The bad boys of rock and roll are back with their fifth number one. The last time we saw them was in February 1967 with “Ruby Tuesday.” Between that time and now, Brian Jones had become more and more unreliable. It is said that he was heavy into drugs and alcohol and, finally on June 9, 1969, Jones left the band for good. He was replaced by Mick Taylor, who had played for John Mayall’s Bluesbusters.

It was a real shame that Brian was forced out the band, after all he was the main guy who formed the band in the first place. Just about a month after leaving the Stones, Brian Jones was found at the bottom of his swimming pool. They dragged his body out of the pool and his girlfriend insisted he was alive when they took him out of the water, but by the time the doctor arrived to check on him, he had died. This was July 3, 1969.

“Honky Tonk Women” was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards while they were on holiday in Brazil and a “honky tonk woman” is meant to be a prostitute who works as a dancing girl at a western bar. The version that made it to number one in the U.S. and in Great Britain did not immediately appear on any album. A “country” version of the song, which is the same song with different instruments was called “Country Honk” (actually the original name of the song) and appears on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. It’s likely that Brian Jones did play on this recording, although it’s pretty certain that this was his last recording with the Stones.

The day after Let It Bleed was released in the United States, the Stones came to America for the first time in three years to play Madison Square Garden. Their opening acts were B.B. King and Ike and Tina Turner. The cost of the tickets was from $4.50 to $7.50 per ticket and New York thought those were outrageous prices. They should see what it would cost today. To appease their critics, they decided to put on a free concert in San Francisco at the Altamont Raceway. Santana, Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were on the bill with the Stones. Everything would have gone smoothly, but someone hired the Hell’s Angels as security people and they proceeded to start fights with some of the attendees. One of the spectator’s, named Meredith Hunter was killed by the Angel’s when he started waving a knife around. So, this “free concert” did not help the reputation of the Rolling Stones.

The single was released in Great Britain on the day after the death of Brian Jones and spent seventeen weeks on the U.K. chart, peaking at number one over there also.

“Honky Tonk Women” debuted on the U.S. pop charts on July 26, 1969 and spent four weeks at number one.