Tumbling Dice - Cover Versions

Cover Versions

Linda Ronstadt had a top 40 hit with "Tumbling Dice" in 1977. In an interview with Hit Parader magazine, Ronstadt said that her band played "Tumbling Dice" for soundchecks, but nobody knew the words. Jagger suggested that Ronstadt should sing more rock songs and suggested "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt made him write down the lyrics.

In 2001, Hilary Rosen, representing the RIAA, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and listed a number of songs that would be in danger of censorship. Among those were Ronstadt's "Tumbling Dice", which Rosen (probably confusing it with "Midnight Rambler") said was "a song about rape written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards."

The band Pussy Galore covered all of the album Exile on Main St. on their album Exile on Main Street. Johnny Copeland recorded a cover version for Rolling Stones tribute album Paint it, Blue: Songs of the Rolling Stones. For Copeland, who died of complications from heart surgery, it would be the last song he would ever record.

The neo-nazi UK punk rock band Skrewdriver began their career during the 1970s as a Rolling Stones covers band called Tumbling Dice.

American punk rock band The Gaslight Anthem released it as a single in November 2010.

Other cover versions include:

• Phish performed this song as part of their Halloween show in 2009 when they covered the entire Exile on Main Street album.
• Keith Urban performed a version on The Jimmy Fallon Show (May 2010).
• Andrea Re recorded a version for Exile on Blues Street, an album of ten songs from Exile on Main St. redone by musicians.
• Legendary Bluegrass band Honeywell recorded a version for Paint It Blue: A Bluegrass Tribute to the Rolling Stones.
• Reggae version by Owen Gray did a version of it for a 1972 single.
• The band God Mountain recorded a version of it for an album of Stones covers called As Tears Go By.
• Barry Goldberg would record a version on Stoned Again.
• Molly Hatchet would record a version on Kingdom of XII.
• Jill Johnson and Kim Carnes recorded this song as a duet, which is on the 2007 Jill Johnson album Music Row.
• Bon Jovi have covered it live. A live version appears on the special edition version of their album These Days.
• The Gaslight Anthem covered this song on a limited edition 7" released in 2010.