Musical style

The majority of the songs on Out of Our Heads were written and previously recorded by American rhythm and blues artists.^[1] According to music critic Richie Unterberger, the album’s US release largely had mid-1960s soul covers and “classic rock singles” written by the band, including “The Last Time”, “Play with Fire”, and “Satisfaction”, still drew on the band’s R&B and blues roots, but were updated to “a more guitar-based, thoroughly contemporary context.” Among the soul covers were Marvin Gaye’s “Hitch Hike”, Solomon Burke’s “Cry to Me”, and Sam Cooke’s “Good Times”.^[2] Kent H. Benjamin of The Austin Chronicle wrote that the album is “the culmination of the Stones’ early soul/R&B sound”.^[3] Writing of the album’s UK edition, AllMusic’s Bruce Eder characterised it as rock and roll and R&B.^[4]

Release and reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[5]
Entertainment Weekly	B[6]
Music Story	[7]
NME	7/10[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[9]
Tom Hull	UK: A– US: A[10]

The British Out of Our Heads – with a different cover – added songs that would surface later in the US on December’s Children (And Everybody’s) and others that had not been released in the UK thus far (such as “Heart of Stone”) instead of the already-released live track and recent hit singles (as singles rarely featured on albums in the UK in those times). Issued later that September, Out of Our Heads reached number two in the UK charts behind The Beatles’ Help!. It was The Rolling Stones’ last UK album to rely upon rhythm and blues covers; the forthcoming Aftermath was entirely composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Initially issued in July 1965 in the US, Out of Our Heads (featuring a shot from the same photo session that was used for the cover of 12 X 5 and The Rolling Stones No. 2) was a mixture of recordings made over a six-month period, including the Top 10 hit “The Last Time” and the worldwide number one “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” with B-sides as well as a track from the UK-only live EP Got Live If You Want It!. Six songs would be included in the UK version of the album. “One More Try” is an original that was not released in the UK until 1971’s Stone Age. Riding the wave of “Satisfaction”‘s success, Out of Our Heads became The Rolling Stones’ first US number one album, eventually going platinum.

The US edition of the album was included in Robert Christgau’s “Basic Record Library” of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau’s Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981).^[11] In 2003, this edition was also listed at number 114 on the list of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,^[12] then was re-ranked at number 116 in the 2012 revised list.^[13]

In August 2002 both the US and UK editions of Out of Our Heads were reissued in a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records.^[14]

Track listing

US edition

UK edition

Personnel

The Rolling Stones
As per the American release:

• Mick Jagger – lead vocals, backing vocals, harmonica (on “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man”), tambourine (on “Play with Fire”)
• Keith Richards – electric guitar, backing vocals, acoustic guitar (on “The Last Time” and Play with Fire”)
• Brian Jones – electric guitar, acoustic guitar (on “Good Times” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”), harmonica (on “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man” and “One More Try” ^[15]), backing vocals
• Bill Wyman – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Charlie Watts – drums

‘Additional personnel

• Jack Nitzsche – percussion, piano (on “Satisfaction”), organ (on “Cry to Me”), harpsichord (on “Play with Fire”)^{[citation needed]}
• Phil Spector – tuned-down electric guitar (on “Play with Fire”)^{[citation needed]}
• Ian Stewart – piano, marimba (on “Good Times”)

Charts

Certifications

Further reading

• Smith, Sid. “Review of The Rolling Stones – Out Of Our Heads”. BBC.