The Windows 95 «Start Me Up» Story
In my book, Strategy First, I tell a brief account of the Windows 95 «Start Me Up» story; how Microsoft came up with the idea and acquired the rights to the iconic Rolling Stones song for its Windows 95 TV commercials. I have been asked many times for the full behind the scenes story. Since 2020 is the 25th anniversary of Windows 95
(the launch was August 24th, 1995), I thought the time was right. Enjoy.
It was early spring in 1995 and the computer industry was already abuzz with electricity and expectation centered around Windows 95, a product that promised to transform the still nascent software industry and usher personal computers into the consumer mainstream.
As the leader of the Windows 95 marketing effort, I developed the “E” marketing strategy: Educate, Excite, and Engage. I talk about this more in my book Strategy First. The high-level goal? To make Windows 95 a consumer phenomenon.
One of the ways we wanted to achieve that goal was via TV advertising. Microsoft had never done a product-based television ad before, but we had a budget to do so for Windows 95. I had several team members who would work with our ad agency Wieden+Kennedy (WK) on the campaign, but it was my job to approve the initial concept that would guide the ad development. WK was well briefed, had a solid understanding of our goals, and was working hard. They had a lot of creative ideas, but nothing seemed to be exactly on point, and I rejected two or three of the first concepts they presented. To be fair, I was a demanding client, but the stakes were high enough to justify reaching for perfection. Windows 95 was a special launch and to help achieve our goals we needed a bold, on-strategy ad campaign.
Finally, WK presented the idea of a campaign based on the song “Start Me Up,» the popular single from the Rolling Stones I981 album Tattoo You. I fell in love with the idea immediately. The core idea behind the messaging for Windows 95 was that it would enable computer users to do new things and easily handle tasks that were previously difficult. Plus, we wanted to convey that new users would find computers much easier to use with Windows 95. The “Start Me Up” concept would address those issues by talking about how Windows 95 could help users start doing more, start discovering more, creating more, playing more, getting more work done, etc.
Plus the idea tied directly to the “Start Button,” an iconic centerpiece of the product design that customers would select everyday they used Windows 95. It was an on-strategy idea, creative, unique, and catchy. But then WK told me that they had been unsuccessful negotiating the rights for the song, so the campaign was a non-starter. The Stones wanted us to pay $10M to sponsor their next concert tour before they would consider giving us the rights to use the song. WK knew that number wasn’t feasible. A heated discussion ensued. I wanted to know why WK would present us a winning idea if that idea wasn’t possible to achieve. They told me that the reason they pitched it was to see if I would negotiate with them myself – they figured we had nothing to lose.
But there wasn’t much time. We had to start shooting the commercial to complete it in time for the August 24th launch. WK set me up with an entertainment broker, who set up a meeting in Amsterdam with key Stones personnel. Bill (Gates) and I met and agreed on what I could spend to try and get the deal done. Deep down, we knew our number was a fraction of what the Stones wanted, but that was not going to stop us from trying. The negotiator for the Rolling Stones was Michael Cohl, the promoter and organizer of their concerts. Normally, a deal like this would not go through a band’s concert promoter, but he was the contact that we had. It soon became apparent that he was part of the small group of band members and managers that made the important decisions. Needless to say, pulling off a deal with Microsoft would also help out Cohl. A groundbreaking deal with Microsoft would help the Stones secure additional deals to use their music in other commercials in the future.
Amsterdam
The Paradisio
The Stones were performing two “unplugged” concerts on May 26th and May 27th at the Paradiso in Amsterdam shown in the pictures here. Some of the tracks on the Fall ’95 Album Stripped came from those May shows. Keith Richards reportedly said those concerts were the best the Stones have done. I flew out to meet their team and discuss the deal on May 25th, but had to return on the 26th – my schedule was beyond packed during the frenzy of Windows 95. I don’t remember the hotel name, but it was an old elegant posh European hotel, and we sat in a big ornate conference room as we negotiated back and forth. Outside, Stones fans assembled hoping to catch a glimpse of the rock stars.
