How Steve Lillywhite Captured the Raw Tension of the Rolling Stones' Dirty Work Sessions on 'One Hit (To the Body)'

By 1985, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were barely speaking. Jagger was off recording his solo album She’s the Boss in New York, while Richards wanted the band back in the studio. The compromise was Air Studios in Montserrat—but they rarely recorded together. Richards would work from afternoon into the night, Jagger would come in the morning and redo parts. Producer Steve Lillywhite was brought in specifically because he wasn’t a Rolling Stones insider; his job was to capture the aggression without getting caught in the crossfire.

For “One Hit (To the Body),” Lillywhite leaned into the chaos. He had the whole band play live in the same room—something they’d stopped doing years earlier—and miked the drums with a pair of Neumann U87s placed high in the room for a explosive, trashy