Mick Jagger's fourth act begins

There is exactly one 68-year-old white dude alive who can look cool in a pink suit, and fortunately for SuperHeavy he’s in their band. His name is, of course, Mick Jagger.

As a massive Stones fan, I was prepared to cringe when the debut single and video from Jagger’s new project - which also features Joss Stone, Dave Stewart, Damian Marley and Indian film composer A. R. Rahman - dropped last week.

But “Miracle Worker” is actually a pretty cool pop song with legit reggae lilt. A&M Records obviously believes in SuperHeavy’s commercial viability, because it looks like the video for “Miracle Worker” had a budget on line with a “Twilight” film.

Once the song begins - after an extended, getting-ready-to-jam-in-the-streets intro that looks like it’s been lifted from one of those expensive Pepsi commercials of yore - Stones freaks must take in 48 seconds of Stone’s R&B coos and Marley sounding like a cross between his pop Bob and that Shaggy guy who sung “Bombastic” before we get Mick.

When Jagger finally drops into the mix his voice sounds as strong and swaggering as ever. A couple years ago, this would not be a shock. Jagger is well known for taking meticulous care of his voice. Lenny Kravitz once told Rolling Stone of vacationing with Mick and hearing Jagger through the hotel wall every night practicing his singing to a CD of Stones tracks with vocals removed. (This was essentially the equivalent of hearing Mick sing “Honky Tonk Women” at a karaoke bar, minus the throng of intoxicated investment bankers with their neckties repurposed as headbands.)

But as thrilling as the previously unreleased tracks on the 2010 “Exile on Main St.” reissue were, Jagger’s newly recorded vocals for them sounded thin. This was an eyebrow-raiser because, in contrast to higher-octave singers like Robert Plant, age had (heretofore) taken less of a toll on Jagger, who operates mostly in a meaty mid-range. Mick’s pipes also appeared to be weakening in the 2008 Martin Scorsese concert film “Shine A Light.” (To be fair, Keith Richards’ guitar solos, which had never been sophisticated but had always been toothy, were conspicuously feeble in “Shine A Light.”)

Fast-forward back to 2011 and “Miracle Worker.” The second thing Stones fans should be psyched about Jagger’s contributions to the song are the lyrics he delivers. In bad Stones tracks (which appear mostly, with the notable exception of 1978’s “Some Girls,” in their LPs ranging from 1974’s “It’s Only Rock & Roll” to their last album, 2005’s “A Bigger Bang”) the songwriting could pass for Paul Stanley lyrics. That is not a compliment.

But on “Miracle Worker,” Jagger is just being Jagger – even if we wonder if the “bag of tricks” he touts contains ED meds – and we like it. Hell, in the song's video he even appears to be sashaying in front of the same stoop he and Richards commiserated on in the clip for the 1981 Stones classic “Waiting On A Friend.” In the “Miracle Worker” promo Jagger rocks his pink suit and fedora like a true pimp – or at least as good as David Bowie would. Wealth and taste, indeed.

Various folks are referring to SuperHeavy as a “supergroup.” Whereas that term once applied only to star-saturated combos like Blind Faith (Clapton and Winwood) or even Velvet Revolver (Slash and Weiland), these days “supergroup” is thrown around like confetti, similar to how “supermodel” now applies to anyone who’s appeared in a JC Penney underwear ad.

Make no mistake, Jagger is the only superstar in SuperHeavy. Still, this is one of the better singles Mick’s been associated with in a long time, and his band mates obviously had something to do with that. (Although I can’t tell you what Dave Stewart's talent is – no one is going to mistake him for Jimi Hendrix on guitar and I can’t remember ever hearing him sing - he’s been involved with some memorable songs, such as “Don't Come Around Here No More,” which Stewart co-wrote with Tom Petty.)

Face it, Stones faithful: this is going to be Mick’s fourth act. If you’ve read Keith Richards' excellent, yet not exactly Jagger-trumpeting 2010 autobiography “Life,” you probably realize the Stones will never regroup. Judging from SuperHeavy’s first single, at least Jagger is hip-shaking off into the sunset with a project that adds another color to his musical legacy without staining it.