Unlike most Stones albums, there was no supporting tour, as the level of animosity among band members prevented them from being able to work together live onstage.

Dirty Work sold well, reaching platinum or gold status in several countries, including the United States, Canada and the UK, and peaking as a top-10-charting album in over a dozen markets.

[8] Jagger was absent from many of the Dirty Work sessions while Richards recorded instrumental parts with Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts.

Dirty Work is the first Rolling Stones album to feature two tracks with Richards on lead vocals ("Too Rude" and "Sleep Tonight").

Following a further month of final recording in July and August 1985 (which saw guest appearances by Jimmy Page, Bobby Womack and Tom Waits), co-producer Steve Lillywhite supervised several weeks of mixing and the creation of 12-inch remixes.

On 12 December, Ian Stewart, one of the Stones' founding members and their longtime pianist and road manager, died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 47.

Breaking with Rolling Stones tradition, Dirty Work was the first of their studio albums to contain a lyric sheet in the United States, apparently at the insistence of then-distributor CBS Records.

Some reviewers felt the album was slight in places, with weak, generic songwriting from Richards and Wood and puzzlingly abrasive vocals from Jagger.

"[17] However, at the same time, Robert Christgau called Dirty Work "a bracing and even challenging record [which] innovates without kowtowing to multi-platinum fashion or half-assed pretension.