As rock and roll was first getting born, there was no way to prepare people for Mick Jagger.
He was the epitome of what an electric frontman was supposed to be, and even if he was imitating some of the greatest bluesmen that came before him, there was no way that Elvis Presley could have understood what he was doing when he first started making waves in England. But even if he was the consummate professional onstage, Jagger knew that there were a few lines that he didn’t want to cross when he was singing.
Then again, it’s not like the rest of The Rolling Stones were asking him to bust out the classical chops or anything when he was singing. No matter how eclectic their influences were, they were still the best rock and roll band in the world, and they were going to use everything they had to make sure that they had the best riffs in the business. At the same time, they weren’t afraid to stretch, either.
Jagger was always willing to take a chance on the genres the new kids were getting up to, and while many of us weren’t asking him to embrace disco or whatever the hell the band were doing on Dirty Work, you have to still give kudos to them for at least trying something new. But Keith Richards was the one who knew better than to go too far outside their playing field whenever he performed.
Country music may have been a strange detour for a lot of people, but it wasn’t actually that far away from what traditional rock and roll was supposed to be. The greatest country songs of all time had the same kind of grit behind them that you heard in rockabilly music, but when The Stones sang their ballads, they were going to be channelling the likes of George Jones long before they went down the easy listening road.
They were no slouches at writing ballads like ‘As Tears Go By’, but it was also about finding songs that fit their aesthetic. And even if Jagger did try his hand at singing some of the greatest ballads in their arsenal, he knew that it was never going to work for him singing along to the likes of Frank Sinatra in between singing ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’.
‘Ol Blue Eyes’ was great at what he did, but Jagger also understood that he was far away from anything that The Stones were built for, saying, “It’s something you’re born with, a distinctive sound on your voice. Frank Sinatra certainly had that voice. I don’t particularly like Frank Sinatra’s voice, but it’s fantastically distinctive, and you know it’s him as soon as you hear it. And it’s just completely luck. It’s like an opera singer’s voice.”
Granted, could you imagine Sinatra even trying his hand at singing any of The Stones’ songs? He had a fantastic ear for churning out a great pop song, but no one was looking at him in one of the finest suits money could buy onstage and hearing him singing tunes like ‘Wild Horses’, which probably explains why he gravitated towards singing the odd Beatles song that struck a nerve with him every time he sang.
But Jagger didn’t really need to have Sinatra’s voice to be one of the biggest rock and roll frontmen in the world. Proper vocal technique wasn’t the biggest priority in the music business, and sometimes having the right kind of energetic personality worked just as well whenever you set foot onstage.
