Top 10 Keith Richards Solo Songs

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Keith Richards has spent more than six decades writing and recording with the Rolling Stones, but his solo albums reveal what happens when his voice, guitar, and rhythmic instincts move to the center of the picture. This list focuses entirely on songs released through Richards’ solo studio catalog. It does not include the tracks he sang on Rolling Stones albums.

Richards released his first solo album, Talk Is Cheap, in 1988, followed by Main Offender in 1992 and Crosseyed Heart in 2015. Those records allowed him to work extensively with drummer, producer, and songwriting partner Steve Jordan while building the X-Pensive Winos around musicians including Waddy Wachtel, Ivan Neville, Charley Drayton, Sarah Dash, Bobby Keys, Bernard Fowler, and Babi Floyd.

His work outside the Rolling Stones reaches far beyond those three studio albums. Richards has appeared on recordings by Billy Preston, the Faces, Ronnie Wood, Tom Waits, Aretha Franklin, Sheryl Crow, and Bo Diddley. His work as musical director for Chuck Berry’s concert film Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll also produced some of the most memorable musician-to-musician tension ever captured in a rock documentary.

These ten songs demonstrate that Richards’ solo work is more than an extension of the Rolling Stones. The records carry his familiar guitar language, but they also give more room to his soul singing, reggae instincts, blues roots, and love of leaving space inside a groove.

# 10 – Heartstopper

We open our Top 10 Keith Richards songs list with “Heartstopper,” one of the strongest rockers on Crosseyed Heart. The song arrives on a compact guitar figure and a loose but forceful rhythm, with Richards sounding amused, irritated, and completely at home inside the groove.

The performance captures the relaxed chemistry Richards developed with Steve Jordan and the X-Pensive Winos. Nothing is overcrowded. The guitars snap against the drums, the chorus lands without unnecessary polish, and Richards delivers the vocal with the weathered authority that makes his solo records so distinctive.

# 9 – My Babe

Keith Richards exposes every bit of his blues and soul heart on Willie Dixon’s “My Babe,” a song famously associated with Little Walter. Richards’ interpretation was released as a bonus track on the expanded 2019 edition of Talk Is Cheap.

The old blues principle that less is more drives the arrangement. Piano, brushed drums, and Richards’ wonderfully worn vocal carry the song without decoration. It feels less like a revival exercise than a musician returning to one of the foundations of his entire musical life.

# 8 – You Don’t Move Me

“You Don’t Move Me” appeared on Talk Is Cheap and was written by Keith Richards and Steve Jordan. Its hard, loping groove demonstrates why Jordan became such an essential collaborator throughout Richards’ solo career.

The lyric is pointed enough to invite speculation about its target, but the record works because Richards never lets bitterness overwhelm the rhythm. His vocal sits deep inside the guitars and drums, turning dismissal into something cool, controlled, and highly danceable.

# 7 – How I Wish

Roll down the window and turn it up. That is how “How I Wish” should be heard. Released on Keith Richards’ debut solo album, Talk Is Cheap, the song opened the second side of the original record.

The guitar pattern has the rolling motion of a highway song, but the tenderness in Richards’ vocal gives it emotional weight. The X-Pensive Winos never force the arrangement. They simply settle into the riff and allow the song to move with the natural swing that defines their best work.

# 6 – Big Enough

“Big Enough” opens Talk Is Cheap with a deep funk groove that recalls “Hot Stuff” from the underrated Rolling Stones album Black and Blue. Richards and Steve Jordan wrote the song, which announces immediately that his solo debut would not be limited to familiar Stones-style rock and roll.

The introduction is the key. Richards’ guitar sounds clipped, metallic, and strangely elastic as the rhythm section locks into place around it. The track leaves large pockets of air between the instruments, allowing every bass note, drum hit, and guitar stab to carry maximum weight.

Talk Is Cheap

# 5 – Eileen

“Eileen” has always stood among the most irresistible songs on Keith Richards’ second solo album, Main Offender. Richards and Steve Jordan wrote the track, and the X-Pensive Winos attack it with a sharp, churning groove.

Steve Jordan’s high, cracking snare sound drives the performance from the opening beat, while the guitars answer each other in short bursts. The song is direct, catchy, and tough enough to sound like it could have fit comfortably on a Rolling Stones album.

# 4 – Trouble

“Trouble” served as the first single from Crosseyed Heart. Written by Keith Richards and Steve Jordan, it opens with the kind of rhythm-guitar figure that Richards can make sound both ancient and completely fresh.

The song cooks without ever appearing to hurry. Richards’ guitar solo arrives early, says exactly what it needs to say, and slips back into the groove. It is the sound of a musician returning to solo work after more than two decades without trying to imitate his younger self.

# 3 – Take It So Hard

“Take It So Hard” remains the defining Keith Richards solo single. Released as the first single from Talk Is Cheap, the Richards-Jordan composition reached the upper levels of American rock radio in 1988.

The recording features Waddy Wachtel on guitar, Steve Jordan on bass and backing vocals, Charley Drayton on drums, and Ivan Neville on keyboards. The guitars push and pull against the rhythm while Richards sings with a combination of defiance and vulnerability. It is hard rock built on feel rather than volume alone.

# 2 – Wicked as It Seems

Along with “Take It So Hard,” “Wicked as It Seems” became one of the signature songs of Keith Richards’ solo career. Released on Main Offender, it was written by Richards, Steve Jordan, and Charley Drayton.

The riff is pure Keith: economical, threatening, and rhythmically slippery. Instead of sitting on top of the beat, the guitars seem to lean around it. The X-Pensive Winos give the song the loose precision of a great bar band operating at arena volume, and Richards delivers one of his strongest solo vocals.

# 1 – Hate It When You Leave

“Hate It When You Leave” explains why listeners connect so deeply with Keith Richards. He sings without protective distance. Every rough edge in his voice serves the melody, and every pause makes the feeling more direct.

Released on Main Offender, the song moves away from the guitar attack associated with Richards and embraces the sound of classic soul. The arrangement is warm and spacious, with a tender melody that exposes the emotional center beneath his rock-and-roll image.

Richards sounds completely sincere because he never oversells the performance. He lets the song carry the pain. That combination of restraint, vulnerability, melody, and groove makes “Hate It When You Leave” the finest song in his solo catalog.