By Zola Elder
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Beggars Banquet is the seventh British and ninth American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 6 December 1968 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States. It was the first Rolling Stones album produced by Jimmy Miller, whose production work formed a key aspect of the group’s sound throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Brian Jones, the band’s co-founder and early leader, had become increasingly unreliable in the studio due to his drug use, and it was the last Rolling Stones album to be released during his lifetime, though he also contributed to two songs on their next album Let It Bleed, which was released after his death (Jones also contributed to the group’s hit song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash“, which was part of the same sessions, and released in May 1968). Nearly all rhythm and lead guitar parts were recorded by Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones’ other guitarist and the primary songwriting partner of their lead singer Mick Jagger; together the two wrote all but one of the tracks on the album. Rounding out the instrumentation were bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts, though all members contributed on a variety of instruments. As with most albums of the period, frequent collaborator Nicky Hopkins played piano on many of the tracks.
Beggars Banquet marked a change in direction for the band following the psychedelic pop of their previous two albums, Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request. Styles such as roots rock and a return to the blues rock sound that had marked early Stones recordings dominate the record, and the album is among the most instrumentally experimental of the band’s career, as they use Latin beats and instruments like the claves alongside South Asian sounds from the tanpura, tabla and shehnai, and African music-influenced conga rhythms.
Beggars Banquet was a top-ten album in many markets, including a number 5 position in the US—where it has been certified platinum—and a number 3 position in the band’s native UK. It received a highly favourable response from music critics, who deemed it a return to form. While the album lacked a hit single at the time of its release, songs such as “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Street Fighting Man” became rock radio staples for decades to come. The album has appeared on many lists of the greatest albums of all time, including by Rolling Stone, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
What kind of Christmas tree is most popular?
The top-selling Christmas trees, as reported by growers across the United States, are the Fraser fir, Douglas fir, balsam fir, and silver fir, in that order.
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Martin Van Buren (8th U.S. president. He was the first president to be a U.S. citizen at birth) –
- George Armstrong Custer (U.S. Calvary officer) –
- Walt Disney (animator & theme park developer) –
- Strom Thurmond (politician) –
- Frankie Muniz (actor) –
Died
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (composer) –
- Claude Monet (painter) –
- Shoeless Joe Jackson (baseball player) –
- Don Meredith (football player & broadcaster) –
- Pusuke (world’s oldest living dog until time of death) –
- Nelson Mandela (political activist) –
- Kirstie Alley (actress ) –
Events
- The ship Mary Celeste was found abandoned –
- Canada’s first electric car debuted, in Toronto, Ontario–
- American League for Physical Culture formed–
- First large hydroponicum established, in Montebello, California–
- Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott to protest racial segregation on city buses–
- The Rolling Stones celebrated the release of Beggars Banquet with a custard pie fight at London’s Kensington Gore Hotel–
- The last new episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus was broadcast on the BBC–
- The first six astronauts were chosen for the Canadian Space Program–
- Electric eels lit a Christmas tree at the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, Utah–
Weather
- Deadly tornado struck Vicksburg, Mississippi–
- Boston, Massachusetts, received 18 inches of snow–
- Newport, Rhode Island, received 24 inches of snow–
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