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Don’t need no casting couch/ Or be a star in bed/ Never, never, never let success go to you pretty head…
On Tops The Rolling Stones quietly traded their usual swagger for something far more unsettling: a smooth backstage portrait of ambition dressed up as a soulful rock ballad. With Mick Jagger sounding less like a rock star and more like a man who’s seen every ugly corner of show business, the song turns charm into strategy and fame into a carefully packaged sales pitch. Add the elegant touch of Mick Taylor and the polished atmosphere of Tattoo You and Tops becomes proof that the Stones could expose the music industry’s illusions while still making them sound irresistibly seductive.
Written by: Jagger/Richards Recorded: Dynamic Sounds Studios, Kingston, Jamaica, Nov. 25-Dec. 21 1972; Village Recorders, Los Angeles, USA, Jan.13-15 1973; EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, Jan. 5-March 2 1978; June 10-Oct. 19 1979 Guest musicians: Nicky Hopkins (piano) *Data taken from Martin Elliott’s book The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions 1962-2012
Mick Jagger: vocals Keith Richards: rhythm guitar, backing vocals Mick Taylor: lead guitar Bill Wyman: bass Charlie Watts: drums Guest musicians: Nicky Hopkins (piano)
More about Tops by The Rolling Stones
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
A Hidden Gem Reborn
By the time Tops finally appeared on Tattoo You in 1981 the song already carried nearly a decade of history inside it, quietly surviving lineup changes, studio relocations, and shifting musical eras. What makes the track fascinating is not simply its polished sound, but the uneasy atmosphere hidden beneath its smooth surface. Mick Jagger delivers the lyrics like a man who understands every backstage promise ever whispered in the entertainment industry. The narrator offers glamour, influence, and success with the confidence of someone selling a dream that may or may not come with invisible strings attached. Instead of sounding romantic, Tops> often feels like a knowing commentary on ambition itself, where fame is presented less as destiny and more as a carefully negotiated transaction wrapped in velvet charm.
A Song Built Across Two Decades
Unlike many tracks recorded quickly and released almost immediately, Tops evolved slowly through several distinct phases. The earliest sessions began in autumn 1972 at Dynamic Sounds Studios while Mick Taylor was still an active member of the Stones. The band later revisited the song in France during 1979 before returning to it again in 1981, when Jagger re-recorded the vocals to better fit the atmosphere of Tattoo You. The final mixes were completed in New York by Bob Clearmountain, helping the song achieve the sleek but emotionally layered sound heard on the finished album. Oddly enough, despite the many years separating its creation from its release, Tops never sounds outdated. Instead, it blends naturally into Tattoo You, almost as if the album had been secretly waiting for it all along.
Mick Taylor’s Lingering Presence
One of the most debated aspects of Tops involves the contributions of Mick Taylor. Some credits fail to mention him entirely, yet his presence can still be heard throughout the recording. His melodic phrasing, expressive vibrato, and fluid solo near the end of the track carry the unmistakable character that defined much of the Stones’ early-1970s sound. Neither Keith Richards nor Ronnie Wood approached guitar phrasing in quite the same way, which makes Taylor’s style easy to identify for longtime listeners. The same mystery surrounds pianist Nicky Hopkins, whose elegant and lyrical touch strongly appears embedded in the arrangement even without official credit. Together, these subtle performances give Tops a sophistication that separates it from a standard rock ballad and pushes it closer to soulful late-night confession territory.
Groove Over Excess
Part of the brilliance of Tops lies in how restrained the band sounds. Rather than overwhelming the song with dramatic flourishes, the arrangement relies on feel, patience, and texture. Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts create a groove that moves almost effortlessly, proving once again why the Stones’ rhythm section often worked best when doing less, not more. Keith Richards keeps his rhythm guitar understated but purposeful, constantly shaping the atmosphere without stealing focus from the song itself. Small touches, including subtle maracas likely played by Jagger, quietly deepen the track’s warm pulse. Meanwhile, Jagger’s vocal performance shifts between falsetto and a richer lower register, adding emotional complexity that transforms the song from polished studio craftsmanship into something unexpectedly intimate.
The Quiet Strength of Tops
Among the many celebrated tracks on the Tattoo You album Tops remains one of the album’s most understated achievements. It lacks the swagger of the Stones’ biggest hits and avoids obvious stadium-sized hooks, yet that restraint may be exactly why the song has aged so gracefully. Beneath its smooth production sits a sharp observation about power, seduction, and the machinery of fame itself. The track never fully explains whether the narrator is sincere, manipulative, or both at once, which gives the lyrics a tension that still feels modern decades later. In a catalog filled with louder, flashier moments, Tops succeeds by quietly revealing how deeply the Rolling Stones understood the world surrounding celebrity — and how willing they were to turn that understanding into art.
Mivk Taylor (1993): ” There were two songs on Tattoo You I played on. One was called Tops and the other was called Waiting on a Friend.“
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