1968 Rock Classic, That Changed This Band's Image, Ranked Among 'Best Rock Songs of All Time'
By 1968, The Rolling Stones had released some of rock music's biggest hits like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Paint It Black," and "Ruby Tuesday." That year, the band released a controversial track that didn't top the charts, but was cemented as one of the best rock songs in history.
The band's 1968 album Beggars Banquet opened up with the track "Sympathy for the Devil," which was included in UltimateClassicRock's list of the Best Rock Songs of All Time. It's also been included in Rolling Stone's Greatest Song of All Time list. Credited with its creation to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the track landed at No. 98 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and wasn't considered a commercial success.
Instead, the track is known for having changed audiences' perception of the band due to its lyrics and inspiration. Jagger sings the song in a first-person narrative as the Devil, who chastises humanity for a series of historical atrocities. The lyrics imply that they must bow down to him for their complicity in the killings and crimes.
According to Medium, Jagger got his inspiration from French writer Charles Baudelaire and Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov's novelThe Master And The Margarita. The book was a gift from his then-girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull. The track's lyrics also referenced major events like the Hundred Years' War, the Russian Revolution, the execution of the Romanov family, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The line referencing Kennedy was altered after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy to include both deaths.
Related: 1966 Rock Classic, Banned by Radio Stations, Helped Define a Generation of Music
The release of "Sympathy for the Devil" changed the audience's perspective of the band, with whispers of satanism becoming more prevalent. Jagger once told Creem magazine that he found it "really odd" when people started tagging the band as devil worshippers, seeing as it was only one song. He added that people's embrace of the occult "carried all the way over into heavy metal bands today."
"Before, we were just innocent kids out for a good time, they're saying, ‘They're evil, they're evil.' Oh, I'm evil, really? So that makes you start thinking about evil… What is evil? Half of it, I don't know how much people think of Mick as the devil or as just a good rock performer or what? There are black magicians who think we are acting as unknown agents of Lucifer and others who think we are Lucifer. Everybody's Lucifer," said Jagger to Rolling Stone.
The creation of the track was recorded as an avant-garde film in 1968, and later covered by Guns N' Roses in 1994.
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This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 11:23 AM.