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She drove her daddy’s car, she got a genuine teenage drag/ She always find a popper, to be hidden in her stash…
Written by: Jagger/Richard Recorded: Pathé Marconi Studios, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, Oct. 10-Nov. 25 and Dec. 9-16 1977; Chomsky’s Ranch (Don Was’ studio) and A&M Studios, Los Angeles, Jan. 15-Apr. 23 1994
Mick Jagger: vocals, harmonica Keith Richards: guitar Ronnie Wood: guitar Bill Wyman: bass Charlie Watts: drums Guest musicians: Ian Stewart (piano), Chuck Leavell (piano solo)
More about So Young by The Rolling Stones
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
A Movie Theater Encounter and A Questionable Temptation
So Young begins with an encounter in a movie theater, where the narrator spots a girl whose youth leaves him appealing to the Lord for help in resisting temptation. The situation is hardly a picture of instant glamour: she has zits on her face and cannot walk straight. Yet his attitude changes dramatically after he buys her a pair of boots. Suddenly, his excitement becomes difficult to contain, and he must collect himself before making a quick retreat. The song plays this encounter for its provocative, slightly ridiculous tension, mixing desire with a conspicuous lack of judgment. Beneath the cheeky premise lies a character struggling to control his impulses, while the music gives his predicament considerably more swagger than it probably deserves.
From Paris With A Long Delay
The Stones originally recorded So Young during the Some Girls sessions at Pathé Marconi Studios in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the suburbs of Paris, in late 1977. Rather than making its way onto the original album, the track remained unreleased for years before resurfacing in 1994. Its eventual appearance demonstrated how material left behind during one creative period could find a second life when the band revisited its archives.
The version released on the Love Is Strongsingle in 1994 was the 1977 recording produced by Chris Kimsey, enhanced in 1994 with piano added by Chuck Leavell. In 2011 this version was also included in the box set The Singles 1971–2006, giving collectors another opportunity to discover a track that had spent so long outside the official album catalogue.
Three Versions, Three Perspectives
The song’s history did not end with its 1994 revival. A different version appeared on the bonus disc accompanying the 2011 reissue of Some Girls, featuring additional vocals from Mick Jagger. This release offered another perspective on a composition originally recorded during the Paris sessions, allowing fans to hear a variation rather than simply another copy of the familiar single version.
A piano version also became available as a download in the United Kingdom and the United States in 2011. With these different releases So Young developed a surprisingly complicated discography for a track that had initially spent years outside the official catalogue. The various versions reveal how the Stones could revisit older recordings without necessarily treating them as finished artifacts. Sometimes, a song merely needs the right opportunity—or a new piano part—to return to circulation.
When the Stones Trust Their Instincts
The production highlights what happens when the Rolling Stones stop chasing musical fashions and lean into their natural rock ’n’ roll instincts. The result is a muscular performance that sounds thoroughly at home in the band’s catalogue. Mick Jagger delivers the vocals with the passion and sensuality that distinguish his approach, while Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood lock into complementary guitar parts.
Charlie Watts drives the performance with powerful drumming, and Bill Wyman’s bass playing reinforces the formidable rhythm section the two musicians built together. Ian Stewart is also present. Yet the standout moment comes courtesy of Chuck Leavell, whose superb boogie-woogie piano solo was added at A&M Studios in Los Angeles in 1994.
A Second Life For An Old Recording
So Young is a reminder that the Stones’ archives contain more than discarded experiments and forgotten curiosities. The track combines the loose confidence of the 1978 sessions with later studio additions that gave it a new lease on life. Its journey from Pathé Marconi to a 1994 single, followed by further releases in 2011, makes it an intriguing example of how an unreleased recording can acquire several identities. And when the band settles into its groove, the result makes a persuasive case for trusting its instincts rather than following whatever happens to be fashionable.
Mick Jagger (2011): “A heavy blues, about meeting a very young girl and then getting wet feet. There’s a line in it that says, ‘I took her to Barney’s to buy her boots.'”
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