"Sympathy for the Devil" is a samba rock song by the Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Sung by Jagger, the song refers to the Devil, written in the first-person narrative, recounting atrocities committed throughout the history of humanity as if they were somehow "inspired" (or at least witnessed) by him. Although it has been deemed by some as "a homage", in reality, no admiration (or even sympathy, for that matter) is declared for the Devil in the song -other than his "own" request. It is performed in a rock arrangement with a samba rhythm, first appearing as the opening track on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet.

The recording of "Sympathy for the Devil" began at London's Olympic Sound Studios on 4 June 1968 and continued into the next day; overdubs were done on 8, 9 and 10 June. Personnel included on the recording include Nicky Hopkins on piano, Rocky Dijon on congas and Bill Wyman on maracas. Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, producer Jimmy Miller, Wyman and Richards performed backup vocals, singing the "woo woos". Richards plays bass on the original recording, and also electric guitar. Brian Jones plays a mostly mixed out acoustic guitar, although in isolated tracks of the studio cut, it is audible playing along with the piano.  In the 2003 book According to the Rolling Stones, Watts commented:  "Sympathy" was one of those sort of songs where we tried everything. The first time I ever heard the song was when Mick was playing it at the front door of a house I lived at in Sussex ... He played it entirely on his own ... and it was fantastic. We had a go at loads of different ways of playing it; in the end I just played a jazz Latin feel in the style of Kenny Clarke would have played on "A Night in Tunisia" - not the actual rhythm he played, but the same styling.  On the overall power of the song, Jagger continued in Rolling Stone:  It has a very hypnotic groove, a samba, which has a tremendous hypnotic power, rather like good dance music. It doesn't speed up or slow down. It keeps this constant groove. Plus, the actual samba rhythm is a great one to sing on, but it is also got some other suggestions in it, an undercurrent of being primitive--because it is a primitive African, South American, Afro-whatever-you-call-that rhythm (candomble). So to white people, it has a very sinister thing about it. But forgetting the cultural colors, it is a very good vehicle for producing a powerful piece. It becomes less pretentious because it is a very unpretentious groove. If it had been done as a ballad, it wouldn't have been as good.

Who wrote the song?
The first time I ever heard the song was when Mick was playing it at the front door of a house I lived at in Sussex