The Rolling Stones released “Little Red Rooster” as a UK single through Decca on November 13, 1964. Backed with “Off the Hook,” it put a slow Willie Dixon blues song into the singles market with Brian Jones’s slide guitar at the center. The band kept the arrangement close to Howlin’ Wolf’s recording, even as their audience was expanding beyond the blues clubs.
Dixon’s songs were already part of the Stones’ recorded repertoire. His “I Want to Be Loved” had appeared on the reverse of their debut single, “Come On,” in 1963. Choosing “Little Red Rooster” continued that connection at a different point in the band’s career: they had become chart contenders, and a new single would be judged as a potential pop hit. The choice carried music from the Chicago blues catalogue directly into that competition.
Howlin’ Wolf had released the song on Chess in 1961 under the title “The Red Rooster.” Sam Cooke followed with “Little Red Rooster” in 1963, taking a faster approach and reaching American pop listeners. Those versions offered different ways into the same song. The Stones leaned toward Wolf’s spacious treatment, with a measured pace that gave the guitar phrases and vocal room to register.
Jones’s slide playing made that approach work. The guitar supplies much of the record’s character, moving around the vocal while the bass and drums keep the backing spare. In Classic Rock, blues historian Tony Russell singled out the space in the arrangement and the harmonica’s arrival near the end. The performance gets its tension from those small changes in a restrained setting. There’s no need for a crowded arrangement when the slide part has that much to say.
Its commercial prospects weren’t taken for granted. A contemporary New Musical Express review questioned the song’s appeal while acknowledging advance orders strong enough to ensure a hit. Mick Jagger also addressed complaints about its slow tempo. “I don’t see why we should have to conform to any pattern,” he said in November 1964, in comments reproduced by uDiscover Music. He defended the band’s decision to put a straightforward blues performance on a single and argued that it could still be danced to.
“Little Red Rooster” became the Stones’ second UK No. 1 single, following “It’s All Over Now.” It spent one week at the top in December 1964, turning that restrained blues performance into another chart success.
The American release followed a different route. London Records didn’t issue it as a commercial US single at the time. It appeared instead on The Rolling Stones, Now! in February 1965, the band’s third US album. That LP also included “Off the Hook,” bringing both sides of the British single into the American album catalogue alongside “Heart of Stone,” written by Jagger and Keith Richards.
Their next UK single pointed further toward their own songwriting. Released in February 1965, “The Last Time” was another Jagger and Richards song, backed with “Play with Fire.” It reached No. 1 as well, spending three weeks there.
