The Rolling Stones bring us today’s classic song of the day, “She’s a Rainbow.” Released in November of 1967, this psychedelic track peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“She’s a Rainbow,” written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, is somewhat atypical for a Stones song in that it’s more of a gentle ballad than a hard rocker. In fact, the arrangement, by future Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones (at the time an in-demand session musician), has very strong flavors of Baroque pop, complete with string orchestra, Mellotron (provided by Brian Jones), celesta and harpsichord (by Nicky Hopkins), and backing chorus.
It’s thought that “She’s a Rainbow” was inspired by the song “She Comes in Colors” by the American group Love, which came out about a year earlier. That might be deduced from the opening line of “She’s a Rainbow,” which goes like this:
She comes in colours ev’rywhere
She combs her hair
She’s like a rainbow
Coming, colours in the air
Oh, everywhere
She comes in colours
“She’s a Rainbow” is indeed a trippy little tune. It doesn’t sound like anything else the Stones were doing at the time but felt completely at home with (and perhaps inspired by) the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, both released during that same time period. It’s one of their unlikeliest tunes, but one of their most lasting.
