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Mother's Little Helper

This article is about the song by the Rolling Stones. For other uses, see Mother's Little Helpers.

"Mother's Little Helper"
US picture sleeve
Single by the Rolling Stones
B-side"Lady Jane"
Released
  • 2 July 1966 (1966-07-02)
RecordedEarly December 1965
StudioRCA, Hollywood
Genre
Length2:45
Label
Songwriter(s)Jagger–Richard
Producer(s)Andrew Loog Oldham
The Rolling Stones US singles chronology
"Paint It Black"
(1966) 		"Mother's Little Helper"
(1966) 		"Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?"
(1966)
Official lyric video
"Mother's Little Helper" on YouTube

"Mother's Little Helper" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. A product of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' songwriting partnership, it is a folk rock song with Eastern influences. Its lyrics deal with the popularity of prescribed tranquilisers like Valium among housewives and the potential hazards of overdose or addiction. Recorded in December 1965, it was first released in the United Kingdom as the opening track of the band's April 1966 album, Aftermath. In the United States, it was omitted from the album and instead issued as a single in July 1966 during the band's fifth American tour. The Rolling Stones' twelfth US single, "Mother's Little Helper" spent nine weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 8, and it reached No. 4 on both Record World and Cash Box's charts.

Though American fans generally found "Mother's Little Helper" lacking when compared to the band's previous singles, contemporary reviewers described the song in favourable terms. The first pop song to address middle-class drug dependency, it helped to establish the band's reputation for cultural subversion. Retrospective commentators have described it as an early example of the Rolling Stones' developing sound and suggestive of Jagger's later songwriting. They have often compared the song's sound and lyrics to the contemporary work of Ray Davies, especially the Kinks' 1965 song "A Well Respected Man", and have typically interpreted its lyrics as either admonishing the older generation for their hypocrisy in critiquing recreational drug use, or as a social commentary on housewives who found their lives unfulfilling.

  1. ^ Luhrssen & Larson 2017, p. 305; Margotin & Guesdon 2016, p. 142; Davis 2001, p. 150.
  2. ^ Unterbeger, Richie. "The Rolling Stones – Mother's Little Helper". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  3. ^ Covach 2019, p. 12.
  4. ^ Malvinni 2016, pp. 46, 49.
  5. ^ Segretto, Mike (2022). "1966". 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute - A Critical Trip Through the Rock LP Era, 1955–1999. Backbeat. pp. 104–105. ISBN 9781493064601.

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