more of a focus on songwriting, and the music was influenced by heavy metal, arena rock and Chicago blues. Instruments such as piano, twelve-string guitar and mandolin were featured throughout the album. The new album included songs such as "I Will Dare", which featured Buck playing lead guitar; "Androgynous", with Westerberg on piano; and "Unsatisfied", in which, according to writer Michael Azerrad, Westerberg "had hit upon a moving new way to declare that he can't get no satisfaction." The band's album Let It Be was released in October 1984 to critical acclaim. Robert Christgau gave the album an A+, and the Seattle Rocket critic Bruce Pavitt called Let It Be "mature diverse rock that could well shoot these regional boys into the national mainstream". In 1989, Let It Be was ranked number 12 on Spin magazine's list of the "25 Greatest Albums of All Time" and number 15 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s". Early major-label releases (1985–1988) Let It Be attracted the attention of major record labels, and by late 1984 several had expressed an interest in signing the Replacements. Financially, the band was not doing well; they were not selling enough records to recoup their expenses, and money from shows went to recording costs, hotels, travel, food and instrument repairs. Bob Stinson worked a day job as a pizza chef. Twin/Tone was not being paid reliably by distributors, and the sales of Let It Be were not high enough to justify extra promotion. "It was time for a major label to take over," according to the label's co-owner Stark. The band was close to a major-label contract but often alienated label representatives by intentionally performing badly in concert; their 1985 live album, The Shit Hits the Fans, was an example of their concert performances at the time. One label, the Warner Bros. Records subsidiary Sire Records, eventually signed the Replacements. The band admired the label head, Seymour Stein, who had managed the Ramones, and Stein recruited Tommy Ramone as producer for their first major-label album, Tim, released by Sire in October 1985. The band spent the remainder of 1985 and the first half of 1986 touring behind Tim. In mid-January 1986 the Replacements received a last-minute request to appear as the musical guests on the edition of January 18 of Saturday Night Live, replacing the scheduled act, the Pointer Sisters, who