On this day in 1965, Keith Richards dreamt of the riff to “Satisfaction”

Keith Richards awoke with a melody in his head and quickly used his tape recorder and an acoustic guitar to record the idea. It was first reported this took place in a Florida hotel but it has also been reported as being at a house Chelsea, the London Hilton and Richards own flat in Carlton Hill. He awoke the next day and found that he’d recorded the melody for “Satisfaction”. 

Richards showed the other members of the Rolling Stones and they quickly added to it. The group went into the studio just days later on May 10 and recorded the first version. This version had Brian Jones on harmonica and would be performed by the band when they debuted the song on American television program Shindig. They re-recorded the song days later and this version would be the final release. Richards originally planned another version where the fuzz tone of the guitar would be replaced with horns but was outvoted by the other members. 

“Satisfaction” soared through the charts and held the number one Billboard spot for four weeks. Weeks later the record went gold, the first of many for the band. It also came in at number 2 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, as well as placing on numerous other publications lists. Mick Jagger later commented on the song, claiming “It was the song that really made the Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band … It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kinds of songs … Which was alienation.”