Songfacts®:

• "Sweet Sounds of Heaven" is a gospel-infused Rolling Stones epic that channels the vibes of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Shine A Light." It features Stevie Wonder on keyboards and piano, and vocals from Lady Gaga. The song has a classic, slow-rolling blues vibe, as Wonder's piano melody dances with rousing horns and Keith Richards' guitar.
• Mick Jagger kicks things off, describing the "sweet, sweet sounds of Heaven" falling down to Earth. Then, Lady Gaga sweeps in, echoing Jagger's lines with a heavenly, churchy register. It builds to a joyous explosion of guitar, drums, saxophone, and keyboards with Jagger and Gaga locked in a growly, soul-shouting showdown.
• Stevie Wonder previously toured with the Stones in 1972, and Gaga jumped on stage with the band in December 2012 during their 50 And Counting tour to duet on a version of their 1969 single "Gimme Shelter." However, this is the first time either artist has recorded with them.
• Mick Jagger and Keith Richards co-wrote the rousing gospel number. Andrew Watt (Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, Post Malone, Justin Bieber) produced the track. Watt has a tattoo of Wonder on his finger.
• "Sweet Sounds Of Heaven" originated one sunny afternoon when Jagger was at his London home tinkering on his piano. Inspired by the sound of the leaves rustling as the wind blew through the trees outside, he started playing a chord pattern of C, F and B Flat. Jagger then developed a melody and lyrics from there.
• The Stones recorded "Sweet Sounds of Heaven" for their Hackney Diamonds album. They laid it down at Henson Recording Studios, Los Angeles; Metropolis Studios, London; and Sanctuary Studios, Nassau, Bahamas.
• During their sessions in Los Angeles, Lady Gaga was recording in an adjacent studio. She swung by to say hello to Jagger, and as she listened to the Stones frontman recording his vocals, she started singing off the cuff. The band liked what they heard, so they invited her to another session to add her vocals to the recording.
  
  "She's a really great singer and I'd never heard her sing quite that style before," Jagger told Apple Music's Zane Lowe. "Not exactly. We did it live in the room and that was a great experience, her just coming in the room and her just opening up and seeing her bits and feeling her way and then getting more confident. And then we came back and then did some extra parts that we hadn't done on the day and then we did some tidying up and we were just in the overdub room, really face-to-face, getting them really tight, the parts really tight, and then being slightly competitive and screaming."
  
  "It's all played live," he added. "And of course we did overdubs, but it's all played in the room."
• Andrew Watt had previously worked with Stevie Wonder on Wonder's Elton John collaboration "Finish Line," and it was the producer who suggested bringing the Motown legend into the session.
  
  "It just was so moving to be in the studio with Stevie, Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood told Rolling Stone. "Watching Stevie play his array of keyboards: a little bit of synthesizer, a little bit of Moog here, and a bit of clavinet there, and a grand piano here, and the lovely moods that he invoked. It was lots of great inspiration in the whole band."
  
  "I felt that the song needed a place of celebration, a celebration of the spirit of the rhythms and the spirit of just everybody coming together for that event," Wonder added, acknowledging that the song reminded him of the Stones' late drummer, Charlie Watts. "It's not saying, 'Goodbye,' to me, it's saying, 'Hello.'"
• Let us shout
  Let us all stand up proud
  Let the old still believe that they're young
  
  Mojo magazine asked Mick Jagger whether letting the old still believe they're young is part of The Stones' job.
  
  "I guess so... now," he said laughing. "It wasn't always our job of course. I've heard people who come to the shows saying, it takes me back to my youth... (Unimpressed) Yeah great, so my job is to take you back to your youth...' (Brightens). But I'll buy it! Whatever makes you happy. You're paying to get in. I'm just doing what I do. But I suppose I did make some of those references on this album - slightly tongue-in-cheek references to aging."