While I was by myself, Cohl had a litany of folks with him and we discussed the deal for hours, without making progress. The Stones wanted more money than I was willing to give as well as limitations on how long and in what way my team could use the music. Cohl asked me if I could stay the next day to discuss the deal more and attend the concert. Since my schedule wouldn’t allow me to stay the extra day, he instead invited me to the dress rehearsal that night. The dress rehearsal was fantastic. I was one of only two non-Stones personnel in the Paradiso. It felt like a private show just for me. They played a full concert for almost three hours. They were tight—it sounded fantastic. They would stop periodically to discuss something and joke around. I remember Jagger giving fellow bandmember Ron Wood a hard time about all the cigarettes he smoked, but mostly they talked about the music. It was very, very cool.
The interior of the Paradisio
At the end of the show, Cohl asked me if I wanted to meet the Stones. I thought about it for a brief moment and then politely declined. It had been such a perfect night—my own private Rolling Stones concert—and I didn’t want to ruin it. I’d met enough famous people during my time at Microsoft that I preferred to hold on to the perfection of the concert rather than risk tarnishing that. It is worth noting that I experience outrage from people about half the time when I tell them I could have met the Stones, while the other half think I was a genius to just end the night with the perfect concert. I’ll let you be the judge.
The pass I needed to get into the dress rehearsal
Back & Forth
Negotiations continued over the phone for a good month after I arrived back to the States. They asked for certain rights or limitations on how we could use the music, and I countered. They asked for millions more than my budget could afford, and I told them we weren’t even close and then offered something dramatically less that I thought was fair. I rolled the dice and gave my ad team permission to start moving forward with the commercial, assuming I could successfully complete the deal—though they were also working on a backup campaign, just in case. As time rolled on without success, my ad team was appropriately apoplectic, as we were already well beyond the time we should have had the music to complete the ad campaign in time. But some negotiations are a delicate dance, and this was definitely one of them. Finally, when I thought the timing was right, I told Cohl that this was my final offer. I gave them 24 hours to agree or I was going to go with our backup ads. Cohl knew about the time pressures surrounding the ads, so he accurately guessed that I wasn’t bluffing.
He called the next day to agree to my offer.
The Stones rushed the “Start Me Up” master recording to WK. The next day I got a frantic call from WK saying that the Stones had sent a later live version of “Start Me Up” that wouldn’t work well for the commercials. I called up Cohl and told him that I had to have the original version or there was no deal. After some wavering, the Stones agreed. I found out later that the reason they gave us the live version was that it was recorded after bassist Bill Wyman (he’s in the blue coat in the «Start Me Up» video) had left the band. Giving us the original version of “Start Me Up” meant that Wyman got his allocation of the deal and the 1995 band members: Jagger, Richards, Woods and drummer Charlie Watts would earn less.
I also later learned that Jagger and Richards did not always see eye to eye on the deal. Jagger was less inclined to commercialize their music. I was told he was especially ready to just forget the deal when we made it clear we needed the original version, but that he did not want to piss off Richards over it because Richards wanted or needed the money. So, Jagger agreed, even if he had reservations.
Prince Rupert
After the deal was done but before the launch, Prince Rupert Lowenstein III, the money manager for the band decided he should come out and visit Microsoft because he was an old school investment banker and knew next to nothing about technology, tech companies or Microsoft. Although Microsoft was frugal (I flew coach many times with Bill in the early days), Rupert requested we have a limo pick him up at the airport and bring him to the campus. So we did.
Prince Rupert was smart and funny. He came dressed impeccably in a baby blue three-piece suit. His nails were manicured. He talked with a strong, wonderfully British accent even once commenting that the Stones could be «naughty.» As his name implies, Prince Rupert was a descendant of royalty. I read on Wikipedia that his full name was Rupert Louis Ferdinand Frederick Constantine Lofredo Leopold Herbert Maximilian Hubert John Henry zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Count of Loewenstein-Scharffeneck and that his affectionate nickname was «Rupie the Groupie.» Prince Rupert explained that in the late 60s, he got a call from a friend saying that a musical group called the Rolling Stones were in a financial mess. Rupert was told the Stones were stuck in a bad deal with their then manager Allen Klein. They had tax problems, thought Klein was ripping them off, and more. His friend asked if Rupert would take them on as a client. As Rupert explained it, he asked his friend to hold for a moment, put his hand over the telephone handset microphone to mute the phone and yelled upstairs to his wife, “Honey, who the heck are the Rolling Stones? They want me to be their manager!” Rupert said that his wife immediately yelled back to him “Honey, take the job!” So he did, even though he liked classical music and had no idea who the Rolling Stones were.
