Mick Jagger Pulls Apart the Groove Behind “Mr. Charm”
Image: Mick Jagger / Variety / YouTube
Living legend and eternal music man Mick Jagger is at it again. More than six decades into his career with The Rolling Stones, he sits down with producer Andrew Watt to pull apart the band’s sly, groove-heavy track “Mr. Charm” for Variety’s Behind the Song.
The song appears as the fourth track on the Stones’ 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, released July 10, 2026 through Polydor/Universal. Watt produced the record after previously steering the band’s 2023 comeback album, Hackney Diamonds.
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Jagger explains that “Mr. Charm” depends on the groove landing exactly right. His vocal sits somewhere between singing and a clipped, semi-rapped delivery, meaning every phrase has to lock into the hi-hat pattern rather than simply float above the track.
That rhythmic precision becomes even clearer as Jagger and Watt isolate pieces of the recording. The breakdown lets listeners hear how the song was assembled layer by layer, including the guitars, bass movement, percussion and Jagger’s vocal phrasing before everything snaps back together into one deceptively loose-sounding Stones performance.
Image: Mick Jagger / Variety / YouTube
The track’s words play with wealth, charm, aging and modern billionaire culture, but Jagger has pushed back on reducing it to one simple target. The joke is broader and more slippery: a self-styled charmer offering glamour, travel and luxury while quietly admitting that staying home with cocktails might be the better proposition.
Foreign Tongues was recorded in under a month at Metropolis Studios in West London, with Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood reuniting with Watt during another unusually productive stretch. That speed is part of what makes this footage so fascinating—the song sounds casual, but its looseness is the result of very deliberate decisions.
Inside Mick Jagger and Andrew Watt’s “Mr. Charm” Session
See Mick Jagger and Andrew Watt examine the vocals, guitars, rhythm and studio layers behind the Rolling Stones track.
Mick Jagger and Andrew Watt isolate the musical parts that shape “Mr. Charm.”
Images: Mick Jagger / Variety / YouTube
Dig out this magnificent footage of the OG music man doing what he has always done best: listening closely, chasing the right feel and refusing to treat the creative process like ancient history.
Mick Jagger — “Mr. Charm” Behind the Song
Mick Jagger and producer Andrew Watt break down the Rolling Stones’ “Mr. Charm” in Variety’s complete Behind the Song video.
Source: Variety; The Rolling Stones; Universal Music.
