Black and Blue is the 13th British and 15th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1976. It was the bands first studio album released with Ronnie Wood as the replacement for Mick Taylor. Wood had played twelve-string acoustic guitar on the track "Its Only Rock n Roll (But I Like It)" from the Its Only Rock n Roll album and appears on half of the Black and Blue album tracks (mostly backing vocals) with Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel playing guitar on the remaining titles. Keith Richards would later comment "Rehearsing guitar players, thats what that one was about" Released in April 1976—with "Fool to Cry", a worldwide Top 10 hit, as its lead single—Black and Blue reached #2 in the UK and spent an interrupted four week spell at #1 in the US, going platinum there. Critical view was polarized: Lester Bangs wrote in Creem that "the heats off, because its all over, they really dont matter anymore or stand for anything" and "This is the first meaningless Rolling Stones album, and thank God"; but in the 1976 Creem Consumer Guide Robert Christgau rated the album an A-.While all the albums songs except "Cherry Oh Baby" were officially credited to JaggerRichards as authors, the credit for "Hey Negrita" specifies "Inspiration by Ron Wood" and "Melody" lists "Inspiration by Billy Preston". Bill Wyman would later release a version of "Melody" with his Rhythm Kings, crediting Preston as author. The album was promoted with a controversial billboard on Sunset <b>…<b>