The Rolling Stones — She's So Cold - OFFICIAL PROMO

JUL 01 1980 · 12:00

The Rolling Stones — She's So Cold - OFFICIAL PROMO (1980) Director: David Mallet Era: Early Music Video Era (1980) - Pre-MTV promotional clip produced during the transitional moment when rock bands began commissioning dedicated visual promos; captured the Rolling Stones at the peak of their post-punk commercial resurgence on the Emotional Rescue album cycle. High. This is a confirmed-director, release-dated primary source document of the earliest professional music video era, capturing the full classic Rolling Stones lineup in a performance context directed by one of the form's founding practitioners. Its MTV rotation history, inclusion in the 1984 Video Rewind compilation, and status as a pre-digital film-stock artifact make it an irreplaceable object for archives studying the emergence of music video as an art and commercial form. Context: Released September 1980 as the second single from Emotional Rescue, 'She's So Cold' arrived at a pivotal moment for the Rolling Stones and for music video as a medium. The band had drawn criticism for disco experimentation on the album's title-track lead single; this promo reasserted their rock identity. Filmed just months before MTV launched in August 1981, the clip became an early-rotation staple on the nascent cable network, introducing the Stones to a generation of American teenagers. The production company Gower Fields Flattery operated at the vanguard of the emerging British music video industry, and director David Mallet was simultaneously shaping the visual grammar of the form through landmark work with David Bowie. Director notes: Directed in July 1980 for the second single from Emotional Rescue. Produced by Paul Flattery (production company credited as Gower Fields Flattery per IMDb). The video employs a raw, no-frills approach: the full Rolling Stones lineup performs on a minimalist soundstage designed with a geometric grid layout. This deliberately stripped-back aesthetic was a departure from Mallet's higher-concept contemporaneous work such as David Bowie's 'Ashes to Ashes' (1980). The promo was later edited into the 1984 compilation Video Rewind: The Rolling Stones' Great Video Hits. The video became a staple of early MTV rotation after the network's August 1981 launch, helping bridge the Stones' legacy fanbase with a new generation of viewers.