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Waiting on a Friend sounds almost too gentle to be a Rolling Stones song—until you remember that the Stones have never been particularly good at doing things the expected way. Born from sessions dating back to 1972 and eventually transformed for Tattoo You, the track became one of the band’s most relaxed and surprisingly tender moments. The Rolling Stones gave it a warm sense of companionship, while Sonny Rollins added a saxophone solo that practically floats over the song. Then came that wonderfully casual video, with Mick, Keith and the rest of the band simply hanging out. For once, nobody seemed to be running from anything.
A smile relieves a heart that grieves/ Remember what I said…
Original titles: Waiting For A Friend ; Waiting On My Friend Written by: Jagger/Richard Recorded: Dynamic Sounds Studios, Kingston, Jamaica, Nov. 25-30 and Dec. 6-21 1972; Rolling Stones Mobile at some unlocated railway warehouse, Paris, France, Oct. 11-Nov. 12 and Nov. 25-mid Dec. 1980; Atlantic Studios, New York City, New York, Apr-June 1981
Mick Jagger: vocals Keith Richards: guitars, backing vocals Mick Taylor: guitar (unconfirmed) Bill Wyman: bass Charlie Watts: drums Guest musicians: Nicky Hopkins (piano), Sonny Rollins (sax), Mike Carabello (percussion), Kasper Winding (tambourine)
More about Waiting On A Friend by The Rolling Stones
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
A song rediscovered
Waiting on a Friend is one of those rare Rolling Stones songs whose meaning seems to expand rather than narrow with time. Keith Richards once wondered aloud what the song was really about, describing it simply as a nice song without any pointed meaning. Mick Jagger, however, heard something more personal in it. In the booklet to Jump Back, he called the lyric “very gentle and loving, about friendships in the band.” That interpretation fits the song’s unusually warm character, but its history makes it even more fascinating. Originally recorded during the Goats Head Soup sessions in Kingston, Jamaica, in late 1972 and early 1973, it remained unfinished until the Stones returned to it nearly a decade later. By then, a forgotten studio track had become one of Tattoo You’s most tender and enduring moments.
From Kingston to Tattoo You
The story of Waiting on a Friend begins in Jamaica, where the Rolling Stones recorded it under the working title Waiting for a Friend during the Goats Head Soup sessions. The basic track belonged to an earlier era of the band, but Mick Jagger’s vocals and lyrics came later. According to Jagger, the group had liked the song from the beginning, even though it had no lyrics at the time.
That delay ultimately became an advantage. Producer Chris Kimsey deserves considerable credit for recognizing the potential in the old recording and helping transform it into something fresh enough for Tattoo You. The song was effectively rescued from the Stones’ archives and given a new life in 1981, almost nine years after its original recording. Its placement on Tattoo You was especially effective. After the album’s harder-edged material, Waiting on a Friend provides a graceful change of mood and brings the record to a remarkably gentle conclusion.
Mick Jaggere (1993): “This one dates from the Goats Head Soup sessions. We all liked it at the time but we didn’t have any lyrics, so there we were. As well as the vocal, we stuck on that amazing sax solo at the end by Sonny Rollins. The lyric I added is very gentle and loving, about friendships in the band. At least I think that’s what it was about. The influence of the video comes in here because when we scripted it we had me and Keith sitting round waiting for each other. But I can’t actually remember now if that was the original idea of the song.”
The musicians behind the mood
Much of the song’s magic comes from the musicianship beneath Jagger’s relaxed vocal. Keith Richards plays the electric-guitar introduction, colored by the light phasing that had become increasingly familiar in the Stones’ sound. An acoustic guitar can also be heard, particularly around 3:52, and appears to be played by Richards.
The original 1972 recording also featured Mick Taylor. Charlie Watts later remembered Taylor moving into a Santana-inspired approach on the track, calling his playing incredible and saying that it worked extremely well. Yet Taylor’s contribution ultimately disappeared from the final mix.
In its place came one of the recording’s defining features: Sonny Rollins. His two saxophone solos give the song a sophistication far beyond its simple premise. Delay and strong reverb further enhance the instrument’s spacious sound.
Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman provide an understated rhythmic foundation, with Watts creating a groove that sounds effortless while remaining remarkably precise. Percussion, including bongos, claves, a güiro and probably a cabasa or shaker, adds another subtle layer. Nicky Hopkins supplies the unmistakable piano, while Jagger delivers a vocal performance notable for its freshness and apparent sincerity.
Sonny Rollins (2020): “Mick Jagger, I don’t think he understood what I was doing, and I didn’t understand what he was doing. My wife was the one that persuaded me to do that recording. I said: ‘Man, the Rolling Stones. I don’t want to do any record with the Rolling Stones. I’d considered them — and it’s faulty — not on the level of jazz’. But my wife said, ‘No, no, you must do it’. So I said, ‘OK, let me see if I can relate to what they are doing; let me see if I can make it sound as good as possible…’ I didn’t relate to them because I thought they were just derivative of black blues. I do remember once I was in the supermarket up in Hudson, New York, and they were playing Top 40 records. I heard this song and thought, Who’s that guy? His playing struck a chord in me. Then I said, Wait a minute, that’s me! It was my playing on one of those Rolling Stones records.”
A video about friendship
The song’s message became inseparable from Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s memorable video. Rather than presenting the Stones in a conventional performance setting, the film follows Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as they meet outside a New York City apartment building before heading to a bar where Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood are already gathered.
The location itself contains a remarkable piece of rock history. The building at 96–98 St. Mark’s Place is also the same building famously featured on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffitiin 1975.
The visual narrative reinforces Jagger’s interpretation of the song: nobody is pursuing romance. The narrator is simply “waiting on a friend.” An alternative interpretation has occasionally been suggested—that the friend might actually be Keith’s dealer—but the warmth of the finished song and its video strongly support the more straightforward reading of companionship.
A quiet hit with a long life
Waiting on a Friend was released as the second single from Tattoo You, following Start Me Up, with Little T&A on the other side. It appeared in November 1981 and became a notable radio favorite in the United States, reaching No. 13 on the singles chart in early 1982. Its European performance was mixed: it reached No. 50 in the United Kingdom but climbed as high as No. 9 in the Netherlands.
Contemporary critics recognized its distinctive character. Billboard magazine described it as a ballad with a subtle honky tonk feeling and praised its contrast with Start Me Up, while Record World highlighted Jagger’s vocal, Sonny Rollins’ saxophone and the hypnotic chorus.
The song’s afterlife has been equally impressive. It appeared on several compilations like Rewind (1971–1984) in 1984, Jump Back in 1993 and GRRR! in 2012. A 1981 live performance was included in the Let’s Spend the Night Together movie in 1983, while a 1997 performance featuring Joshua Redman during the Bridges to Babylon Tour was released on No Security and the accompanying concert film in 1998.
What makes Waiting on a Friend endure is precisely what makes it unusual in the Rolling Stones catalog. It is not driven by swagger, menace or sexual bravado. Instead, it captures friendship, patience and the simple pleasure of being with people you know. Born in Kingston in 1972, rediscovered by Chris Kimsey in 1981 and immortalized by Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wyman and the rest of the guest musicians, it remains one of the Stones’ most unexpectedly beautiful songs.
Mick Jagger (1993): “Just let me be cynical for a moment. First of all, it’s really not about waiting on a woman friend. It’s just about a friend; it doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman. I can see people saying, Oh, we’re all much older now, Mick’s writing this much more compassionate stuff, must be about a real person. But that’s only in their perception of it.”
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