How 'Some Girls' Mixed Disco, Funk, and Punk into a Rolling Stones Masterpiece

The most interesting thing about Some Girls is how the Stones openly chased disco and punk trends without sounding like copycats. On “Miss You,” they locked into a four-on-the-floor drum pattern, Bill Wyman’s pulsing bass line borrowed from funk, and Mick Jagger’s half-sung, half-spoken vocals that nodded to contemporary dance floor hooks. Keith Richards even threw in a falsetto part, while Sugar Blue’s harmonica added an unexpected R&B texture. The whole track was built around a groove that could fit a 1978 discotheque, yet the lyrics stayed sour and paranoid—a Stones trademark.

“Respectable” went the opposite direction, taking the raw speed and sneer of punk. Jagger delivered the lines in a staccato, almost robotic bark, and the guitars were mixed so dry and aggressive they sounded like they were recorded in a broom closet. The rhythm section abandoned any funk feel and just slammed through two minutes of garage-y fury. That contrast—moving from a polished disco strut on side one to a livid punk rant on side two—captured how the band absorbed both the hedonism and the anger of the late-70s club scene without losing their identity.