How Chris Kimsey Stitched Together a 1976 Backing Track and Sonny Rollins' Sax into 'Waiting on a Friend'

The core of “Waiting on a Friend” came from a 1976 recording session for Black and Blue — a loose, reggae-tinged groove that the Stones never finished. By the time they needed material for Tattoo You in 1981, producer Chris Kimsey dug through the vaults and found the track. The problem was that it had only vocals from a rough Mick Jagger guide and no proper arrangement. Kimsey’s job was to turn a half-baked Jamaican jam into a polished, bittersweet ballad.

He did it by splicing eras. The rhythm section — Charlie Watts’ shuffling drums and Bill Wyman’s warm bass — stayed from the original 1976 take. But Kimsey brought in Keith Richards to overdub a clean, melodic guitar part and had Jagger re-sing the vocal entirely in 1981. The magic touch came from Sonny Rollins. Jagger had asked the legendary saxophonist to contribute, and Rollins walked in, listened a few times, and played that soaring, conversational solo in one or two takes. Kimsey placed it right at the song’s emotional peak, letting Rollins’ horn feel like another voice in the conversation.

The blend is so seamless that you’d never guess the bed track was five years old. Kimsey’s trick was treating the old tape not as a relic but as a live foundation — he built new overdubs around it without trying to polish away its loose, humid feel. The result is a song that sounds simultaneously relaxed and tightly focused, with Rollins’ sax acting as the bridge between the 1976 skeleton and the 1981 heart.