No. 1: ‘Gimme Shelter’ – Top 100 Rolling Stones Songs

The Rolling Stones lost a lot of their youthful frivolity as their career progressed. Look no further than 1969's 'Let It Bleed' and one of its most notable songs, 'Gimme Shelter.'

“That's a kind of end-of-the-world song, really,” Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone in 1995. “It's apocalypse; the whole record's like that.”

Keith Richards' coiled rhythm guitar and almost feral wordless vocals start the song -- an uneasy atmosphere replicated later on by powerful guest vocalist Merry Clayton, who belts out bluesy vocal countermelodies alongside Jagger.