Sticky Fingers announced the Stones as masters of their own domain, literally and figuratively, christening their label with an album that distilled a decade's debauchery into perfect three-minute visions. From the plantation sleaze of Brown Sugar to the opiated country of Wild Horses, Mick Taylor's fluid leads and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section gave the band's blues a new elegance.

Warhol's zipper cover proved the perfect provocation for an album where sex, drugs and mortality finally coalesced into grown-up rock and roll. Peak Stones, unquestionably.