{"id":549246,"date":"2025-11-04T21:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/549246\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T21:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:06:14","slug":"the-one-musician-keith-richards-had-to-take-my-hat-off-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/549246\/","title":{"rendered":"The one musician Keith Richards had to “take my hat off to”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Keith<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Tue 4 November 2025 19:32, UK <\/p>\n

Making a song that isn\u2019t worth covering sounds like a bizarre ambition, but it means you\u2019ve made your mark so well that no other artist\u2019s cover would be worth recording. That\u2019s the opinion of Keith Richards<\/a>, at least, the iconic guitarist behind some of The Rolling Stones\u2019 biggest hits.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t much left in the music world for Richards to dominate. One of the most beloved guitarists of his generation, through a mixture of hedonism and true riff mastery, Richards\u2019 position as the archetypal rocker is unshaken. He is, without doubt, the truest version of a rock star the world has ever known. But while his antics have made him a legend, it was his music that earned him a legacy. <\/p>\n

While he never seemed to pay much attention to the world, Richards is a student of music, especially rock and roll. He has immersed himself in all reaches of the culture and it has given him a pretty great understanding of what makes a tune truly perfect.<\/p>\n

And it was Elvis Presley\u2019s \u2018Heartbreak Hotel\u2019 <\/a>that taught him that the best songs are rarely covered. Outside of this revelation, Richards said the song was like nothing he\u2019d ever heard before and had a significant impact on his musicality.<\/p>\n

In Richards\u2019 2010 autobiography, Life, the guitarist touched on a lot of his artistic inspirations, which range from Duke Ellington to Billie Holiday. But Richards saved his most supreme praise for Elvis, whose sound was the \u201clast trigger\u201d for him, the first example of rock and roll at its finest he heard.<\/p>\n

\"Elvis<\/a>Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. (Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n

\u2018Heartbreak Hotel\u2019 was significant to Richards, who wrote extensively about its unique sonic quality as part of his autobiography. Released in 1956, the song was the first Elvis release when he signed with his new record label, RCA Victor. \u201cIt was a totally different way of delivering a song, a totally different sound, stripped down, burnt, no bullshit, no violins and ladies\u2019 choruses and schmaltz, totally different,\u201d the Stones guitarist wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was bare, right to the roots that you had a feeling were there but hadn\u2019t yet heard,\u201d Richards added. \u201cI\u2019ve got to take my hat off to Elvis for that.\u201d Richards was always a fan of Elvis\u2019 guitarist, Scotty Moore, but he didn;t often doff his cap to \u2018The King\u2019 like many of his contemporaries had.<\/p>\n

The sheer star power of the \u2018King of Rock n\u2019 Roll\u2019 also taught Richards to revel in the silence, which he described as an artist\u2019s \u201ccanvas\u201d and \u201cframe\u201d. He explained that it was what singers needed to work on and not try to deafen out the quiet moments on stage. \u201cThat\u2019s what \u2018Heartbreak Hotel\u2019 did to me. It was the first time I\u2019d heard something so stark. Then I had to go back to what this cat had done before,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Comparing the Stones\u2019 work with that of Elvis, Richards believed people didn\u2019t cover \u2018Heartbreak Hotel\u2019 or his band\u2019s output because the originals were the supreme versions, not to be improved or reinvented, which is not to say musicians haven\u2019t tried<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Keith Richards on Keith Richards: Interviews & Encounters, he explained: \u201cPeople haven\u2019t covered our songs too much, but I take that as a compliment,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t really hear versions of \u2018Heartbreak Hotel\u2019 either. What it means is that your version is pretty much seen as the ultimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as ultimates go, it\u2019s hard to argue \u2018Heartbreak Hotel\u2019 was anything but, sailing to number one on the Billboard Top 100 for a staggering eight weeks. When it was later included on The Essential Elvis Presley compilation album, the song then spent another 90 weeks on the charts, making it a rock and roll mainstay, as well as a lifelong favourite of Richards.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Tue 4 November 2025 19:32, UK Making a song that isn\u2019t worth covering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[34221,77,31828,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-549246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-elvis-presley","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-keith-richards","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115493469752917222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}