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Rolling Stonessongs: Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind
Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind sounds like the sort of title that ought to belong to a harmless little pop song—and, well, that’s part of the fun. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in 1964, the track sends The Rolling Stones down a remarkably different musical road, complete with lush arrangements, session musicians and a recording history that refuses to behave itself. It even found other lives through Dick and Dee Dee and Vashti Bunyan before eventually landing on Metamorphosis. For a band better known for swaggering R&B, this is the Stones briefly wandering into sweet, strange pop territory and leaving behind plenty to investigate.
Why does the rain fall down on the earth/ Why do the clouds keep cryin’…
Written by: Jagger/Richard Recorded: Regent Sounds Studios and Decca Studios, London, England, Feb. 13 1964
Mick Jagger: vocals Guest musicians: Jim Sullivan (guitar) plus unconfirmed overdubs by Jon Tiven (guitar), Doug Schlink (guitar), Paul Ossola (bass), Vic Steffens (drums) and Christine Ohlman (backing vocals)
More about Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind by The Rolling Stones
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
A forgotten Stones composition finds its audience
Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind has one of those unusually tangled histories that makes a supposedly minor Rolling Stones song rather difficult to forget. Written by Jagger–Richards, the song first appeared in early 1965 through the American singing duo Dick and Dee Dee, who had opened for the Rolling Stones during their first U.S. tour in 1964. A few months later Vashti Bunyan recorded it as her debut single, with Nicky Hopkins on piano. Her version initially disappeared without making much noise, only to acquire cult status decades later when Bunyan’s music experienced a major resurgence in the 2000s. The track was subsequently included on the 2007 compilation Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind – Singles and Demos 1964 to 1967. Even Jimmy Page enters the story, reportedly supplying guitar during his prolific session-musician years.
A song about oddly familiar mysteries
The lyrics take ordinary teenage questions and give them a slightly dreamy pop treatment. Why does the sky turn gray every evening? What makes a first date with a girl so captivating? Jagger and Richards approach these little mysteries with the curiosity of eternal teenagers, placing them over a polished melody that is considerably more restrained than the Stones’ usual image might suggest. The arrangement leans toward middle-of-the-road pop rather than bluesy rock, making the song sound more like a carefully constructed studio production than a typical Rolling Stones performance.
The Vashti Bunyan connection
For Vashti Bunyan the recording represented a significant first step. The Newcastle-born folksinger released Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind in May 1965 as her debut single, although the record attracted little attention at the time. Its fortunes changed much later, when Bunyan’s work found a new audience during her 2000s resurgence. That renewed interest helped transform the single into a collector’s item and eventually led to its inclusion on the Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind – Singles compilation…. Her version therefore became a curious example of a recording whose importance was recognized long after its original release.
The mysterious 1964 recording
The Rolling Stones’ own involvement remains considerably less straightforward. Various sources place their recording on February 13, 1964, while others date it to sessions running from June 29 to July 7, 1964. The latter period seems more plausible because the backing track sounds unlike the instrumentation normally associated with the London quintet. It may have been assembled largely by studio musicians recruited by producer Andrew Oldham, with Mick Jagger possibly providing the principal Stones contribution. The same backing track was also used for the Dick and Dee Dee version, adding another wrinkle to the song’s already complicated recording history.
Jimmy Page, Big Jim Sullivan and the studio sound
Much of the track’s fascination lies in the musicians who may have created its distinctive texture. Jimmy Page is generally credited with the acoustic 12-string guitar, although John McLaughlin has also been suggested as a possibility. Big Jim Sullivan contributes pedal steel guitar, giving the arrangement a noticeable country flavor. Mike Leander’s production features percussion, triangle, bongos, güiro, bass, drums and heavily reverberated piano, while the backing solos add an occasionally uneasy edge. The overall sound has a faint Phil Spector influence, unsurprising given Oldham’s admiration for Spector. The Metamorphosis release even introduced its own small historical oddity: both vinyl and CD versions misspelled “Some Things” as “Somethings” and “Every Day” as “Everyday.” Big Jim Sullivan would later be familiar to French audiences for his guitar work on Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s 1969 hit Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus.
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