“Honey, who the heck are the Rolling Stones? They want me to be their manager!”
The ad
Meanwhile, the team was frantically working on the ad. WK and the head of Windows 95 advertising Cynthia Krass were going from location to location shooting and editing. When they came to me to preview and get my approval for the final ad, I remember how impressed I was with their work. I gave them only one material comment and that was to change the end of the ad. It needed a compelling emotional ending that fit the aspirational nature of the ad. As a result, the little girl who turns to look at the camera was added. The team did a fantastic job. Ad evaluation is subjective of course but, even today, folks tell me the Start Me up ad is the best ad Microsoft has ever done and one of the best ads they have ever seen. I recall analytically that it scored extremely high on all of Microsoft’s ad tests.
What I can definitively say is that the ad was an immediate sensation. We debuted it at the launch event to thunderous applause – everyone loved it! After the premiere, everyone wanted to know about our relationship with the Stones, how the deal transpired, and what we paid.
The $12 Million
In fact, after it was announced that we did the deal with the Stones, The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper, published a story that Bill had called Mick and asked for the rights to the song. According to the rumor, Mick threw out a crazy high number – $12 million, figuring that Bill would say no but that Bill surprised Jagger and immediately agreed to his outlandish price. We all laughed hysterically when we heard this, as the real number was a fraction of The Sun’s speculation. In fact, when one reporter called us to get our comment our PR person couldn’t stop laughing. As I recall, the story quoted the Microsoft spokesperson as laughing uproariously when asked about the rumor. Though never confirmed, it was believed that some Stones personnel made up the story to help them with future negotiations with other vendors. The story is still quoted (often as “legend”) on the web to this day. Other stories said we paid as much as $14M. More recently some stories have quoted a former Microsoft COO, who was aware of the agreement but had no involvement with Windows 95 or the Rolling Stones deal, as saying the price was closer to $3M. Now, of course, I know what we paid and think it is much more fun to keep it a mystery…
Songfacts®:
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This feral rocker has a title that seems like it’s been around for a while, but wasn’t — at least in a song we’ve heard of. It’s not too specific, but we understand what Mick Jagger is getting at when he sings, «If you start me up I’ll never stop.» The song fits well within the boundaries of Rolling Stones songs with distinctive guitar riffs and sexually charged lyrics. Typical of Mick Jagger, the lyrics don’t always make sense, but sing really well:
Spread out the oil, the gasoline
I walk smooth, ride in a mean, mean machine -
«Start Me Up» dates back to 1977. The Stones first recorded it in Paris that year for the Some Girls sessions the same day they recorded «Miss You.» After the first two takes, they recorded it with a reggae beat a bunch of times, but didn’t like the result. They put it away until 1981, when they needed a song for the Tattoo You. They went back to the second take and reworked it for the album.
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This was (fittingly) the first single from Tattoo You, the album that brought the Rolling Stones into the MTV era, earning them a new wave of American fans in the process. They had been making videos since the ’60s, often with the film-maker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who returned to direct the Tattoo You videos. «Start Me Up» is just the band performing the song against a black background, but it had the good fortune of being released in August 1981 around the same time MTV launched. The network was thrilled to a have a well-shot video for a contemporary hit song song by a legendary rock band, and put it in hot rotation. It didn’t have a concept, but for the 12-year-olds glued to their TVs, it was their first time seeing Mick Jagger in action, and it was enough to keep them transfixed until the next video. Many of these kids grew up to be Rolling Stones fans like their parents.
