Writing 'Let's Spend the Night Together' and the controversy that followed

The song came together quickly in late 1966 during sessions for Between the Buttons. Jagger and Richards wrote it in a Los Angeles hotel room, with Keith famously plunking out the iconic piano figure on a cheap upright. The lyric was blunt even by rock standards—Jagger later said it was meant to capture the push-and-pull of an immediate romantic proposition, not a calculated shock.

When the Stones performed it on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1967, Sullivan insisted Jagger change the line “let’s spend the night together” to “let’s spend some time together.” Jagger agreed on air but mugged to the camera, rolling his eyes, turning the censorship into a performance in itself. The single still reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 55 in the US—banned by many radio stations, which only added to the mystique.