The Rolling Stones dragged themselves off the mid-seventies canvas with their sharpest collection since Exile, answering punk's snarl with a lean, hungry sound that proved the geezers still had teeth. Miss You rode disco's groove to number one while Respectable spat venom at three-chord velocity.

Recorded in Paris as New York crumbled around their lyrical imagination, Some Girls balanced country weepers, raw rock, and rhythm experiments without losing coherence. Jagger and Richards rediscovered the ragged urgency that made them dangerous, creating their biggest-selling American album and silencing doubters who'd written their obituary.