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Song of the Day #5,569: ‘Sleep Tonight’ – The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones had been putting out an album every year or two (sometimes more than one per year) since their inception in 1964. But the band’s internal turmoil in the early to mid 80s caused their output to slow. The 1986 album Dirty Work dropped three years after previous release Undercover.

Tensions between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were higher than ever, in part because Jagger had embarked on a solo career, releasing his debut album a year earlier. Richards’ full attention was still on The Stones, and he was annoyed by his partner’s wandering eye. At 1985’s Live Aid concert, Jagger performed a set with Tina Turner while Richards and Ronnie Wood played for Bob Dylan.

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Song of the Day #5,568: ‘All the Way Down’ – The Rolling Stones

The 1983 Rolling Stones release Undercover found Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the middle of an ugly spat that kept getting uglier. Returning to the studio after the patchwork construction of Tattoo You, they found themselves trying to pull the band in different directions.

Richards favored the R&B and blues sound of the band’s heyday, while Jagger wanted to experiment with the burgeoning musical styles and production techniques of the new decade. The resulting album was a Frankenstein monster combining both of those dueling approaches.

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Song of the Day #5,567: ‘Start Me Up’ – The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones’ 1981 album Tattoo You is an unlikely success.

It was more a product of commerce than art, cobbled together because the band needed a new album to promote on their upcoming tour. Tensions between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards resulted in little interest by either of them in collaborating on new songs, so producers mined the group’s voluminous archives for suitable material.

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Song of the Day #5,566: ‘Summertime Sadness (Remix)’ – Lana Del Rey vs. Cedric Gervais

We have a first for Throwback Weekends — a week where almost the entire Hot 100 Top Ten has already been featured on the blog.

Here were the songs at #1 through #9 the week of September 28, 2013: Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball,’ Katy Perry’s ‘Roar,’ Lorde’s ‘Royals,’ Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines,’ Avicii’s ‘Wake Me Up!,’ Jay Z’s ‘Holy Grail,’ Lady Gaga’s ‘Applause,’ Eminem’s ‘Berzerk,’ and Drake’s ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home.’ Whew!

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Song of the Day #5,565: ‘Baby Boy’ – Beyoncé feat. Sean Paul

Throwing back to the week of September 27, 2003, we find Nelly, P. Diddy and Murphy Lee hanging on to the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Shake Ya Tailfeather,’ covered on the blog three weeks ago.

In second place is a song that was on its way to a nine-week run at #1 — Beyoncé’s ‘Baby Boy.’ This collaboration with Jamaican rapper Sean Paul was the second single from Bey’s debut solo album, Dangerously in Love. Her first solo single, ‘Crazy in Love,’ also made it to the top spot.

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