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Keith Richards explained how this went from reggae song to rocker. «The story here is the miracle that we ever found that track,» he said. «I was convinced — and I think Mick was — that it was definitely a reggae song. And we did it in 38 takes — ‘Start me up. Yeah, man, cool. You know, you know, Jah Rastafari.’ And it didn’t make it. And somewhere in the middle of a break, just to break the tension, Charlie and I hit the rock and roll version. And right after that we went straight back to reggae. And we forgot totally about this one little burst in the middle, until about five years later when somebody sifted all the way through these reggae takes. After doing about 70 takes of ‘Start Me Up’ he found that one in the middle. It was just buried in there. Suddenly I had it. Nobody remembered cutting it. But we leapt on it again. We did a few overdubs on it, and it was like a gift, you know? One of the great luxuries of The Stones is we have an enormous, great big can of stuff. I mean what anybody hears is just the tip of an iceberg, you know. And down there is vaults of stuff. But you have to have the patience and the time to actually sift through it.»
>>Suggestion credit:
Bertrand — Paris, France -
In 1995, Microsoft used «Start Me Up» in commercials to launch their Windows ’95 operating system, which has a «Start» button on the main screen. Although it became common practice in years to come, this was one of the first times a hit song was used in a major marketing campaign, and it was the first TV ad for a Microsoft product.
The cost to use the song was reported as $10 million, but was later revealed to be $3 million.
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As he did with «Honky Tonk Women» and some other Stones songs, Keith Richards played this in open G tuning. The guitar tablature contains notation for just the top five strings.
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This became a staple at sporting events. It is usually played before some kind of action or the start of a game.
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The Stones used this to open their 1989 Steel Wheels tour.
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Ford used this in ads that started just after midnight on January 1, 2003. It was part of a campaign to reintroduce their cars to the American public, with commercials airing on sporting events as well as an episode of The Simpsons where Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were guest stars. This was the first time a Stones song was used in a car commercial.
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The Stones played this at halftime of the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit. Two years earlier, Janet Jackson had her famous «Wardrobe Malfunction» during her performance, so the NFL wasn’t taking any chances — they cut the volume on the line «You make a dead man come.»
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Chris Kimsey, who engineered the song, recalled in the book Classic Tracks: The Real Stories Behind 68 Seminal Recordings by Richard Buskin: «After they cut it, I said, ‘That’s bloody great! Come and listen.’ However, when I played it back Keith said, ‘Nah, it sounds like something I’ve heard on the radio. Wipe it.’ Of course, I didn’t, but he really did not like it and I’m not sure whether he likes it to this day. I don’t think it’s one of his favorite songs, although it’s obviously everyone’s favourite guitar riff; his guitar riff. Maybe because Keith loves reggae so much, he wanted it to be a reggae song, but that wasn’t to be.»
«Including run-throughs, ‘Start Me Up’ took about six hours to record,» Kimsey added. «You see, if they all played the right chords at the right time, went to the chorus at the right time and got to the middle eight together, that was a master. It was like, ‘Oh, wow!’ Don’t forget, they would never sit down and work out a song – they would jam it and the song would evolve out of that. That’s their magic.»
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Tattoo You was the eighth consecutive Rolling Stones album to hit #1 in America, but it was also their last. Their next album, Undercover, peaked at #3, ending their run of chart-toppers that stared with Sticky Fingers in 1971.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| «Start Me Up» | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by The Rolling Stones | |||
| from the album Tattoo You | |||
| B-side | «No Use in Crying» | ||
| Released | 14 August 1981 | ||
| Recorded |
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||
| Genre | Hard rock | ||
| Length | 3:34 | ||
| Label | Rolling Stones | ||
| Songwriter(s) | Jagger/Richards | ||
| Producer(s) | The Glimmer Twins | ||
| The Rolling Stones singles chronology | |||
|
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| Music video | |||
| «Start Me Up» on YouTube | |||
| Tattoo You track listing | |||
|
11 tracks
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«Start Me Up» is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album’s lead single, it reached number one on Australian Kent Music Report, number two in Canada, number two on the Billboard Hot 100, number seven on the UK Singles Chart, and the top ten in a handful of European countries north of the Alps.
