It's Only Rock 'n Roll - Release and Reception

Release and Reception

In July, the lead single, "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)", was released, and despite the familiar sound, it surprised many by failing to reach the top 10 in the US (although it did reach the top 10 in the UK). With its sing-along chorus, it has become a staple at Rolling Stones concerts. The B-side "Through the Lonely Nights" dates back to the previous year's Goat's Head Soup sessions. A cover of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", originally a 1966 hit by The Temptations, was released as the second single in the US only, where it also became a top 20 hit. Its parent album appeared in October with brisk initial sales, reaching number two in the UK (breaking a string of number-one albums that stretched back to 1969's Let It Bleed) and number one in the US, where it eventually went platinum.

Reviews were largely positive, with Jon Landau calling It's Only Rock 'n Roll "one of the most intriguing and mysterious, as well as the darkest, of all Rolling Stones records." However rock critic Lester Bangs disparaged the album in The Village Voice, much like Goats Head Soup, saying, "The Stones have become oblique in their old age, which is just another word for perverse except that perverse is the corniest concept extant as they realized at inception... Soup was friendly and safe. I want the edge and this album doesn't reassure me that I'll get it, what a curious situation to be stuck in, but maybe that's the beauty of the Stones, hah, hah, kid? This album is false. Numb. But it cuts like a dull blade. Are they doing the cutting, or are we?"

Author James Hector added that It's Only Rock 'n Roll was a definitive turning point for the band. "The album marked the band's decisive entry into a comfortable living as rock's elder statesmen. From this point on, their youth culture importance vanished, and there would be few musical surprises in the future." Hector concluded with "On It's Only Rock 'n Roll, the band had become what they imagined their mass audience desired them to be. They were wrong."

Instead of immediately touring to promote the album, the band decided to head back into the Munich studios to record the next album, to Mick Taylor's disappointment and subsequent resignation from the band. A tour didn't happen until the following summer in the US, the "Tour of the Americas '75", with future member Ronnie Wood taking Taylor's place on guitar.

In order to promote the album, music videos were filmed for several of the songs. The most commonly seen video from the album was the video for "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)", featuring the band (in sailor suits) playing in a tent, which gradually fills with soap bubbles (Taylor is featured in the video but did not actually play on the recorded cut). Videos were also filmed for "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" and "Till The Next Goodbye".

Two different versions of "Luxury" exist. A shorter version of 4:30 is included on the early CD version from 1986, while the version of 5:01 was originally released on vinyl in Europe, and on the 1994 and 2009 CD remasters. The difference is the shorter version starts the fadeout 30 seconds earlier, and thereby missing the short guitar solo at the end.

One of the Rolling Stones' largest fan clubs goes by the name "It's Only Rock 'n Roll", though its members typically refer to it as "IORR".

In 1994, It's Only Rock 'n Roll was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, in 2009 by Universal Music, and once more in 2011 by Universal Music Enterprises in a Japanese only SHM-SACD version.