''Emotional Rescue'' is the fifteenth studio album by the English rock band

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

, released on 23 June 1980 by Rolling Stones Records. Following the success of their previous album, '' Some Girls'', their biggest hit to date, the Rolling Stones returned to the studio in early 1979 to start writing and recording its follow-up. Full-time members

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

(vocals),

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership wi ...

(guitar),

Ronnie Wood Ronald David Wood (born 1 June 1947) is an English rock musician, best known as a member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, and a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. Wood began his career in 1964, playing lead guitar with several Brit ...

(guitar),

Bill Wyman William George Wyman ( né Perks; born 24 October 1936) is an English musician who was the bass guitarist with the rock band the Rolling Stones from 1962 to 1993. Wyman was part of the band's first stable lineup and performed on their first 19 ...

(bass) and

Charlie Watts Charles Robert Watts (2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021) was an English musician who was the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021. Originally trained as a Graphic designer, graphic artist, Watts developed an interest i ...

(drums) were joined by frequent collaborators Ian Stewart (keyboards),

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. He performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, including on songs recorde ...

(keyboards),

Bobby Keys Robert Henry Keys (December 18, 1943 – December 2, 2014) was an American saxophonist who performed as a member of several horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Harry Nilsson, Delaney ...

(saxophone) and Sugar Blue (harmonica). Upon release, the album topped the charts in at least six countries, including the United States, UK, and Canada. Hit singles from it include the

title track A title track is a song that has the same name as the album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-t ...

, which reached No. 1 in Canada, No. 3 in the United States, and No. 9 in the UK and " She's So Cold", a top-40 single in several countries. The recording sessions for ''Emotional Rescue'' were so productive that several tracks left off the album would form the core of the follow-up, 1981's '' Tattoo You''.

History

Recorded throughout 1979, first in

Compass Point Studios Compass Point Studios was a music recording studio in the Bahamas, founded in 1977 by Chris Blackwell, the owner of Island Records. The concept of the studio was of a recording facility supported by in-house sets of artists, musicians, producers ...

Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of The Bahamas. It is on the island of New Providence, which had a population of 246,329 in 2010, or just over 70% of the entire population of The Bahamas. As of April 2023, the preliminary results of ...

, then Pathé Marconi, Paris, with some end-of-year overdubbing in New York City at

The Hit Factory The Hit Factory is a recording studio in New York City owned and operated by Troy Germano. History In 1969, songwriter Jerry Ragavoy opened a recording studio in New York City and named it ''The Hit Factory.'' On March 6, 1975, Edward Germano, ...

, ''Emotional Rescue'' was the first Rolling Stones album recorded following

' exoneration from a

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

drugs charge that could have landed him in jail for years. Fresh from the revitalization of '' Some Girls'' (1978), Richards and

led the Stones through dozens of new songs, some of which were held over for '' Tattoo You'' (1981), and picked ten of them for ''Emotional Rescue''. Several of the tracks on the album featured just the core Rolling Stones band members: Jagger, Richards,

, and

. On others, they were joined by keyboardists

and co-founder Ian Stewart, sax player

and harmonica player Sugar Blue. Songs left off the album appeared on ''Tattoo You'' ("

Hang Fire Hang fire is an unexpected delay between the triggering of a firearm and the ignition of the propellant. This failure was common in firearm actions that relied on open primer pans, due to the poor or inconsistent quality of the powder, although ...

", " Little T&A" and "No Use in Crying"). "Think I'm Going Mad", another song from the sessions, was released as the B-side to " She Was Hot" in 1984. A cover song sung by Richards, " We Had It All", was released on the 2011 deluxe ''Some Girls'' package.

