Counting Down the Rolling Stones

Jim Beviglia is a feature writer for American Songwriter magazine, reviewing new albums and looking back at classic songwriters and songs for both the print and online editions. This is his third book in the Counting Down series. He is the author of Counting Down Bob Dylan: His 100 Finest Songs (Scarecrow Press, 2013) and Counting Down Bruce Springsteen: His 100 Finest Songs (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). Beviglia maintains a blog at countdownkid.wordpress.com, where he delves deep into the musical libraries of rock’s finest artists.

The third in Beviglia’s Counting Down series (after books about Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen) enumerates the Rolling Stones’ 100 best songs, as determined by the author. It’s a book for hard-core Stones fans, especially those with a fairly extensive knowledge of music. For each song, the author tells us which album it’s from, comments on the themes and writing of the song, and provides a capsule analysis of the musical performance. As with all lists of 'bests,' the point here is for readers to make their own lists, disagreeing with gusto. Still, Beviglia includes lots of the Stones’ classics ('Jumpin’ Jack Flash,' 'Gimme Shelter,' '(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,' 'You Can’t Always Get What You Want,' and 'Get Off of My Cloud,' among them), but the order in which they appear is sure to spark debate (as will the author’s choice for number 100). . . .[D]efinitely a must for devoted Stones fans, who come in all ages.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionThe ListEnd NotesBibliography