The Rolling Stones have been one of—if not the most—prolific and enduring rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time, which begets two certainties: 1.) Keith Richards has been asked what his favorite Rolling Stones song is an immeasurable amount of times, and 2.) with each new album and passing year, this question becomes harder to answer.
During a June 2026 interview with TODAY, Richards confronted this question yet again. Which Rolling Stones track is the best? Which one encapsulates the band at its tightest and most cohesive? Which is a personal favorite of Richards, who has played them all countless times? Richards acknowledged how difficult it was to come up with an answer.
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“But sometimes,” he added, “when I wake up and suddenly ask myself that question, I’d say ‘Midnight Rambler’”. The song is a surprising choice, as a notably sinister non-single from the band’s 1969 album, Let It Bleed.
Keith Richards Has Good Reason for Picking Such a “Bad” Song as His Favorite
The Rolling Stones have many, many hits that would qualify as a suitable “best of all time” pick. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is certainly up there, as is “Wild Horses” or “Sympathy For The Devil”. Even Keith Richards’ pick comes from an album with songs that some might pick over “Midnight Rambler”, like “Gimme Shelter” or “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. So, what makes “Midnight Rambler” so special?
As Mick Jagger recalled in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone, “Midnight Rambler” was a shining example of Jagger and Richards at their collaborative best. “We were on a holiday in Italy. In this very beautiful hill town, Positano, for a few nights,” Jagger said. “Why we should write such a dark song in this beautiful, sunny place, I really don’t know. We wrote everything there—the tempo changes, everything.”
The memories of that Italian vacation and the musicians’ strong bond at that time likely play a part in Richards’ picking out “Midnight Rambler” as his favorite Stones track. The Italian vacation also makes the song’s actual subject matter seem even darker and grittier by comparison. Indeed, Jagger and Richards might have been in paradise. But the situations they were writing about were anything but pleasant.
“Midnight Rambler” is loosely based on Albert DeSalvo, a serial rapist and murderer who claimed to be the Boston Strangler. Doubts of his involvement followed the confession, although there was forensic evidence to prove he had committed violent crimes outside of the Boston Strangler victims. DeSalvo died of stab wounds inflicted by another prison inmate in the early 1970s, leaving him immortalized in the incredibly dark Rolling Stones deep cut from Let It Bleed.
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