The Rolling Stones are one of the most prolific bands of all time since they have released 31 studio albums and 13 live records during the last six decades. With Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the main songwriters, the band sold an estimated amount of more than 250 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling groups in the history of music.
With so many records to listen to, some of them tend to get a little bit overlooked and Richards agrees with that. The guitarist already mentioned three albums from their discography that he considers to be underrated.
The 3 Rolling Stones albums Keith Richards said are underrated
“Bridges To Babylon” (1997)
The first one is “Bridges To Babylon”, which was the last studio album Stones released in the 90s. Richards talked about that record in an interview with GQ in 2020. He was asked to pick his favorite album of the band but he said it was a really hard thing to do because he liked all of them. So he mentioned many albums he liked and noted that “Bridges To Babylon” is an underrated one.
Always hard to pick favorites. I would go anywhere between Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, Exile on Main St. And I will go also to Bridges to Babylon, which is, I think, much underrated.
During a press conference to promote the album in the late 90s, the guitarist was asked how they kept coming up with good songs. His answer was: “It never stops. You don’t write them, they come to you. It’s the thing you gotta do. You receive, you transmit. You don’t create, you know.”
That record has famous tracks like “Anybody Seen My Baby”, “Out Of Control”, “How Can I Stop” and “Saint Of Me”. It peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard 200 chart and 6 on the UK albums chart.
“Undercover” (1983) and “Emotional Rescue” (1980)
Back in 1998, when the band was promoting “Bridges To Babylon”, Keith Richards gave an interview to Dean Goodman. He asked the guitarist if he believed albums like “Undercover” and “Emotional Rescue” were underrated.
The musician agreed with that and even mentioned a few songs from other records he liked. “Yeah (I agree), it’s a funny thing. I can’t really put a finger on that. You even mentioned ‘Get Some Sleep Tonight (From ‘Dirty Work’ – 1986).’ Not a lot of people know that one! And it’s always been another one that I’ve wanted to work up.”
“We also rehearsed ‘How Could I Stop’ (From ‘Bridges To Babylon’ – 1997) as well. Knowing that we’re kinda carrying on next year, I figured well I’ll stick with this lot for a bit. I’ll do some different ones when we get back,” Keith Richards said.
Released in 1980, “Emotional Rescue” had the famous title-track and also praised songs like “She’s So Cold” and “Send It To Me”. That album peaked at number 1 on the UK albums chart and US Billboard 200.
“Undercover”, released in 1983, wasn’t as successful as “Emotional Rescue”. There were no big hits in it and the most famous songs are “Undercover of the Night” and “She Was Hot”, for example. It peaked at number 3 on the UK albums chart and number 4 on the US Billboard 200.