Between the Buttons

The sessions began in August 1966 at RCA Studios in Hollywood during the American tour, with David Hassinger engineering, and continued at IBC in London. Recording moved on 8 November to the newly opened Olympic Studios and to Pye Studios in London. The band worked on four-track machines, and Jagger felt that bouncing the tracks down for overdubs lost the sound of it. He called Back Street Girl about the only track he liked and told New Musical Express that the rest was more or less rubbish.

Jones played vibraphone, electric dulcimer, banjo, kazoo, theremin and saxophone. Ian Stewart, Jack Nitzsche and Nicky Hopkins played keyboards. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys visited RCA while My Obsession was being recorded.

Decca issued the British edition on 20 January 1967 and it reached number three. The single Let's Spend the Night Together with Ruby Tuesday came out separately in Britain. London released the American edition three days later with the two single sides added in place of Back Street Girl and Please Go Home, and it reached number two in the United States and went Gold. Ruby Tuesday reached number one there. Gered Mankowitz shot the cover on Primrose Hill at 5:30 in the morning after an all-night session, using a homemade filter of black card, glass and Vaseline. Charlie Watts drew the back-cover cartoon, and the title came from Jagger noticing the buttons on Watts' shirt.

Robert Christgau called it among the greatest rock albums and placed it in his Basic Record Library. Richie Unterberger of AllMusic called it one of the Stones' strongest, most eclectic LPs. Rolling Stone ranked the American version number 355 in 2003 and number 357 in 2012.