Fifty-Nine Years On, Between the Buttons Still Sounds Like the Stones Between Two Identities

The Rolling Stones made Between the Buttons in 1967, and it plays like a band reaching for something new without quite knowing what it wants to be. The record sits between rock and pop, between the raw energy of their early work and the polished sound they would later master. It is not a great record, but it is a curious one, full of ideas that mostly land somewhere between interesting and unfinished.

Opening With Ruby Tuesday

The record opens with Ruby Tuesday, a slow, sad melody that still sounds fresh today. It is the strongest song here, and it earns its place easily. The song sets a tone the rest of the record can never fully match.

The Middle Stretch

1. Yesterday’s Papers and Connection follow quickly, both small songs that pass without much trouble.
2. She Smiled Sweetly is a strange, uneasy track that lingers, built on a repeated line that never quite resolves itself.
3. Cool, Calm & Collected and All Sold Out form the album’s middle stretch. Neither reaches the level of the opening track, but neither drags either.

The Back Half Picks Up

Esta noche juntos, My Obsession, and Who’s Been Sleeping Here? make up the back half’s best moments. My Obsession is the standout of the three, a driving track that finally gives the record some force after several weaker songs.

Closing With Something Happened to Me Yesterday

Complicated and Miss Amanda Jones return to the gentle, mid-tempo sound that defines the record’s middle stretch. They are pleasant enough, but forgettable next to the stronger tracks around them.

Something Happened to Me Yesterday closes the record on a high note, a track that builds to a satisfying finish after an uneven run of songs.

What Works and What Doesn’t

The record’s strengths are clear:

• Ruby Tuesday — the best song here, a melody that holds up decades later.
• My Obsession — the strongest track in the back half, with real force behind it.
• Something Happened to Me Yesterday — a strong closer that gives the album a fitting finish.

Its weaknesses come from the middle stretch, where Yesterday’s Papers, Cool, Calm & Collected, and All Sold Out feel like filler rather than songs worth remembering.

The Verdict

Between the Buttons is not a classic, but it is not a failure either. It is a record caught between two identities, trying to be both a pop album and a rock album at once. The best songs — Ruby Tuesday, My Obsession, Something Happened to Me Yesterday — are strong enough to carry the whole thing, while the rest simply fill space between them. It is a minor work from a major band, and worth hearing for those three tracks alone.

1960s music · album review · Between the Buttons · classic rock · Rolling Stones