19th Nervous Breakdown


"19th Nervous Breakdown" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was recorded in late 1965 and released as a single in February 1966. It reached number 2 on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Britain's Record Retailer chart, while topping the charts compiled by Cash Box and NME.

Composition and recording

The song was written during the group's October–December 1965 tour of the United States and recorded at the conclusion of their fourth North American tour during the Aftermath album sessions, between 3 and 8 December 1965 at RCA Recording Studios in Hollywood, California.
Jagger came up with the title first and then wrote the lyrics around it. The opening guitar figure is played by Keith Richards while in the verses Brian Jones plays a bass-note figure that derives from "Diddley Daddy" by Bo Diddley, a major influence on the Rolling Stones' style. Here the riff is extended into a long blues chord progression behind verbose lyrics similar to those of their previous UK single, "Get Off of My Cloud", and the verse alternates with a bridge theme. The track is also known for Bill Wyman's so-called "dive-bombing" bass line at the end. At almost four minutes' duration, it is long by the standards of the time.
Like many early Rolling Stones recordings, "19th Nervous Breakdown" has been officially released only in mono sound. A rather weak stereo mix of the song has turned up in private and bootleg collections. One version of the stereo mix features a radically different vocal from Jagger, who alternates between mellow on the verses and rawer on the chorus.

Personnel

"19th Nervous Breakdown" was released as a single on 4 February 1966 in the UK and reached number 2 on the Record Retailer chart. However, it was number 1 on the NME Top 30, for three weeks, and the BBC's Pick of the Pops charts, both widely recognised in Britain at the time. "19th Nervous Breakdown" was also the fifth best-selling single of 1966 in the UK, achieving greater full-year sales than both Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin', which had prevented it from reaching number 1 in Record Retailer, and the Rolling Stones' next single release, "Paint It Black", which topped the same chart for a week at the end of May 1966.
"19th Nervous Breakdown" was released on 12 February 1966 in the US and peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Cash Box Top 100. It was one of three songs – " Satisfaction" and "As Tears Go By" being the other two – that the Rolling Stones performed on their Ed Sullivan Show appearance in the US in February 1966.
In 2016, a previously unreleased alternate mono mix of the track appeared on Stray Cats, a compilation of singles and non-album tracks, in the box set The Rolling Stones in Mono.

Chart performance