The band held a rambunctious release party for the album’s release at the elegant and historic Gore Hotel in Queen’s Gate, close to the Royal Albert Hall in London. Initially, the band had wanted to launch the album with a party at the Tower of London but with that historic venue unavailable, they opted for the Elizabethan room of the Gore. The band, dressed as beggars, and their VIP media guests, sat down in candlelight to be served a seven-course dinner by a coterie of corset-busting serving wenches. Davis, Stephen (2001). Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones. New York, NY: Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-0312-9. Glyn Johns, the album's recording engineer and a longtime collaborator of the band, said that Beggars Banquet signalled "the Rolling Stones' coming of age.... I think that the material was far better than anything they'd ever done before. The whole mood of the record was far stronger to me musically." [5] Producer Jimmy Miller described guitarist Keith Richards as "a real workhorse" while recording the album, mostly due to the infrequent presence of Brian Jones. When he did show up at the sessions, Jones behaved erratically due to his drug use and emotional problems. [5] Miller said that Jones would "show up occasionally when he was in the mood to play, and he could never really be relied on: As they weave through Lucifer’s narrative without ever mentioning his name (perhaps a little worried about being censored) Jagger takes us through the with a vocal that comes from the pits of Hell. It’s the kind of showing which can convert a non-Stones fan into getting a tongue tattoo. Richards is standing for the ham-and-eggers, Jagger is suspicious of the straight world. From there, “Salt of the Earth” begins to rip apart, as if holding two opposing truths in the same song. The two finish the song together as if they’re fighting for the microphone.

With Richards at the helm, the Stones would begin to emphasize his encyclopedic knowledge of early blues. “Prodigal Son” was originally by Reverend Robert Wilkins, a Memphis bluesman who was a senior citizen by the time the Stones got rolling. a b Lester, Paul (10 July 2007). "These albums need to go to rehab". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 10 January 2014 . Retrieved 21 July 2013. Karnbach, James; Bernson, Carol (1997). The Complete Recording Guide to the Rolling Stones. Aurum Press Limited. ISBN 1-85410-533-7. Fifty years on, this Stones classic remains daring and enveloping; almost nothing sounds like it. This even goes for the rest of Beggars Banquet—“Devil” is a strangeopener for this otherwise spare, minimal album.When it comes to the Stones’ lyrics, Jagger would spend the following decade testing the limits of raunch. 1971’s “Brown Sugar” and 1978’s “Some Girls” were both filled with racially charged references to illicit sex; how those two got past the censors is anyone’s guess. Christgau, Robert (16 February 2022). "Xgau Sez: February 2022". And It Don't Stop . Retrieved 18 February 2022. a b Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol.7 (4thed.). Oxford University Press. p.119. ISBN 0-19-531373-9. American album certifications – The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet". Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved 11 June 2016. Many of the albums in the group’s rich discography are pulsating with the kind of singles that The Rolling Stones have dined out on for years. Beggar’s Banquet, however, not only had those big imposing singles but also worked as a singular piece of work too. Resting on the country blues that Richards had so keenly adopted, the Stones showed they could it all. The album contains some bonafide classics such as ‘Street Fighting Man,’ ‘No Expectations’ and perhaps the band’s greatest ever song ‘Sympathy for the Devil’. But this record had something extra too.

Walsh, Christopher (24 August 2002). "Super audio CDs: The Rolling Stones Remastered". Billboard. p.27.

Beggars Banquet ranked 185th greatest album by Rolling Stone magazine". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020 . Retrieved 1 October 2020. The album cover for Let It Bleed was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of ‘Classic Album Cover’ postage stamps issued in January 2010. Elliot, Martin (2002). The Rolling Stones: Complete Recording Sessions 1962–2002. Cherry Red Books Ltd. ISBN 1-901447-04-9. On “Parachute Woman,” Jagger works the only way he knows how: blue. “I’ll make my blow in Dallas / And get hot again in half the time,” he yowls. As usual, you can’t accuse him of being too subtle.

The song uses a quote that refers to a passage in the Bible where Jesus is trying to encourage people to give the best of themselves ABKCO Records will release a 50th anniversary edition of The Rolling Stones‘ Beggars Banquet album in November. Dimery, Robert, ed. (2011). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. London: Cassell. ISBN 978-1-84403-699-8. Egan, Sean (2013). Keith Richards on Keith Richards interviews and encounters (1sted.). Chicago: Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-61374-791-9. The beauty of the Stones was never their reverence, but their cheek at genre conventions. On “Factory Girl,” the Stones knew country and western so well that they weren’t afraid to play it with Eastern, West Indies, or any other kinds of instruments.Offiziellecharts.de – The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 22 December 2022.

Despite its appeal, the song has at least one hater: Jagger himself. “I don’t really like it that much,” he admitted to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner in 1995. “I’m not sure if it has any resonance for the present day.” Whether this was a fair assessment of its message, or if it even really fits on Banquet, Richards’ grinning two-chord riff is a language anyone can understand.

Beggars Banquet received a highly favourable response from music critics, [26] [27] who considered it a return to form for the Stones. [28] [29] Author Stephen Davis writes of its impact: "[The album was] a sharp reflection of the convulsive psychic currents coursing through the Western world. Nothing else captured the youthful spirit of Europe in 1968 like Beggars Banquet." [27] Charlie Watts said, of the tempo, in the 2003 book According To The Rolling Stones: ‘We had a go at loads of different ways of playing it; in the end I just played a jazz Latin feel in the style of Kenny Clarke, [like he] would have played on A Night In Tunisia – not the actual rhythm he played, but the same styling.’