Why were Mick Jagger and Keith Richards called The Glimmer Twins?
Look at the credits on the majority of the hits by The Rolling Stones, and a name will appear: ‘The Glimmer Twins’. This mysterious moniker appears as the producer across all of the band’s records since the early 1970s.
Who are the Glimmer Twins? Well, of course, the answer is Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
When The Rolling Stones first started out, it took them a minute to settle into themselves. It took a while for Jagger and Richards to start writing their own songs, with John Lennon once trying to take credit for their songwriting as the Stones watched Lennon and McCartney write them a tune during a night out. But whatever the prompt was, the two friends quickly became one of rock and roll’s most prolific and successful writing teams.
Together, they wrote all of the band’s biggest hits. But once they’d mastered songwriting, they wanted to learn the full art of songcraft. They wanted to be able to fully take control of their music, extending that to the control room and the sound desk, too. Previously, they’d always had to leave that in the hands of a capable producer. At the start, that was Andrew Loog Oldham or Jimmy Miller as two trusted and regular collaborators. But from 1974, Jagger and Richards took control of production, too.
The Stones’ first attempt at production was actually in 1967 on Their Satanic Majesties Request. As the band were experimenting with more psychedelic sounds, attempting to follow The Beatles and create their own Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band-type trip, they didn’t want any outsiders disturbing their vision. But really, it wasn’t until 1974’s It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll that the duo finally came into their own as producers and proved how capable they were are controlling.
When The Glimmer Twins’ first production credit was released with the album, Jagger and Richards’ dictatorship over the Stones was complete, as they could now write, perform, and produce their songs. But where did the nickname come from?
So, why ‘The Glimmer Twins’?
To celebrate the start of 1969, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and their then-girlfriends Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg went on holiday. They embarked on a cruise to Brazil between December 1968 and January 1969. As is always the case, the ship was packed with old folks looking for some adventure, so these elaborately dressed rockstars stood out like a sore thumb.
No one could ever look at Jagger and Richards or Faithfull and Pallenberg and mistake them for regular folk. So an old couple on the boat set about discovering who on earth these people were. When they refused to let on, an old woman asked for a hint, reportedly saying, “Just give us a glimmer”.
The whole story amused Jagger and Richards who borrowed the word for their own nickname. When it came to needing a neater production title for their record, they decided to adopt the pseudonym rather than just using their own names.
But it’s a perfect fit. Jagger and Richards really grew up together, meeting first when they were only little kids and then reuniting later on and developing their talents together. They’ve spent their careers fighting like siblings where any level of bitterness is overpowered by an unfaltering love. They’re clearly two sides of the same musical coin and two peas in a pod, so they may as well be twins.
