The Accidental Anthem: How 'Start Me Up' Went from Reggae Outtake to Stadium Opener

That riff that launches a thousand arena singalongs was originally a reggae sketch. During the Some Girls sessions in 1977, Keith Richards was messing around with a rhythmic, offbeat guitar figure—intended as a loose, island-tinged groove. The track was called “Never Stop,” or sometimes “Start Me Up,” but it didn’t fit the album’s punkier leanings. So it sat on the shelf for four years, a forgotten demo that Jagger and Richards kept circling back to in different keys and tempos without ever nailing.

When they finally dug it up for Tattoo You, something clicked. Richards had switched to a capo at the second fret and locked into a sharper, more aggressive attack. The band ran through it in the studio, and the recording that stuck came from a single take—the one where drummer Charlie Watts hit a simple, almost mechanical pattern that sounded like a programmed drum machine. They actually kept that demo-like feel, with Richards playing his riff through a small Fender amp and doubling it with a second guitar part. The original reggae lilt was gone, replaced by a straight-ahead rock strut that barely let the listener breathe.

It became the Stones’ setlist staple almost immediately. During the 1981 US tour, they opened every show with “Start Me Up,” and the pattern stuck for decades—partly because the riff is impossible to ignore, partly because it gives Jagger an instant crowd-warming ritual. (“Ah, you can start me up…”). Not bad for a leftover that spent years in a tape box marked “reggae experiment.”