How 'Let's Spend the Night Together' Forced the Rolling Stones to Mumble on Ed Sullivan

In January 1967, the Rolling Stones were booked to perform “Let’s Spend the Night Together” on The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan, a stickler for family-friendly television, objected to the line in the chorus. He told the band they had to change the lyric to something less overt, like “Let’s spend some time together,” or they wouldn’t air.

The Stones grudgingly agreed, but on the night of the broadcast, Mick Jagger barely played along. You can see him rolling his eyes and exaggerating the replacement line, almost sneering it into the microphone. The band’s body language was defiant—Keith Richards kept smirking—and the whole performance felt like a middle finger to network censorship. The controversy didn’t hurt them; it cemented their reputation as the dangerous alternative to the Beatles.