The Rolling Stones release new gospel-inspired song with Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder: Listen
The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder teamed up for a new gospel-inspired track called "Sweet Sounds Of Heaven."
The British band dropped the song, the second release off of its upcoming album "Hackney Diamonds," on YouTube Thursday. In the song, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Steve Jordan are joined by Wonder on piano as Lady Gaga's vocals are introduced in the second verse.
"Hackney Diamonds," out Oct. 20, marks the Stones' first album of original material in 18 years, since 2005's "A Bigger Bang." The record is also the Stones' first since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021.
Lady Gaga 'freestyled and sang along' on 'Sweet Sounds Of Heaven'
The collaboration between Lady Gaga and the Stones was a happy accident.
Gaga was in the same building working on the upcoming movie "Joker: Folie à Deux" when she was told "Mick wants to see you," the star wrote in an Instagram post Thursday.
"I only know one Mick, so I walked down to a studio at the other end of the hall and opened the door. It was a portal to the 70's," she wrote. "I saw Mick, Keith, Ronnie. Stevie Wonder was there along with all the musicians they were collaborating with. Steve Jordan on the drums. Family & friends hanging out listening on big speakers while Andrew Watt smiled marveling at their unreleased album."
They were listening to music and catching up when Jagger asked if she would hang out while they recorded more music, and eventually someone handed her a microphone.
"Mick was towering over me smiling saying 'go on and do your thing then.' I listened to the music and scribbled furiously trying to learn the tune and then freestyled and sang along..trying not to step on everyone’s toes cuz Andrew had the whole room mic’d the way they did back in the day, and I didn’t want my vocals to bleed into any of the magic they’d been making," Gaga recalled.
They played for a few hours, but she was "not thinking much of it" until she learned the next day that Jagger wanted to "cut the vocals WITH me that night-the way he’d cut them back in the day."
"Same room, two mics. Single takes. I thought about Mary Clayton…Gimme Shelter…gospel and soul. I thought about my favorite old Stones tunes and all the great vocalists who had sung with Mick, making what we know now as a sound' unique to a band that defined a huge piece of rock’n’roll," Gaga said.
She concluded her post, "I sang in a way I never really sang before except for with Mick. And Andrew and I both cried-there’s something about witnessing music history and when you get to be a part of it I think that’s exactly what our heaven feels like. It’s just a sweet sound."
Mick Jagger says 'Hackney Diamonds' is a mix of love songs, ballads, classic rock
During the band's album announcement party earlier this month in London, Jagger explained how the project came together.
"We were a bit too lazy and then suddenly we said, 'Let's make a record and make a deadline,'" Jagger said. They jumped into the studio in December and cut 23 tracks, rounding out the album in February. The band collaborated on the final product across Jamaica, Los Angeles and New York.
For fans of classics like "Paint It, Black" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," the new songs can be described as an "eclectic" mix of love songs, ballads, classic rock and a little "anger," Jagger said.
The first song off "Hackney Diamonds" that the Stones revealed was "Angry," whose music video starred "Euphoria" actress Sydney Sweeney.
The video features Sweeney rocking a black leather bustier in a red Mercedes convertible as she rides past billboards of the band over the years. The video acts as a timeline, leading fans through iconic moments in Stones' history. And for fans who want some classic Stones music, they won't be disappointed by the single's classic guitar riffs and catchy vocals.
"This is the biggest thing ever," Sweeney said during the London album party, adding she "loves" the song, which has been "stuck in her head."
Inside the action: What it was like at the Rolling Stones' album party with Jimmy Fallon, Sydney Sweeney
Contributing: Maria Sherman, The Associated Press; Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rolling Stones drop 'Sweet Sounds of Heaven' with Gaga, Stevie Wonder