Let's Spend the Night Together

Infobox Single
Name = Let's Spend the Night Together


Artist = The Rolling Stones
from Album = Between the Buttons (U.S. version)
A-side = "Ruby Tuesday"
(Double A-side)
Released = January 13 1967 (UK)
January 14 1967 (US)
Format = 7" single
Recorded = 3-11 August & 8-26 November 1966
Genre = Rock and roll
Length = 3:36
Label = Decca F.12546 (UK)
London 45.904 (US)
Writer = Jagger/Richards
Producer = Andrew Loog Oldham
Chart position =
* #3 (UK)
* #4 (United World Chart)
* #55 (U.S.)
Last single = "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?"
(1966)
This single = "Let's Spend the Night Together/Ruby Tuesday"
(1967)
Next single = "We Love You/Dandelion"
(1967)Extra album cover
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Background = khaki


Lower caption = French 7-inch single cover

"Let's Spend the Night Together" is a song by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, originally released by The Rolling Stones in 1967. It has been covered by various artists, most famously David Bowie in 1973. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:wbfexx9sldke All Music Guide review] ]

Rolling Stones version

Released in the UK as a single in January 1967, "Let's Spend the Night Together" reached #3 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was included on the U.S. version of the Stones' album "Between the Buttons", and was also released there as a single. However, due to the then-controversial nature of the lyrics (proposing a sexual encounter) most radio stations opted to play the flip side "Ruby Tuesday" instead. The two songs charted separately on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100, "Let's Spend the Night Together" stalling at #55 while "Ruby Tuesday" became a #1 hit. Both "Ruby Tuesday" and "Let's Spend the Night Together" feature piano by Jack Nitzsche.

In one of the more famous examples of musical censorship, on "The Ed Sullivan Show", the band was initially refused permission to perform the number. Sullivan himself told Jagger, "Either the song goes or you go". [Christopher Sandford (1993, 1999). "Mick Jagger: Primitive Cool": p.97] A compromise was reached to substitute the words "let's spend "some time" together" in place of "let's spend "the night" together"; Jagger agreed to change the lyrics but ostentatiously rolled his eyes at the TV camera whilst singing them. In April 2006, for their first-ever performance in China, authorities prohibited the group from performing the song due to its "suggestive lyrics". [cite web | author =BBC News | title = Stones tracks censored in China| publisher = bbc.co.uk | date = 7 April 2006 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4888332.stm Retrieved 19 January 2008.]

Track listing

# "Let's Spend the Night Together" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 3:26
# "Ruby Tuesday" (Jagger, Richards) – 3:12

Personnel

* Mick Jagger – lead vocal, backing vocals
* Keith Richards – electric guitars, bass, piano, backing vocals
* Brian Jones – organ, backing vocals
* Charlie Watts – drums

* Jack Nitzsche – piano

Other releases

"Let's Spend the Night Together" was released on the following studio albums:
* "Between the Buttons" (1967) (U.S.)
* "Flowers" (1967)
* "Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2)" (1969)
* "Hot Rocks 1964-1971" (1972)
* "" (1975)
* "" (1989)
* "Forty Licks" (2002)
* "Singles 1965-1967" (2004)

A live version appeared on ""Still Life" (American Concert 1981)" (1982).

Live performances

After performing the song on a 28-date European tour in spring 1967, it was not until 1981 that The Rolling Stones next played "Let's Spend the Night Together" live in concert. It was often performed on the 1981 and 1982 tours before being again retired for 15 years. The song has been a mainstay of their live performances during their two-year A Bigger Bang Tour.

*1967 European Tour
*1981 American Tour
*1982 European Tour
*1997 North American Tour
*1998 Spring Tour (North America), European Tour
*2005-2006 USA & Canada
*2006 Asia & Australasia, Europe, USA & Canada
*2007 European Tour

David Bowie version

Infobox Single
Name = Let's Spend the Night Together


Artist = David Bowie
from Album = Aladdin Sane
B-side = "Lady Grinning Soul"
Released = July 1973
Format = 7" single
Recorded = Trident Studios, London
9 December 1972 –
24 January 1973
Genre = Glam rock
Length = 3:03
Label = RCA
Writer = Jagger/Richards
Producer = Ken Scott, David Bowie
Chart position = Did not chart
Last single = "Time"
(1973)
This single = "Let's Spend the Night Together"
(1973)
Next single = "Life on Mars?"
(1973)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Type = Studio
Album = Aladdin Sane
prev_track = "The Prettiest Star"
prev_no = 7
this_track = "Let's Spend the Night Together"
track_no = 8
next_track = "The Jean Genie"
next_no = 9

David Bowie recorded a glam rock cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together" for his "Aladdin Sane" album, released in April 1973. It was also issued as a single by RCA Records in the U.S. and Europe. The single did not chart.

Bowie's rendition featured pulsating synthesizer effects. The singer added his own words as part of the finale:

:They said we were too young:Our kind of love was no fun:But our love comes from above:Let's make... love

Author Nicholas Pegg describes the recording as "faster and raunchier" than the Stones' performance with "a fresh, futuristic sheen",Nicholas Pegg (2000). "The Complete David Bowie": pp.124-125] while "NME" editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray considered Bowie to have performed "the unprecedented feat of beating the Stones on one of their own songs", remarking on the track's "polymorphous perversity" and "furious, coked-up drive".Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). "Bowie: An Illustrated Record": p.55] However, "Rolling Stone"'s contemporary review found the Bowie version "campy, butch, brittle and unsatisfying", suggesting that "one of the most ostensibly heterosexual calls in rock is made into a bi-anthem".cite journal | last = Ben Gerson | title = Aladdin Sane| journal = Rolling Stone | date = 19 July 1973 | url = http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/davidbowie/albums/album/283449/review/6067692 Retrieved 19 January 2008.]

Track listing

# "Let's Spend the Night Together" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 3:03
# "Lady Grinning Soul" (David Bowie) – 3:46

The Italian release featured "Watch That Man" on the B-side.

Personnel

*David Bowie – guitar, harmonica, keyboards, saxophone, vocals
*Mick Ronson – guitar, piano, vocals
*Trevor Bolder – bass
*Mick "Woody" Woodmansey – drums
*Mike Garson – piano
*Ken Fordham – saxophone
*Brian "Bux" Wilshaw – saxophone, flute
*Linda Lewis – backing vocals
*Juanita "Honey" Franklin – backing vocals
*G.A. MacCormack – backing vocals

Live versions

* A live version recorded by Bowie at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on July 3 1973 appears on the album "Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture" (1983).

Other releases

In addition to its appearance on "Aladdin Sane", Bowie's version of "Let's Spend the Night Together" was included on the following compilations:
* "The Best of David Bowie" (Japan 1974)
* "The Best of 1969/1974" (1997)

Notes