Mick Jagger has identified "Satisfaction" as the band's calling card, or "signature tune," saying, "It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times [...] which was alienation" (source).
Prior to the release of "Satisfaction," the band had enjoyed uneven success in the United States. In Britain, the band had scored three #1 hits ("It’s All Over Now," "Little Red Rooster," and "This May Be the Last Time") and a fourth song ("Not Fade Away") had reached #3. But in the U.S., the band's only real chart success came with a #6 hit in 1964, "Time Is On My Side." But after the release of "Satisfaction," the band's popularity with American music fans soared. The single sat on top of the American charts for four weeks and the album containing the song (Out of Our Heads) also reached #1. Over the next year, the Stones released two more chart-topping hits ("Get Off of My Cloud" and "Paint it Black"), and four other songs that reached the top ten.
Cover versions of the song range from the ridiculous (Britney Spears) to the sublime (Otis Redding), and from the international (Gloria Trevi) to the inane (Weird Al Yankovic). Yet the song remains most closely associated with the Rolling Stones. They perform it on every tour and at almost every concert. In 2006, they even sang the song during halftime of the Super Bowl without suffering any wardrobe malfunctions.