How 'Emotional Rescue' Found Its Falsetto and Horns at the Power Station

The most surprising thing about “Emotional Rescue” is that Mick Jagger’s helium-sounding falsetto was originally a joke. During the 1979 sessions at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, the band was messing around with a slow reggae groove and Jagger started singing in a high, mocking parody of the disco falsetto singers flooding the charts at the time. Keith Richards liked it so much he insisted they keep it—so what started as a punchline became the album’s defining vocal hook.

The reggae-tinged beat came from a jam where Charlie Watts locked into a lazy one-drop rhythm, and Bill Wyman’s bass followed with a thick dub-like pulse. But the track was still missing a punch when they moved to New York’s Power Station for overdubs. That’s where producer Chris Kimsey brought in arranger Arif Mardin, who wrote a tight horn arrangement recorded by a session crew. The brass gave the song the lift it needed, turning a bedroom-level joke into a Top 10 hit.