ABKCO Records is celebrating the 45th Anniversary of the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet. A breakthrough album for the Rolling Stones, it was recorded in London and Los Angeles, produced by Jimmy Miller and released in the U.S. on December 7, 1968. The last full album with founding member Brian Jones in the line-up, Beggars Banquet includes such classics as “Sympathy For the Devil” (the subject of the Jean-Luc Godard film of the same title), “Street Fighting Man” and “Factory Girl.” Guest musicians and vocalists on the album include Nicky Hopkins, Rocky Dijon, Ric Grech, Dave Mason and The Watts Street Gospel Choir.
An album flush with masterful and growling instant classics
Beggars Banquet is unanimously praised by critics, ranking on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time” list, being called “an album flush with masterful and growling instant classics,” by eMusic and “filled with distinctive and original touches” by Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone. Though it’s certainly marked by two timeless socio-political anthems in “Street Fighting Man” and “Sympathy For The Devil,” it’s the gritty acoustic country and country-blues tinged songs like “Prodigal Son” and “Factory Girl” that has helped Beggars Banquet stand tall through the decades.