Packaging and artwork

The album cover for ''Emotional Rescue'' had concept origination, art direction and design by

Peter Corriston Peter Corriston is a Grammy-award-winning graphic designer currently based in Greenwich Village, notable for designing the album artwork for several major rock bands and musicians. Corriston has worked internationally with such artists as Billy Idol ...

with

thermographic Infrared thermography (IRT), thermal video or thermal imaging, is a process where a Thermographic camera, thermal camera captures and creates an image of an object by using infrared radiation emitted from the object in a process, which are exa ...

photos taken by British-born, Paris-based artist Roy Adzak using a thermal camera, a device that measures heat emissions. The original release came wrapped in a huge colour poster featuring more thermo-shots of the band with the album itself wrapped in a plastic bag. The original music video shot for "Emotional Rescue" also utilised the same type of shots of the band performing. A short time later a second video for "Emotional Rescue" was shot, directed by David Mallett (produced by Paul Flattery & Simon Fields) as well as one for "She's So Cold".

Release and reception

Released in June with the disco-infused hit title track as the lead single, ''Emotional Rescue'' was an immediate smash. The title track hit No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The album gave the Rolling Stones their first UK No. 1 album since 1973's '' Goats Head Soup'' and spent seven weeks atop the US charts. The follow-up single "She's So Cold" was a top 30 hit while "Dance Pt. 1" reached No. 9 on ''Billboard''s Dance chart. Critical reception was relatively muted, with most reviewers considering the album somewhat formulaic and unambitious, particularly in contrast to its predecessor. Writing in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', Ariel Swartley stated that "as far as the music goes, 'familiar' is an understatement. There's hardly a melody here that you haven't heard from the Stones before". ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

summarized it as "an ordinary Stones album" in an essay accompanying the annual

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

critics poll of 1980's best albums, in which ''Emotional Rescue'' finished 20th, a result which he deemed "so far out of the money" for "the world's greatest rock and roll band". Retrospective assessments have been kinder, with several critics praising the band's performance, despite the sometimes lightweight material.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

states that the album "may consist mainly of filler, but it's expertly written and performed filler". In '' Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s'' (1990), Christgau said that, while not "great", the album boasts a "mid-'60s yricalcharm" in "such tossed-off tropes as 'Where the Boys Go' and 'She's So Cold'", alongside a musical style "looser" than other less-than-great Stones records like ''

It's Only Rock 'n Roll ''It's Only Rock 'n Roll'' is the twelfth studio album by English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 18 October 1974 by Rolling Stones Records. It was the last album to feature guitarist Mick Taylor; the songwriting and recording of th ...

'' (1974): " he music isfar more allusive and irregular and knowing: for better and worse its drive isn't so monolithic, and the bass comes front and center like Bill was

James Jamerson James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bassist. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases un ...

." In 1994, ''Emotional Rescue'' was remastered and reissued by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

, and again in 2009 by

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

. In 2011, it was released by Universal Music Enterprises in a Japanese-only SHM-SACD version. The 1994 remaster was initially released in a Collector's Edition CD, which replicated many elements of the original album packaging, including the colour poster.

Track listing

Personnel

The Rolling Stones *

– lead vocals , electric guitar , backing vocals ,

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

, percussion *

– electric guitar , backing vocals , acoustic guitar , bass guitar , piano , lead vocals *

– bass guitar ,

string synthesizer A string synthesizer or string machine is a synthesizer designed to make sounds similar to those of a string section. Dedicated string synthesizers occupied a specific musical instrument niche between electronic organs and general-purpose synthes ...

– drums *

– electric guitar , bass guitar ,

pedal steel The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

, backing vocals , saxophone Additional personnel * Ian Stewart – piano , electric piano (8) *

– synthesizers , piano * Sugar Blue – harmonica *

– saxophone * Michael Shrieve – percussion *

Max Romeo Maxwell Livingston Smith (22 November 1944 – 11 April 2025), known professionally as Max Romeo, was a Jamaican reggae and roots reggae recording musician who achieved chart success in his home country and in the United Kingdom. He had several ...

– backing vocals on "Dance (Pt. 1)" *

Jack Nitzsche Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, a ...

– horn arrangement on "Indian Girl" Technical * Chris Kimsey – associate producer and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

*Snake Reynolds – assistant engineer *Sean Fullan – assistant engineer *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' '' Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Early life ...

– mastering engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1980 albums Albums produced by the Glimmer Twins Albums recorded at Compass Point Studios Atlantic Records albums Rolling Stones Records albums The Rolling Stones albums Virgin Records albums Albums with cover art by Peter Corriston