Writing and recording[edit]
The basic track «Start Me Up» was recorded during the January and March 1978 sessions for the Rolling Stones’ album Some Girls.[1] The song began as a reggae-rock track named «Never Stop», but after dozens of takes it was abandoned. «Start Me Up» was not chosen for the album and was saved for later use. Richards commented:
It was one of those things we cut a lot of times; one of those cuts that you can play forever and ever in the studio. Twenty minutes go by and you’re still locked into those two chords … Sometimes you become conscious of the fact that, ‘Oh, it’s «Brown Sugar» again,’ so you begin to explore other rhythmic possibilities. It’s basically trial and error. As I said, that one was pretty locked into a reggae rhythm for quite a few weeks. We were cutting it for Emotional Rescue, but it was nowhere near coming through, and we put it aside and almost forgot about it.[2]
In 1981, with the band looking to tour, engineer Chris Kimsey proposed to lead singer Mick Jagger that archived songs could comprise the set. While searching through the vaults, Kimsey found the two takes of the song with a more rock vibe among some fifty reggae versions. Overdubs were completed on the track in early 1981 in New York City at the recording studios Electric Lady Studios and The Hit Factory.[1] On the band’s recording style for this track in particular, Kimsey commented in 2004:
Including run-throughs, ‘Start Me Up’ took about six hours to record. You see, if they all played the right chords in the right time, went to the chorus at the right time and got to the middle eight together, that was a master. It was like, ‘Oh, wow!’ Don’t forget, they would never sit down and work out a song. They would jam it and the song would evolve out of that. That’s their magic.[1]
The infectious «thump» to the song was achieved using mixer Bob Clearmountain’s famed «bathroom reverb», a process involving the recording of some of the song’s vocal and drum tracks with a miked speaker in the bathroom of the Power Station recording studio in New York City.[1] It was there where final touches were added to the song, including Jagger’s switch of the main lyrics from «start it up» to «start me up.»
The song opens with what has since become a trademark riff for Richards. It is this, coupled with Charlie Watts’ steady backbeat and Bill Wyman’s echoing bass, that comprises most of the song. Lead guitarist Ronnie Wood can clearly be heard playing a layered variation of Richards’ main riff (often live versions of the song are lengthened by giving Wood a solo near the middle of the song, pieces of which can be heard throughout the original recording). Throughout the song Jagger breaks in with a repeated bridge of «You make a grown man cry», followed by various pronouncements of his and his partner’s sexual nature.
Percussion (cowbell and guiro) by Mike Carabello and handclaps by Jagger, Chris Kimsey and Barry Sage were added during overdub sessions in April and June 1981.
Billboard said that «its catchy refrain easily worms its way into the memory.»[3]
A music video was produced for the single, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.[4] According to Lindsay-Hogg’s recollection, Jagger and Watts proposed the collaboration to him over lunch with Jagger particularly keen to emulate the style of video shown on MTV, which he regarded as «the future».[4] The subsequent production became one of the most programmed videos of MTV’s early years.[4]
Release[edit]
«Start Me Up» peaked at number seven on the UK Singles Charts in September 1981 and remains the last Rolling Stones song to appear in the UK top 10. In Australia, the song reached number one in November 1981. In the US, «Start Me Up» spent three weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in October and November 1981, the Stones’ biggest hit of the 1980s in the United States.[5]
It also spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard Top Tracks chart.[6] This set a record for most weeks at #1 that was not broken until 1994, when Stone Temple Pilots’ «Interstate Love Song» spent 15 weeks on top. The B-side is a slow blues number called «No Use in Crying», which is also included on Tattoo You.
