In 1965, Keith Richards went to bed with his guitar and woke up to discover that he had written one of the most recognizable riffs in rock-and-roll history. He had absolutely no memory of doing it.

The Rolling Stones guitarist had recently acquired a portable cassette recorder, a relatively new invention that allowed him to capture musical ideas whenever inspiration struck. He kept it beside his bed, along with his guitar.

One morning, Richards noticed that the tape had run all the way to the end. Puzzled, he rewound it and pressed play.

Out came a rough acoustic guitar riff, accompanied by the beginnings of a song: I Can't Get No Satisfaction.

Then came approximately 40 minutes of Richards snoring.

Somewhere between falling asleep and waking up, he had picked up his guitar, switched on the recorder and captured a melody that would help define the sound of the 1960s.

Richards later described the experience in his autobiography, Life, and in a 2010 interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air.

"I actually dreamt the damned thing," he told Gross.

When she asked whether he had been sleepwalking, Richards corrected her. "Oh, I wasn't walking. I was lying down."

Richards shared the idea with Mick Jagger, who developed the lyrics. The band recorded the song in May 1965, with Richards using a fuzz pedal to give the guitar riff its distinctive distorted sound. He had originally imagined the musical phrase being played by a horn section.

Released that June in the United States, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" became the Rolling Stones' first American No. 1 hit and eventually one of the most celebrated songs in rock history.

Keith Richards wasn't the only British rock star whose sleeping brain composed a hit. Read how Paul McCartney dreamed the melody for "Yesterday," although he initially called it "Scrambled Eggs."