell Studios in France. This
track reveals another important facet of the Glimmer Twins’ career—their
work as composers of soul ballads. I’ve got the keys to your love/I’ve got
the secret of your heart: Mick Jagger plays the part of a lover whose love is
so intense that he has put a spell on the object of his affections, a woman
whose every code and every pin he claims to know…
“Keys to Your Love” is a love song whose music recalls the
sophisticated, romantic soul of Curtis Mayfield’s Impressions. Hence the
falsetto voice adopted by Mick here and there… Remarkable as it may
seem, this song has never been performed live…

Listening to “Keys to Your Love,” one could be forgiven for wondering
whether the song may have been written during the Black and Blue period.
Mick Jagger’s falsetto is reminiscent of “Fool to Cry,” although not as
good. The Stones had taken five years to get back into the studio, and
despite its virtues, this song does not quite live up to the occasion—
especially as a new track on an album celebrating forty years of the Rolling
Stones. The song features three guitars, but their roles are poorly defined.
Mick seems to be on electric rhythm guitar, which can be heard on the left,
with Keith on acoustic and Ronnie on lead, playing some very good licks
and a clear-toned solo at 2:36 (on a Stratocaster?). Charlie Watts lays down
an effective rhythm as always, with Darryl Jones on bass, and the talented
instrumentalist and backing vocalist Blondie Chaplin, who had contributed
so brilliantly to the 1997 album Bridges to Babylon, back with the band on
tambourine. Another excellent musician, Chuck Leavell, is on electric
piano, adding that special sonority that is so characteristic of the Stones
ballads. Inspired by the soul of Curtis Mayfield, Mick Jagger delivers a
mixed performance. His vocal is split between a falsetto on the one hand
and rich, mellow tones on the other, but he never really convinces as he had
on the band’s two previous albums. An agreeable enough song, but hardly
unforgettable