#12 Exile on Main St. by The Rolling Stones

The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time

2025 Album Rank

12

2011 Album Rank

11

Total Points

2320

Year Released

1972

Billboard 200 Chart Peak

1

Weeks at #1

4

RIAA Sales Certification

1,000,000 (Platinum)

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Exile on Main St. Album Details

Released in May 1972, Exile on Main St. is The Rolling Stones' most sprawling, murky, and mythologized album. Recorded primarily at Keith Richards' rented villa, Nellcôte, in the south of France during the band's tax exile from Britain, the double LP blends rock, blues, gospel, country, and soul into a raw, loose, and heavily layered sonic collage. At first polarizing, the album has since come to be regarded as one of the Stones' greatest achievements and a cornerstone of rock history.

The atmosphere was chaotic and fueled by decadence. Recording sessions were irregular and disjointed, with musicians and engineers drifting in and out at all hours. Despite the conditions, or perhaps because of them, the album's sound has a gritty, lived-in feel that gives songs like Rocks Off, Tumbling Dice, and Shine a Light a hypnotic, rough-edged magic. Rather than polished performances, the album thrives on groove, atmosphere, and swagger.

Interesting Facts about Exile on Main St.

• Only about ten of the album's 18 tracks were fully recorded at Nellcôte. Many others were based on earlier demos or tracked later at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, where vocals, overdubs, and final mixes were completed.
• Gram Parsons was present for many of the Nellcôte sessions and influenced the country flavor of songs like Sweet Virginia, though he did not officially perform on the album.
• Some takes on the album are actually composites of multiple incomplete performances. For example, Rocks Off features an abrupt drop in mix quality midway through due to an edit splicing two different takes together.
• The horn parts, arranged by Jim Price and Bobby Keys, were often improvised in the studio and later edited into the mix with very little rehearsal.
• Outtakes and alternate versions from the sessions surfaced on bootlegs like Torn and Frayed and Exile Outtakes, featuring rawer versions of Good Time Women (a prototype of Tumbling Dice) and unused tracks like I'm Not Signifying and Following the River.
• Several unreleased songs from the Exile era were officially released for the first time on the 2010 deluxe reissue, including Plundered My Soul and Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren).
• The basement of Nellcôte had terrible acoustics and was hot, humid, and poorly ventilated, which contributed to the lo-fi sound of many basic tracks. Hum and tape hiss are audible throughout the original LP.
• Mick Jagger later expressed ambivalence about the album, saying he found the mix muddy and felt that it lacked direction. Keith Richards, in contrast, considers it the Stones' definitive album.
• The Stones rarely performed many of the songs from the album live during the 1970s. Tracks like Ventilator Blues have never been part of their regular setlists.
• Shine a Light began as a song about Brian Jones, originally demoed in 1968 during sessions with Leon Russell and Billy Preston. It evolved into a gospel-infused tribute with Preston on organ and piano.
• The album artwork was designed by Robert Frank and uses photos from his 1958 book The Americans along with images from a 1930s sideshow. The messy collage matched the record's shadowy, off-kilter vibe.
• Exile on Main St. debuted at number one in both the US and UK, but its critical reputation grew over decades.
• The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012 for its cultural and historical significance.

Exile on Main St. Track List

1. Rocks Off
2. Rip This Joint
3. Shake Your Hips
4. Casino Boogie
5. Tumbling Dice - Reached #7 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
6. Sweet Virginia
7. Torn and Frayed
8. Sweet Black Angel
9. Loving Cup
10. Happy - Reached #22 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
11. Turd on the Run
12. Ventilator Blues
13. I Just Want to See His Face
14. Let It Loose
15. All Down the Line
16. Stop Breaking Down
17. Shine a Light
18. Soul Survivor

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