As you may have heard, the Rolling Stones are about to release a new album — their first batch of new original material since 2005. And if you’ve always wanted to buy a Stones album with an MLB twist, have they got a deal for you!
Here’s the deal: If you want to own the new album on vinyl, you can order an LP with a cover design featuring your favorite team’s color scheme. Just $38 plus shipping and tax! The Mets version is shown above, but all 30 MLB teams are available. Here are a few more:
If you’re wondering why the band’s familiar lips/tongue logo looks so fragmented, it’s because the album is called Hackney Diamonds, which is UK slang for broken glass.
And if you’re wondering what the Stones have to do with MLB, well, you and me both. The promo text tries mightily to make the connection:
Celebrating Rolling Stones’ brand new album & historical legacy with Major League Baseball, this vinyl is a real catch & exclusive to RollingStones.com. Extremely limited, a true collectors’ item featuring custom art for each of the 30 MLB Clubs. First pitch worthy baseball white disc housed in pocket jackets.
Punctuating their illustrious touring career, Rolling Stones have performed in the home fields of some of MLB’s most legendary teams. In 1989 the Steel Wheels Tour came through North America playing half of the dates at homes, or previous homes, to Major League Baseball teams: Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, Toronto’s CNE Stadium and SkyDome, Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Busch Stadium in St. Louis, RFK Stadium in Washington DC, Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, New York’s Shea Stadium, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the Houston Astrodome, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis and Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Bridges To Babylon Tour in 1997 saw The Stones perform at Dodgers Stadium. A Bigger Bang tour led off in August 2005 with two shows at Boston’s Fenway Park.
Of course, the same could be said of countless other bands, but whatever. The reference to the vinyl being rendered in “baseball white” is a particularly Nike-worthy touch.
This isn’t the first time the Stones have attempted to tie a dubious promotional campaign to American sports. Does anyone truly believe Mick Jagger could even name, say, five MLB teams off the top of his head?
Just to clarify: The Rolling Stones are my favorite band, and baseball is my favorite sport, but this project is ridiculous. Even worse, it feels tossed-off and rote — product for product’s sake. Disappointing.
(My thanks to our own Jerry Wolper for letting me know about this one.)
How did I not know until today that the Stones are your favorite band?
I’ve mentioned it many times over the years, most recently two weeks ago in my latest Ask Me Anything segment: link
I have my question for the next AMA: which was the last RS good album?
Tattoo You, 1981.
As a creative/artistic force, they were highly relevant for about 20 years. They’ve now been creatively irrelevant for twice that long. They’re essentially an oldies act that every so often releases a vanity album. Or as David Remnick brilliantly put it, they’re “the world’s greatest Rolling Stones cover band.”
I should add here that there’s nothing wrong with being an oldies act, especially if you have a catalog as deep and top-notch as theirs. But they stopped being important artists a long time ago.
(Just to reiterate: They are my favorite band.)
I still enjoy hearing “Start Me Up” to this day. Black Limousine and Waiting on a Friend were also solid.
I would second what Paul said: Tattoo You is the last Stones album I think is particularly strong. Although I hate “Start Me Up”. Was ruined for me by MTV (Mick’s redonk prancing in the video) and it’s over use during football kickoffs. Awesome album cover though (Tattoo You that is, not the silly current MLB thing).
I think A Bigger Bang (2005) was a real good album and remember it being critically well received (I remember Christgau giving it an A or A-). Unfortunately it was ignored because it was released when the Stones were no longer relevant.
Xgau did indeed give it an A-.
I happen to feel differently about it. Two or three adequate songs, but not a good record overall.
I didn’t mind Steel Wheels, and considering the context under which it was made and released, it was OK. Not great and truly not of the level of their best work, but not bad. Maybe it was more personal – my uncle and I bonded over college football and the Stones, and this was the last album they released before he died. I was in high school by then; I was in preschool when Tattoo You came out, so this was one we could share. That said, objective critiques are understood.
Yeah, I had a second sentence that I was going to add to that comment but didn’t. “I probably knew it but I forgot.”
The Stones were my favorite band for quite a while….
saw them in New Orleans in Steel Wheels 89….their intro with Continental Drift was amazing….
Still one of their better songs…..
The Stones seem to be doing a lot of this type of marketing lately.
