How Girl Group Harmonies Shaped the Stones’ 'She's a Rainbow' and 'Dandelion'

The Rolling Stones were never shy about their love for American girl groups. Keith Richards once said they wanted to sound like The Ronettes with a snarl, and during the Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request sessions, that influence bubbled right to the surface. Songs like “She’s a Rainbow” and “Dandelion” lean hard on the call-and-response backing vocals and layered harmonies that Phil Spector had perfected with the Ronettes and that Motown built around The Supremes.

For “She’s a Rainbow”, the Stones brought in a small choir of female singers (including future solo artist Madeline Bell) to hit those high, swooping “she’s a rainbow” refrains. The arrangement mimics the Ronettes’ trick of stacking voices in thirds and letting them float over a simple piano line. It’s pure girl-group lift, but with a psychedelic coat of paint. “Dandelion” is even more direct: the backing vocals answer Mick Jagger line for line, almost like a doo-wop throwback, with the women singing “dandelion” in a bright, unison chorus that feels cribbed from a Supremes B-side.

The connection isn’t coincidental. The Stones had worked closely with arr