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Rolling Stones Songs: Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
THE STONES TURN SOUL INTO CHAOS When the Stones tackled Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, they didn’t just cover it—they lit it on fire. Mick’s wailing vocals, gritty guitars, and that swaggering groove turned Solomon Burke’s soul classic into a wild R&B jam. The UK version is longer and funkier, while the U.S. one’s a scrappy, rough-cut blast. Either way, it’s pure Stones: messy, passionate, and gloriously alive.
More about The Rolling Stones’ Version of Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
A Gospel Groove with a Rock ‘n’ Roll Twist
When The Rolling Stones took on Everybody Needs Somebody to Love they didn’t just cover Solomon Burke’s 1964 track—they transformed it into a raw, raucous R&B anthem. On The Rolling Stones No. 2 album in the UK, the version stretches to nearly five minutes and opens with a funky, descending bass riff, like a gospel revival suddenly hijacked by a bluesy garage band.
Gritty guitar chords and Mick Jagger’s impassioned delivery give it a soul-rock edge that’s distinctly Stones, while still nodding to the gospel roots that inspired the original. Interestingly, a shorter, three-minute cut was accidentally issued on The Rolling Stones Now! album in the U.S.—a looser, scrappier version with rougher backing vocals and a simplified arrangement. It became the more familiar take to American fans, though it was never the band’s intended release. Still, both versions highlight how the Stones could take a soul standard and inject it with chaotic brilliance.
But Who Really Wrote This Great Soul Standard?
While the songwriting credit goes to Solomon Burke, Bert Berns, and Jerry Wexler, Burke long insisted the song was his alone. According to him, it originated in his church performances as a child and was introduced to Wexler and Berns at a 1964 Atlantic Records session—only to be dismissed for being too fast. Wexler, however, claimed it was a collaborative effort. The original single failed to chart in the U.S., but the Stones’ version helped immortalize it. Their daring interpretation—even including a near-dead stop before Jagger roars it back to life—transformed a gospel-tinged deep cut into one of their early highlights. The two versions now live side by side in Stones lore, debated, dissected, and deeply loved.
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