Exile on Main St. is a studio album by English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was first released as the band's first double album on 12 May 1972 by Rolling Stones Records and was the band's tenth studio album released in the United Kingdom, as well as their twelfth American album. Recording for the album began in 1969 in England during sessions for Sticky Fingers and continued in the summer of 1971 at a rented villa in the South of France named Nellcôte while the band lived abroad as tax exiles. A collage of various images, the album's artwork, according to frontman Mick Jagger, reflects the Rolling Stones as "runaway outlaws using the blues as its weapon against the world", showcasing "feeling of joyful isolation, grinning in the face of a scary and unknown future".
 
Working with a mobile recording studio, the loose and unorganised Nellcôte sessions went on for hours into the night, with personnel varying greatly from day to day. The recording was completed with overdub sessions at Los Angeles's Sunset Sound and included additional musicians such as pianist Nicky Hopkins, saxophonist Bobby Keys, drummer Jimmy Miller and horn player Jim Price. The resulting music was rooted in blues, rock and roll, swing, country and gospel, while the lyrics explored themes related to hedonism, sex and time. These newly recorded tracks were combined with some tracks recorded at earlier sessions from 1969–1971, resulting in the Stones' first double album.
 
Exile on Main St. has been ranked on various lists as one of the greatest albums of all time. According to Acclaimed Music, it is the tenth-best-ranked record on critics' all-time lists. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Exile on Main St the 42nd-greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 3 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 1987 it was ranked third on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the best 100 albums of the period 1967–1987. In 1993, Entertainment Weekly named it number 1 on their list of "100 Greatest CDs". In 2003, Pitchfork ranked it number 11 on their Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. In 2001, the TV network VH1 placed it at number 22 on their best albums survey.