Dirty Work
The Rolling Stones
- First released
- 24 March 1986
- Tracks on this edition
- 10
- Running time
- 39:18
The cover
Janet Perr designed Dirty Work’s package around an Annie Leibovitz photograph. In a recollection reproduced by IORR, Perr explains that she added red shrink-wrap to mute the portrait’s bright colours. She also commissioned Mark Marek’s sticker and inner-sleeve illustration.
Photography: Annie Leibovitz (IORR archive account); Package design and red wrap: Janet Perr (IORR archive account); Sticker and inner-sleeve illustration: Mark Marek (IORR archive account)
Image via Cover Art Archive / MusicBrainz source release
Artwork source and selected track edition are identified separately.
What critics said
In his 1986 Village Voice essay “Winning Ugly”, Robert Christgau welcomes Dirty Work’s direct, hard-driving music and finds it unexpectedly challenging. He likes the collision between the Stones and Steve Lillywhite’s spacious, detailed production, even while recognising that its emphatic sound would repel some listeners.
Tracklist
US edition · 24 March 1986
Select a song for details
- 1One Hit (to the Body)4:46
- 2Fight3:09
- 3Harlem Shuffle3:24
- 4Hold Back3:53
- 5Too Rude3:11
- 6Winning Ugly4:31
- 7Back to Zero3:59
- 8Dirty Work3:52
- 9Had It With You3:19
- 10Sleep Tonight5:14
Sources & coverage
About these numbers
Concert figures describe 2,181 distinct archive record IDs from 1962-07-12 to 2024-07-21. Separate same-day record IDs remain separate; they have not all been reviewed as unique performed concerts.
1,506 records have stored song entries; 675 do not. Complete-setlist coverage is not established. Missing entries do not establish that a song was not played.
Song observations count distinct record IDs with a matching title after playback entries are excluded. These are documented appearances, not verified full-song performances. Tour groupings can include warm-up dates.
- MusicBrainz — album identities, editions and track programmes
The catalogue import contains core metadata only. Cover artwork and critical responses have separate sources in the sections above. Annotations, genre associations and database ratings remain excluded.
MusicBrainz data licence - setlist.fm — concert history and setlists
Concert dates, venues and setlists from the editor-supplied archive. Every concert page credits setlist.fm and links to its original record. Song observations are calculated by Glimmer Wire from those entries, with playback excluded.
Snapshot: 2026-10-03T21:42:51Z. Original database supplied and factually approved by the editor; normalized and calculated by Glimmer Wire. Counts can change when records or identities are corrected.
Calculation record
Concert records: distinct concert.setlist_id. Country groups: concert.country_code. Stored entries: records with non-playback setlist_song rows. Song appearances: distinct concert_song.setlist_id matched to setlist_song by record ID, position and exact raw title, excluding tape = 1. This does not use a complete-setlist percentage denominator.
Snapshot SHA-256: 7e86a3e2d0670574fd1e8bf42cd9e4dc99d3325db8db1b471707805387b00e5a
Explore the sources behind the numbers.