the album. Between the Buttons reached number three in the UK. In the US, the album was released the following day by London Records on 21 January 1967 (mono, LL 3499; stereo, PS 499). "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" were slotted onto the album while "Back Street Girl" and "Please Go Home" were removed (these would be included on the following US odds-and-ends release, Flowers, in July 1967). With "Ruby Tuesday" reaching number one, Between the Buttons shot to number two in the US, going gold. In August 2002, both editions of Between the Buttons were reissued in a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records. Almost all reissues of the album since 1968 have been in stereo; in 2016, the album's mono release was reissued on CD, vinyl, and digital download as part of The Rolling Stones in Mono. While most reissues have used the US track-listing to maximise profit by featuring the two hit singles, the UK version was re-issued by ABKCO in 2003 on 180 gram vinyl in the US. Critical reception and legacy Between the Buttons was called "among the greatest rock albums" by Robert Christgau, who later included it in his "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981). He also wrote of the album for Rolling Stone magazine's "40 Essential Albums of 1967": "[T]his underrated keeper is distinguished by complex rhymes, complex sexual stereotyping, and the non-blues, oh-so-rock-and-roll pianos of Ian Stewart, Jack Nitzsche, Nicky Hopkins, and Brian Jones." AllMusic's Richie Unterberger hailed it as one of the Rolling Stones' "strongest, most eclectic LPs". In a retrospective review for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne called the album "a cheeky set of sardonic Swinging London vaudeville rock", while Billboard magazine's Christopher Walsh wrote that "it's brimming with overlooked gems, the band delivering a captivating blend of folky, Beatles-esque pop and tough bluesy rockers." Tom Moon wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that the album was "lighter and thinner" than Aftermath and, "having belatedly discovered pop melody, Jagger and Richards were suddenly overdosing on the stuff." Music scholars Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon observed baroque pop and music hall on the album. Jim DeRogatis included Between the Buttons in his 2003 list of the essential psychedelic rock albums. In 2003, the American version of Between the Buttons was ranked