Keith Richards at 80: Here are 5 times the Rolling Stones guitarist was lead singer

In the early 1970s, New Musical Express tabbed Keith Richards as No. 1 in a list of rock stars “most likely to die” within a year. Fifty years later, the Rolling Stones lead guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has had the last laugh, as he turned 80 on Monday.

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Born on Dec. 18, 1943, in Dartford, England, Richards became reacquainted with Mick Jagger, his former neighbor and classmate, at a train station in 1961. The duo would team up with Brian Jones to form the Rolling Stones the following year, adding Bill Wyman on bass and Charlie Watts on drums. Jones died shortly after he was fired from the group in 1969 and Watts passed away in 2021. Wyman left the band in early 1993.

Richards and Jagger have been the band’s songwriting duo, with the guitarist providing memorable solos on songs like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Paint It, Black,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Brown Sugar” and “Start Me Up.”

Author Philip Norman wrote in 2012 that Richards’ decades of drug abuse “have left him essentially unscathed, with a constitution rivaled only by Winston Churchill,” adding that his raspy voice and laugh “still sounds like a thousand unemptied ashtrays made audible.”

That voice. It has been part of Stones lore in several memorable songs. While Jagger has been the frontman for most of the band’s songs written by the duo, Richards has also taken some turns as the lead singer for the Stones.

Here are five Rolling Stones songs where Richards was the lead vocalist.

Happy (1972)

From the “Exile on Main St.” double album, this down-on-your-luck yet optimistic song features Richards on bass. The song was written and recorded in four hours in the basement of Nellcôte, the house in southern France where the Rolling Stones were recording the album, Rolling Stone reported.

“Well I never kept a dollar past sunset/It always burned a hole in my pants,” Richards sang.

The song peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the summer of 1972 and spent eight weeks on the charts. Richards said he enjoyed the spontaneity of the song.

“I love it when they drip off the end of the fingers,” Richards told Rolling Stone in a 2002 interview. “And I was pretty happy about it. Which is why it ended up being called ‘Happy.’”

Before They Make Me Run (1978)

From the “Some Girls” album. Richards references his drug case with Canadian authorities, when he was caught with heroin in 1977 and arrested for drug trafficking in Toronto. His plaintive lyrics cite “booze and pills and powders,” advising the listener that “you can choose your medicine.”

Then he adds that he was “gonna walk, before they make me run.”

“That song … was a cry from the heart,” Richards wrote in his 2010 book, “Life.”

All About You (1980)

The closing track from “Emotional Rescue” highlights the luster that was dimming between Richards and Jagger -- the Glimmer Twins -- as their relationship as bandmates was becoming fractured.

“If the show must go on/Let it go on without you,” Richards sings, adding that he was “so sick and tired hanging around with jerks like you.”

“I realized that Mick had quite enjoyed one side of my being a junkie -- the one that kept me from interfering in day-to-day business,” Richards said, according to Rolling Stone.

The ballad was bitter, soulful and a less volatile parallel to John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?” which was directed at Paul McCartney. But unlike Lennon, Richards was resigned to keeping the relationship alive.

“So how come I’m still in love with you?” Richards sings as the song ends.

You Got the Silver (1969)

A simple country blues song from the “Let It Bleed” album.

“You got my heart, you got my soul/You got the silver you got the gold,” Richards sings.

In his 2010 book, “Life,” Richards notes that while the song was not the first solo he recorded with the Rolling Stones, “it was one of the first ones I wrote entirely by myself.”

“I sang it solo simply because we had to spread the workload,” he added.

The Worst (1994)

From the “Voodoo Lounge” album, Richards warns people to stay away from him.

“Well I said from the first/I am the worst kind of guy for you to be around,” he sings in a gentle, mournful acoustic number, adding that “you shouldn’t stick with me, you trust me too much, you see.”

“It’s my riot act,” Richards told Rolling Stone in 2002. “The last time I said it was to my old lady, 20-odd years ago. I say out front, ‘Take it on or get out.’”

There are other songs where Richards sang lead, and any list is subjective. They include “Little T&A” from “Tattoo You,” “Thief in the Night” from “Bridges to Babylon” and “This Place is Empty” from “Bigger Bang.”

The Rolling Stones and Richards continue to produce music, releasing their latest album, “Hackney Diamonds,” in October.

“He’s given us decades of wonderful, creative music with an attitude and character which could only be Keith Richards,” Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page said in an interview published Sunday with Uncut. “Let’s hope he lives for another 80 years.”

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