“Sister Morphine” was written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Marianne Faithfull. Faithfull released the original version of the song as the B-side to her 1969 single “Something Better” on Decca Records in February 1969. A different version was released two years later by The Rolling Stones as a track on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers.
After selling around 500 copies, Faithfull’s single was withdrawn by Decca in the UK due to the drug reference in the title, although the single remained on release in other countries. In some territories such as the Netherlands, Italy and Japan, “Sister Morphine” appeared as the A-side. Additionally, the French, US and Dutch versions of the single featured alternate versions of both sides to the U.K. 7″ release.
The Faithfull version has Marianne on vocals, Jagger on acoustic guitar, Ry Cooder on slide guitar and bass, Jack Nitzsche on piano and organ, and Charlie Watts on drums. The Stones version has Jagger on vocals, Richards on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, Cooder and Nitzsche on slide guitar and piano respectively, Bill Wyman on bass and Watts on drums.
A chapter of the 1978 book Babel by Patti Smith is entitled “Sister Morphine,” and the song is referenced in the 1982 novel The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick.
Faithfull recorded the song again in 1979, during the sessions for her Broken English album and this recording appears as a bonus track on the second disc of the 2013 deluxe edition of the album. The song remains a staple of her concert set-list and is on the live albums Blazing Away in 1990 and No Exit in 2016.
