She's the Boss is the debut solo album debut by The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger released in 1985. When the Stones signed with CBS Records in 1983, one of the options available to them was for individual projects, and Jagger eagerly began working on She's the Boss.
Background
Following the release of Undercover, Jagger began composing material for his first solo project, sanctioning the help of various musician friends in the studio when recording began in May 1984. Of those involved were Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, Carlos Alomar, Herbie Hancock and the Compass Point Allstars, while Jagger would share production duties with Bill Laswell and Nile Rodgers. Keith Richards, Jagger's longtime musical partner in the Rolling Stones, was not pleased that Jagger was pursuing solo work, feeling that their band should be each other's first priority; in particular Richards was upset that in 1983 Jagger had piggy-backed a three album solo deal with CBS on the multi-million Stones deal without informing any of the Stones. The growing friction between both musicians would erupt publicly in 1986 before they resolved their differences a couple of years later. In his 2010 memoir Life Richards commented "It's like Mein Kampf. Everybody had a copy, but nobody listened to it." She's the Boss was released in February 1985 – preceded by its lead song "Just Another Night". Both the album and its first single became worldwide hits, with "Just Another Night" reaching No. 1 on the US Mainstream Rock chart and No. 12 on the US pop chart, and She's the Boss going to No. 6 in the UK and No. 13 in the US, where it went platinum. The follow-up single "Lucky in Love" would be a Top 40 US hit. The single version has been remixed considerably from the album version. The single version is 4:51 long. The version of "Hard Woman" released as a single is radically different from the album version. The single is titled "Hard Woman ". The video for "Hard Woman" extensively utilised a Cray X-MPsupercomputer for its animation, making it one of the most expensive music videos made to that point in time. The success of the album – impacted by Jagger's solo appearance at Live Aid that July and his rush-recorded duet hit cover of "Dancing in the Street" with David Bowie — influenced Jagger to record a successor, Primitive Cool, which would be released in 1987. Although originally released by CBS, She's the Boss was acquired and reissued by Atlantic Records in 1993 following the release of Jagger's third album, Wandering Spirit. In 1986, Jamaican reggae singer Patrick Alley attempted to sue Jagger over the song "Just Another Night," which Alley claims he had recorded in 1979 and released on his 1982 album, A Touch of Patrick Alley. Alley claimed that Sly Dunbar also played on his recording. The case was cleared in 1988, with Jagger stating "My reputation is really cleared. If you're well known, people stand up and take shots at you."