«Start Me Up» is often used to open the Rolling Stones’ live shows and has been featured on the live albums Still Life (recorded 1981, released 1982), Flashpoint (recorded 1989, released 1991), Live Licks (recorded 2003, released 2004), Shine a Light (recorded 2006, released 2008), and Hyde Park Live (2013). It also features on several Stones live concert films and DVD/Blu-ray sets: Let’s Spend the Night Together (filmed 1981, released 1983), Stones at the Max (filmed 1990, released 1991), The Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge Live (filmed 1994, released 1995), Bridges to Babylon Tour ’97–98 (filmed 1997, released 1998), Four Flicks (2003), The Biggest Bang (filmed 2006, released 2007), Shine a Light (filmed 2006, released 2008), Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live (2013), and Havana Moon (2016, bonus track). The song was the first of three songs played by the Stones at halftime during Super Bowl XL in 2006.[4]
The song has been included on every major Stones compilation album since its release, including Rewind (1971–1984), Jump Back, Forty Licks and GRRR!. Writing for AllMusic, Stewart Mason noted, «there were hits after ‘Start Me Up,’ but at this remove, it’s undeniable that this 1981 single was the last great Rolling Stones song.»[7] Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the 8th Best Sports Anthem.[8]
Personnel[edit]
The Rolling Stones
- Mick Jagger – lead vocals, backing vocals
- Keith Richards – electric lead guitar, backing vocals
- Ronnie Wood – electric rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Bill Wyman – bass guitar
- Charlie Watts – drums
Additional personnel
- Michael Carabello – cowbell
- Barry Sage – handclaps
Charts[edit]
Certifications[edit]
Commercial usage[edit]
Microsoft paid about US$3 million to use this song in their Windows 95 marketing campaign.[28][29] This was the first time that the Rolling Stones allowed a company to use their songs in an advertising campaign.[30] In 2012, a remixed version of the song was used as the soundtrack to an Omega advertising campaign for their role as official timekeepers of the 2012 Summer Olympics.[31]
See also[edit]
- List of Billboard Mainstream Rock number-one songs of the 1980s
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e Buskin, Richard. «Classic Tracks: Start Me Up». Sound on Sound. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 13 December 2009.
- ^ «Start Me Up». Time Is on Our Side. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 13 December 2009.
- ^ «Top Single Picks». Billboard. 15 August 1981. p. 83. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
- ^ a b c d Fornatale, Pete; Corbett, Bernard M.; Fornatale, Peter Thomas (2013). 50 Licks: Myths and Stories from Half a Century of the Rolling Stones. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 201–202. ISBN 9781608199211.
- ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of #1 Hits, 5th Edition (Billboard Publications), pages 548–549.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 539.
- ^ Mason, Stewart. «Song Review: Start Me Up». AllMusic. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
- ^ «Music | New Music News, Reviews, Pictures, and Videos». Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, New South Wales: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ «The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up» (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up» (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «Top RPM Singles: Issue 0400.» RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
- ^ «The Irish Charts – Search Results – Start Me Up». Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
- ^ «Nederlandse Top 40 – week 38, 1981» (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
- ^ «The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up» (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up». Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up». VG-lista. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up». Singles Top 100. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up». Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «Rolling Stones: Artist Chart History». Official Charts Company. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «The Rolling Stones Chart History (Hot 100)». Billboard. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «Offiziellecharts.de – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up». GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ «National Top 100 Singles for 1981». Kent Music Report. 4 January 1982. p. 7. Retrieved 11 January 2022 – via Imgur.
- ^ «Jaaroverzichten 1981». Ultratop. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
- ^ «Jaaroverzichten – Single 1981». dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
- ^ «Italian single certifications – The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up» (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 4 January 2022. Select «2021» in the «Anno» drop-down menu. Select «Start Me Up» in the «Filtra» field. Select «Singoli» under «Sezione».
- ^ «British single certifications – Rolling Stones – Start Me Up». British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
- ^ McNamara, Paul (29 June 2011). «What Microsoft paid The Stones to help launch Windows 95». Network World. Archived from the original on 25 October 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
- ^ «Toronto’s Jingle King still crooning» Archived 5 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine Toronto Star, Christopher Reynolds 5 June 2016
- ^ «Rolling Stones Sell Microsoft Right To Use Song In Ads». The Seattle Times. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
- ^ «Rolling Stones Help Launch Omega Olympic Campaign with ‘Start Me Up’«. Rolling Stone. 31 May 2012. Archived from the original on 25 October 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.