Readers' Poll: The Rolling Stones' 10 Greatest Songs

The Rolling Stones stopped by Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama during downtime from their 1969 American tour. They didn't have a recording permit for America at the time, so the sessions became an extremely hush-hush affair. In just three days, the group banged out "Brown Sugar," "You Gotta Move" and "Wild Horses." They had to sit on the latter song for almost two years because of a legal battle with their former manager, Allen Klein.

The ballad reached Number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been in regular rotation on classic rock radio ever since. "It’s an example of a pop song taking this cliché 'wild horses,' which is awful, really," Jagger told Rolling Stone in 1995, "but making it work without sounding like a cliché when you’re doing it."