Almost Hits: The Rolling Stones - Let's Spend The Night Together (1967)

Controversy often limits a good song's exposure and hinders its climb up the charts. Such is the case with The Rolling Stones' double A-side single, "Let's Spend The Night Together" that only got as high as #55 on the Hot 100. It did much better in the UK, where it topped out at #3. It also served as the lead off track on their American LP, Between the Buttons. The more famous and more deserving flip side, "Ruby Tuesday," reached #1 in the USA and #3 at home in England.

Many American radio and television stations refused to play "Let's Spend The Night Together" because they considered it an obscene song, and in 1967 that wasn't surprising. Even with today's more lenient standards the lyrics still generate a lot of controversy.

When the quintet appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1967 to promote the record Sullivan told Mick Jagger - who composed the song with Keith Richards - "Either the song goes or you go."  Eventually, the TV emcee and the group reached a compromise and the singer agreed to change the words to "Let's Spend Some Time Together,"  but Jagger rolled his eyes all during their performance. This angered the morally conservative host so much he announced The Stones would never appear on his show again. However, they did play three songs on his iconic, popular, Sunday night program in November 1969.

More recently, The Stones visited China for the first time ever in 2006 and authorities there also prohibited them from performing the song due to its lyrical content.

I don't recall my local Top 40 station, WFIL, in Philadelphia ever playing "Let's Spend The Night Together" and I listened to the radio all of the time. I never heard it until I bought a copy of The Stones' double disc anthology, Hot Rocks, a couple of years later when I went to college.
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Almost Hits is an occasional exploration into songs that failed to reach the top 20 on the American Billboard Hot 100. Many have become classics despite what their chart position would indicate.

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