The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses (video slideshow)

In the liner notes to the 1993 Rolling Stones collection Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones, Jagger states, "Everyone always says this was written about Marianne but I don't think it was; that was all well over by then. But I was definitely very inside this piece emotionally." Keith Richards wrote the melody and came up with the phrase "Wild Horses".

Originally recorded over a three day period at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama during 2--4 December 1969, the song was not released until over a year later due to legal wranglings with the band's former label.[citation needed] Along with "Brown Sugar", it is one of the two Rolling Stones compositions from Sticky Fingers over which Allen Klein co-owns the rights along with the Stones. It features session player Jim Dickinson on piano, Keith Richards on electric guitar, and Richards and Mick Taylor on acoustic guitars. Keith Richards uses Nashville Tuning, in which the EADG strings of the acoustic guitar are replaced by strings which are tuned one octave higher. Ian Stewart was present at the session, but refused to perform the piano part on the track due to the prevalence of minor chords, which he disliked playing.

In 2007, Mick Jagger's ex-wife, Jerry Hall, named "Wild Horses" as her favourite Rolling Stones song.