“Start Me Up” is a thrilling rock anthem featuring the Stones’ classic sound. Keith Richards ignites the track with an electrifying guitar riff. Ronnie Wood plays a layered variation of the Richards’ main riff to give it some extra punch. Mick Jagger delivers an exhilarating, high-adrenaline vocal performance. Charlie Watts’ powerful drumming provides a strong foundation for the song, and Bill Wyman lays down a smashing bass line. The sexually charged lyrics are quintessential Stones.
“Start Me Up” was co-written by Jagger and Richards. It was originally a reggae song and had the working title “Never Stop.” It was first recorded in March 1975 during the Stones’ sessions for their album Black and Blue, but was put aside. It was later re-recorded with a completely different arrangement during the sessions for the Some Girls album in January and March of 1978. After many takes, the song was shelved.
It resurfaced in 1981 when the Stones needed more material for their Tattoo You album. They looked through their archives to see if there were any forgotten tracks that they could use for the upcoming album. During the search, they found two takes of the song that had a more rock feel among the 70 or so reggae versions. The band refashioned it as a hard-rock song and retitled it “Start Me Up.”
In an excerpt from Martin Elliott’s book The Rolling Stones: Complete Recording Sessions 1962–2012, Keith Richards discusses retrieving the song from the archives and how the band retooled it to be the rock classic that we know today:
Nobody remembered cutting it. But we leapt on it again. We did a few overdubs on it, and it was like a gift, you know? One of the great luxuries of the Stones is we have an enormous, big can of stuff. I mean what anybody hears is just the tip of the iceberg, you know. And there is vaults of stuff. But you just have to have the patience and the time to actually sift through it.
“Start Me Up” was the lead single from the Stones’ album Tattoo You. The song was released on August 14, 1981. It was a huge hit, rising to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (where it remained for three weeks), and it sat atop Billboard’s Top Rock Tracks chart for 13 weeks, a record that stood for 13 years. The song peaked at #7 on the UK singles chart. Additionally, it topped the charts in Australia and made the top 10 in several other countries.
Microsoft used “Start Me Up” in a big commercial campaign to launch its Windows 95 operating system. Microsoft paid the Stones a reported $3 million to use the song. This marked one of the first times that a hit song was used in a major marketing campaign, and it was the first TV ad for a Microsoft product. It was also the first time that the Stones permitted one of their songs to be used in an advertising campaign.
“Start Me Up” was featured on the soundtracks for the films The Fan (1996) and Getting Even with Dad (1994). It was also played in the trailer for the 2024 film Transformers One. And it was featured on the soundtrack for the video game Karaoke Revolution Party, released in 2005. It has been sampled on six songs.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked “Start Me Up” as the 8th Best Sports Anthem. Digital sports and entertainment news service Yardbarker included “Start Me Up” on its list of the 25 greatest stadium anthems of all time. The Stones performed the song during the Super Bowl XL Halftime Show on February 5, 2006.
The music video for “Start Me Up” was directed by filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who had directed groundbreaking videos for the Beatles, the Who, and the Rolling Stones in the ‘60s. The video is pretty simple and straightforward, but effective. It has the Stones performing the song against a black background with Jagger doing his signature jerky dance moves and wild facial expressions. “Start Me Up” was serendipitously released shortly after the launch of MTV. (It was launched on August 1, 1981.) The runners of the new 24-hour music channel were eager to air a professionally made video of a hit song by a legendary rock band. It was quickly put into heavy rotation on the channel. This helped the Stones reach a whole new audience of young listeners who may not have been familiar with the band’s earlier works from the ‘60s and ‘70s. So it was a big win for both MTV and the Stones.
“Start Me Up” is the Stones’ biggest ‘80s hit and a longtime staple of their live shows. And it’s among the top rock anthems of the ‘80s.
