The Rolling Stones 15 Best Songs in 21st Century

The Stones kicked off the new century, and its fifth decade as a band, with this single, newly written for its 40th anniversary compilation. Jagger started writing the taut, riffy track about love on the decline while working on his 2001 solo album Goddess in the Doorway but felt it sounded too much like the Stones, so kept it for the band. Richards acknowledged the song “is basically all Mick,” with him adding “the fairy dust”; the track was recorded in France, with Jagger on rhythm guitar and a pair of solos by Wood. It hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Heritage Rock chart and No. 5 on Adult Alternative Airplay and was a staple of the Licks Tour during 2002-2003 and featured on the 2002 set Licks Live. Listen here.

Coming at the end of Forty Licks, Richards’ contribution to the compilation sounded alarm bells in the Stonesiverse with its laid-back arrangement and its chorus declaration that, “I’m losing my touch…way too much/Baby get me out of here” — a far cry from the defiance of, say, “Happy” or “Before They Make Me Run.” We still have Keef to kick around 24 years later, of course, and now we can appreciate the weathered beauty of the song in its jazz-flecked arrangement, gentle piano, Watts’ easy brush strokes, Wood’s pedal steel and Richards’ heartfelt, vulnerable delivery. Listen here.

It had been eight years since the Stones’ last studio album, Bridges to Babylon, and the group couldn’t have picked a better way to announce its return and return to form. Created from a riff Richards said came to him in his sleep (ala “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”), “Rough Justice” is prototypical Stones, recalling “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” at the start and blazing into a characteristically chin-forward recrimination of a mate (“Once up on a time I was your little rooster/But now I’m just one of our cocks”). A Bigger Bang‘s opening track and lead single (alongside “Streets of Love”), it was another No. 1 on the Heritage Rock chart and was also the only new song the Stones performed during halftime of Super Bowl XL during February of 2006 in Detroit, sandwiched between “Start Me Up” and “Satisfaction.” Listen here.

The Stones approached A Bigger Bang as something of a back-to-basics endeavor, and this track boasts the sinewy, surging grit of the group’s late ‘60s/early ‘70s golden age, with a muscular groove and guitar interplay that recalls “Gimme Shelter.” Jagger is on rhythm here, too, which gives the track greater depth, while Wood’s lead work and solo is on par with his very best. Watts anchors it all in his characteristic pocket — no real flash, but unshakeable drive. Listen here.

The Stones, and particularly Jagger, have made a career out of terminal adolescence — or at least trying to stay in that place. This marks a notable divergence from that, however. Over a sultry, soulful groove — with delicate guitar interplay and Watts’ dramatic drum accents — Jagger moans that he’s “been traveling far and wide/wondering who’s going to be my guide” and lamenting that “I’ve been wandering, feeling all alone/I lost my direction/I lost my home/I’m so sick and tired” as well as “feeling so despised.” He finds no answers but the band discovers an angst that’s age-appropriate and probably resonated with boomers far and wide. The tribal gang chant, meanwhile, drives the despair even deeper. Listen here.

Many listeners focused on “Sweet Neo Con” as A Bigger Bang‘s political commentary, but this impressionistic observation of urban decay (London, specifically) is perhaps even more effective because of its subtlety. Nodding a bit to Blondie’s “Rapture,” the group laces a funk groove with just a hint of reggae guitar tone, which gives Darryl Jones a spotlight opportunity to push things along with his smooth but halting bass line. The guitars (Richards, Wood and Jagger) dance in and out of each other, making for a slow burn that’s also undeniably urgent. Listen here.

The Stones were working on new music in London during December 2015 when they took a break and started playing around with some old Chicago blues — and had such a good time doing it that a Grammy-winning album was finished in just three days. This was the Stones’ down ‘n’ dirty terra firma, a throwback to the group’s roots thrust through a filter of 50-plus years’ experience. Here they take Magic Sam’s guitar-forward original and stake their own claim, maintaining the tempo while adding piano and harmonica breaks — with Jagger wailing like his heart’s being stretched on the rack. Certainly one you want to play again, Sam. Listen here.

This obscure 1965 song by Little Walter (recorded six years prior) was the song that kicked off the Stones’ unexpected (and unplanned) blues foray. Played as a kind of breathtaking exercise in the midst of recording new material, it connected the band back to its roots and there’s an audible gusto in the delivery, right down to Jagger’s forceful vocal and harmonica playing. Life gave the Stones’ more gravity to channel into the song, bringing its timeless sentiment up to date many decades later. Listen here.

The Stones opened up to a wide array of guests on Hackney Diamonds, their first album in seven years and first of original material since 2005. Arguably the biggest? Paul McCartney, appearing on a Stones recording for the first time since contributing backing vocals to “We Love You” in 1967. The British Invasion’s elder statesmen are rockin’ like the Viagra was juiced on this one, too, complete with a count-in and an exuberant “Whoo!” from Jagger at the end. McCartney played a ’64 Hofner bass — not his original but another he received as a gift from producer Andrew Watt, who added a Univox Super Fuzz circuit that Macca switched on for the mid-track breakdown. Listen here.

A solid, driving rocker whose ferocious Wood solos, in the middle and the end, make it worth the price of admission. Jagger, meanwhile, remembers “the streets I used to walk on” in London — “dreary streets,” in fact, that “never promised much” but clearly delivered a great deal for the Stones. “Let’s raise a glass, get up and dance, ’cause life’s just…hit and run,” he concludes, like a grizzled warrior who (maybe) recognizes and appreciates his good fortune after decades in the battle. Listen here.

Hackney Diamonds‘ stunt casting reached its apex on this song, with Lady Gaga joining Jagger on vocals, Stevie Wonder playing keyboards and James King from Fitz and the Tantrums on saxophone. The seven-and-a-half-minute epic takes us to church, with a breakdown that features Jagger and Gaga throwing vocal licks at each other as the song builds to a brassy catharsis. Sweet and heavenly, indeed. Listen here.

The Stones throw back to 1978’s Some Girls on this rocker, firing on all cylinders and with the Cure’s Robert Smith adding another layer of bite to the guitar attack. Steve Winwood plays keyboards as well, while Jagger takes us cross-country from New York to Hollywood, visiting a fortuneteller in the latter to ask “What’s my future?” She has no answers, leaving him to conclude that “life is a gambling game” — and sounding confident about his chances. Listen here.

Give Jagger credit for, at 82, understanding that “one of these days I’m gonna fall down dead/And it’ll go quicker if you hit me in the head.” Well now. Rest assured the Stones sound very much alive and not planning to go anywhere soon on this defiant raver, with its hot guitar stack and Jagger’s harmonica adding fuel to the attack. At just under three minutes, it’s the shortest track on Foreign Tongues, and it’ll leave you gasping for air. Listen here.

Shades of the Marquee Club of the early ‘60s resonate in this striding blues, the lead single from the 2026 album. With its slashing guitars, slide and otherwise, from Richards and Wood, Jagger’s harmonica and Chicagoesque howl, and Matt Clifford’s boogie-woogie piano, this would not have been out of place on Blue & Lonesome. It was released under the nom du rock the Cockroaches, but, truly, there’s only one band that plays the blues quite like this. Listen here.

Get the hankies out for this Richards-sung heartstring-tugger, a plea that has him on his knees begging for “a little loving.” His soulful vocal is nothing short of commanding as it rides over an understated, moody arrangement whose dynamics swell in all the right spots and make effective use of Jagger and Wood on backing vocals. Winwood is on piano again, and a brief but effective guitar solo adds heft to one of the Stones’ most genuinely emotional tracks of the century to date. Listen here.