Exile on Main St. is the 10th British and 12th American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 12 May 1972 by Rolling Stones Records. It is viewed as a culmination of a string of the band's most critically successful albums, following the releases of Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969) and Sticky Fingers (1971). The album is known for its murky, inconsistent sound due to more disjointed musicianship and a party-like atmosphere heard in several tracks.

Recording began in 1969 at Olympic Studios in London during sessions for Sticky Fingers, with the main sessions beginning in mid-1971 at a rented villa in the South of France named Nellcôte after the band became tax exiles. Due to the lack of a professional studio nearby they worked with a mobile recording studio and recorded in-house. The loose and unorganised Nellcôte sessions went on for hours into the night, with personnel varying greatly from day to day. Recording was completed with overdub sessions at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles and included additional musicians such as pianist Nicky Hopkins, saxophonist Bobby Keys, drummer and producer Jimmy Miller, and horn player Jim Price. The results produced enough songs for the Stones' first double album.

The band continued a back-to-basics direction heard in Sticky Fingers after the experimental instrumentation of previous albums, yet Exile exhibited a wider range of influences in blues, rock and roll, swing, country and gospel, while the lyrics explored themes related to hedonism, fame, sex and time. The album contains frequently performed concert staples and topped the charts in six countries, including the UK, US and Canada. It spawned the hit songs "Happy", which featured a rare lead vocal from Keith Richards, country music ballad "Sweet Virginia", and worldwide top-ten hit "Tumbling Dice". The album's artwork, a collage of various images, reflects the Rolling Stones as "runaway outlaws using the blues as its weapon against the world". After its release, the Stones embarked on an American tour, gaining infamy for the riotous audience and performances.