“I Wanna Be Your Man” is a Lennon–McCartney-penned song recorded and released as a single by the Rolling Stones, and then recorded by the Beatles. The song was primarily written by Paul McCartney, and finished by Lennon and McCartney in the corner of a room while Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were talking. (More from Wikipedia)
Their second single was actually a Lennon/McCartney song, “I Wanna Be Your Man”; from Wikipedia: “According to various accounts, either the Rolling Stones’ manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham or the Rolling Stones themselves ran into [John] Lennon and [Paul] McCartney on the street as the two were returning from an awards luncheon. Hearing that the band were in need of material for a single, Lennon and McCartney went to their session at De Lane Lea Studio and finished off the song – whose verse they had already been working on – in the corner of the room while the impressed Rolling Stones watched.”
Though that was not the only time the song was released on a 45, “I Wanna Be Your Man” became the “B” side for the first U.S. single by the Rolling Stones; the “A” side was their terrific cover of the Buddy Holly song, “Not Fade Away” that features a pounding Bo Diddley beat. The Rolling Stones recording of “I Wanna Be Your Man” was only released as a single and did not appear on a studio album in either the US or the UK; it was included on several compilation albums in later years though, but was not released in the US until Singles Collection: The London Years (1989).
Of course, the Beatles recorded their own version of “I Wanna be Your Man”; it was included on Meet the Beatles, with Ringo Starr on double-tracked lead vocals.
John Lennon believes that their experience with “I Wanna Be Your Man” was helpful in getting the songwriting team underway; as he related in the famous Playboy magazine interview in 1980 (a few months before his assassination): “We were taken down to meet them at the club where they were playing in Richmond by Brian [Epstein] and some other guy. They wanted a song and we went to see what kind of stuff they did. Mick [Jagger] and Keith [Richards] heard we had an unfinished song – Paul [McCartney] just had this bit and we needed another verse or something. We sort of played it roughly to them and they said, ‘Yeah, OK, that’s our style.’ But it was only really a lick, so Paul and I went off in the corner of the room and finished the song off while they were all still sitting there talking. We came back, and that’s how Mick and Keith got inspired to write . . . because, ‘Jesus, look at that. They just went in the corner and wrote it and came back!’ You know, right in front of their eyes we did it. So we gave it to them.”
(May 2015)
