#30 Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones

The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time

2025 Album Rank

30

2011 Album Rank

24

Total Points

1616

Year Released

1969

Billboard 200 Chart Peak

3

Weeks at #1

N/A

RIAA Sales Certification

2,000,000 (Multi-Platinum)

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Let It Bleed Album Details

Released on December 5, 1969, Let It Bleed is a dark, turbulent, and musically expansive album that marked a defining moment for The Rolling Stones. Bookended by the apocalyptic anthem Gimme Shelter and the gospel-tinged catharsis of You Can't Always Get What You Want, the album mirrored the cultural chaos of its era. It was the first full-length Stones album to feature Mick Taylor, who replaced Brian Jones mid-recording after Jones's increasingly erratic behavior and eventual death.

Drawing heavily from American roots music of blues, country, gospel, and early rock and roll, the record is both a tribute and a reinvention. From the sleazy swagger of Live With Me to the honky-tonk ache of Country Honk and the druggy desperation of Sister Morphine, the Stones embraced a grim realism that contrasted with the utopianism of their contemporaries. With Keith Richards assuming more control over the band's sound and songwriting, Let It Bleed marked the beginning of the Stones' most revered period.

Other Rolling Stone albums on the chart: Exile on Main St. and Sticky Fingers,

Interesting Facts about Let It Bleed

• Brian Jones appears on only two tracks, he plays autoharp on You Got the Silver and congas on Midnight Rambler, before being dismissed from the band in June 1969. He died less than a month later.
• Mick Taylor plays slide guitar on Country Honk and electric guitar on Live With Me, though much of the album had already been recorded by the time he joined.
• The chilling backing vocals on Gimme Shelter were sung by Merry Clayton, who was called into the studio late at night and delivered an intense, blistering performance. She was preganant at the time and had a miscarriage shortly after.
• You Got the Silver marks the first time Keith Richards sang lead vocals on a Rolling Stones track, a role he would take on more frequently in later albums.
• Midnight Rambler, co-written by Jagger and Richards, is a disturbing blues epic loosely based on the Boston Strangler. It became a live showstopper known for its extended, dramatic performances.
• The album cover, designed by Robert Brownjohn, features a surreal cake-and-vinyl sculpture stacked with objects including a tire, clock face, and film reel. The cake was baked by a then-unknown Delia Smith.
• The version of Honky Tonk Women most fans know was released as a standalone single. The album includes a countrified version called Country Honk, featuring a fiddle overdubbed by Byron Berline and ambient street noise recorded outside the studio.
• The album was recorded during a time of growing violence and unrest, culminating just after its release with the Altamont Free Concert, a tragedy that became emblematic of the dark turn of the 1960s counterculture.
• The choir featured in You Can't Always Get What You Want was The Bach Choir. They initially objected to being credited on a rock record and requested their name be removed from the original LP.
• Let It Bleed began the Stones' trilogy of critically revered albums and was followed by Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St.M/a> that would define their creative peak in the early 1970s.
• The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005 for its cultural and historical significance.

Let It Bleed Tracklist

1. Gimme Shelter
2. Love in Vain
3. Country Honk
4. Live with Me
5. Let It Bleed
6. Midnight Rambler
7. You Got the Silver
8. Monkey Man
9. You Can't Always Get What You Want

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