Their logo will feature in place of the Spotify logo on the front of Barcelona’s shirt for their match against Real Madrid on October 29th (I believe this was in a recent Ticker).
Makes me sad knowing Mick is an Arsenal supporter.
In what sense? The fact that he’s a Gooner? Or that he’s a Gooner and his band is being featured on a Barca shirt?
If it’s the second, I don’t see it – Barcelona and Arsenal have always had a fairly good relationship and admiration for each other.
Makes me love him more. #COYG
Perhaps their market research has revealed a significant overlap of MLB and Stones fans. If so, that probably says more about baseball than anything else.
^THIS. Old white guy band for an old white guy sport.
My first thought was it reminds me of all of the different team-specific versions of Talkin’ Baseball that are available. The singles just have stickers that say “For Yankees Fans,” “For Giants Fans,” etc.
As usual the MLB is catering to the young and hip crowd. /s
I’m sure are least a few people will “collect them all”
RE: the Stones being essentially a cover band
I always refer to Dead & Company as the world’s biggest cover band. I mean, they are LITERALLY a Grateful Dead cover band. And there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that. I still enjoy their shows immensely.
Long Live The Grateful Dead…and The Dead…
…and, at this point, for a lot of us, cover bands are the only way to hear live favorites…
B – }
Tom Bardy best QB of all time = Mick Jagger best lead singer of all time.
I know this is sarcasm, but you can make a lot better arguments for Brady being the GOAT QB than you can for Mick being the best lead singer of all time.
Not lead singer. Frontman. There’s a difference.
Yeah, I meant frontman.
“Custom art.” you mean taking the fill bucket and filling the logo with each team’s colors?
Though not their first MLB stadium gig, the Beatles at Shea has been considered a groundbreaking event for almost 60 years. Not once have I heard reference to the Beatles historical legacy with the Mets.
Glad to see its still called Shea Stadium…..
B -)
Only two of the ballparks listed were strictly for baseball. They could have done a tie-in with the NFL just as easily. 32 possible album covers instead of 30.
Plus, I know for sure that Mick wore an Eagles jersey during one show. Has he ever worn a baseball jersey?
Ha! Good point. And you could argue that many of the multipurpose stadia on that list were known more for football than for baseball (RFK & the LA Coliseum for sure but I’d say a case could be made for a few others as well).
Did a quick search and saw lots of photos of Mick in the Eagles jersey, and one in a knockoff version of your Bears.
No baseball, though.
The Brewers version appears to feature their 2000-19 color scheme.
“the album is called Hackney Diamonds, which is UK slang for broken glass”
Really? I’d never heard that phrase until this album was revealed. It might be slang in a very specific part of London but it’s certainly not common parlance in the rest of the country, nor Scotland, Wales or N.I.
Maybe in Hackney?
link
Jagger in an Oakland A’s jersey..
He’s known to be a cricket fan, so might have taken to baseball..
I’d be tempted to buy an album with a cricket theme.
Side one Track one: Bat out of hell
Wicket game
Something by the Detroit Spinners
She’s got legspin
Etc etc
Side Two
I Only Have Googly Eyes For You
Disco Duckworth-Lewis
I Want Your Six
Down On The Cow Corner
New Yorker New Yorker
Get the Oakland one quickly…before they officially become the Las Vegas A’s.
They did this for all the football stadiums they played back in 2019/2021, too – each city’s merch had a football jersey with the Stones logo in the team’s colors.
Did that press release actually say “Dodgers Stadium”?
Hey, there’s a lot of Dodgers in that Stadium, not just one…..( ; -)
Music criticism aside (and I do have my opinions), I’d like to call out what a success the lips and tongue logo is.
Simple yet distinctive – everyone knows it’s the Stones when they see it – and endlessly adaptable.
I’m partial to the Voodoo Lounge-era spiked tongue.
Can’t think of another act that has such an Icon as an identifying logo….
Classic, with twists over the years….love it…
I’d say Stealie is right up there
link
Aphex Twin absolutely gotta be up there, genuinely the first one that comes to mind personally.
It is only for the money. And for old white guys to collect. Hackney Diamonds is a cool title for an album by the Glimmer Twins.
Let’s see. The Rolling Stones are octogenarians. Octogenarians like baseball. IT WORKS!!!!!