Like what you see? Help keep it going! This site runs on the support of readers like you. Your donation helps cover costs and keeps fresh Rolling Stones content coming your way every day. Thank you!
Rolling Stones songs: I Wanna Be Your Man
Tell me that you love me, baby/ Tell me you understand…
About the Rolling Stones’ version of I Wanna Be Your Man
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
A Chance Encounter That Changed Everything
Before I Wanna Be Your Man became a milestone in the Rolling Stones’ early rise, the band found themselves in a moment of uneasy transition. Their debut single Come On had earned them some welcome radio exposure, but inside the group—and among critics—there was a shared sense that the track fell short of the fire they produced onstage. The Stones knew they were capable of something louder, rougher, and more dangerous, yet nothing in their live repertoire seemed primed to become a hit. Manager Andrew Oldham felt that pressure even more intensely, desperately searching for a song that would help his young band step out from the long shadow of their soon-to-be rivals, the Beatles. His hope for a second single that could push the Stones into serious contention led to a string of failed attempts, rejected covers, and mounting frustration. But fate, wandering down Charing Cross Road, had other plans.
From Rejected Covers to an Unexpected Gift
Before Oldham crossed paths with Lennon and McCartney, the Stones had already worked through a series of potential follow-ups to Come On. Their version of Poison Ivy by the Coasters was met with unanimous dissatisfaction—not energetic enough, not original enough, simply not the breakthrough they needed. The question lingered: where could they find a song bold enough to define the band’s identity?
That question was answered on September 10, 1963. Oldham encountered John Lennon and Paul McCartney on Charing Cross Road and casually mentioned his songwriting dilemma. The Beatles, already deep into the recording of With the Beatles, responded with surprising generosity. They offered the Stones a composition they were preparing to record themselves the very next day—a direct, urgent love song with unmistakable hit potential: I Wanna Be Your Man. What followed was more than helpful; it was historic.
Inside Studio 51: A Song Transformed
Oldham immediately ushered the two Beatles to Studio 51, where the Stones were rehearsing. Lennon and McCartney ran through the basic structure, shared the lyrics, and then, to the astonishment of everyone present, stepped aside to finish the song in the corner of the room. Bill Wyman later remembered being stunned as McCartney—left-handed—picked up his bass and played it “backwards.” In less than twenty minutes, I Wanna Be Your Man was complete.
Keith Richards recalled the moment as a revelation: the Beatles played the song with them, Brian Jones added sharp slide guitar ideas, and suddenly the track shifted from a pop melody into something unmistakably Stones-like—leaner, tougher, and far more aggressive. Oldham recognized immediately that this encounter lifted the Stones into a new reality: they could stop imitating their heroes and start becoming one of the great British bands in their own right. Lennon later joked that the song was a “throwaway,” but its impact on the Stones was anything but.
Watching Lennon and McCartney compose so effortlessly inspired Jagger and Richards to take songwriting seriously for the first time. Until then, the Stones had relied almost entirely on American blues covers. But this moment—this casual tutorial in Studio 51—set the Jagger–Richards partnership into motion.
Recording a Breakthrough
Three weeks later, on October 7, 1963, the Rolling Stones recorded their version of I Wanna Be Your Man. Brian Jones dominated the track with a fierce slide performance on his Gretsch Anniversary guitar, driven through a Vox AC30 that produced an unusually saturated tone for the era. Bill Wyman’s new Framus Star bass added punch, while Jagger delivered the song with a confidence that transformed the Lennon–McCartney lyrics into something darker and more forceful.
Compared to the Beatles’ soon-to-be-released album version—used as a showcase for Ringo from 1963 through 1966—the Stones’ rendition was sharper, more ragged, and defiantly garage-rock in attitude. Despite lukewarm initial reviews, the single landed at No. 12 in the UK on November 14, 1963, becoming their first top-20 hit. Its US release initially stumbled but later resurfaced as the B-side to Not Fade Away, by then with the band’s growing fan base starting to take shape.
The B-side of the single, Stoned, marked another milestone: an early Nanker/Phelge composition featuring pianist Ian Stewart. Part instrumental groove, part inside joke, it became the band’s first released self-written track—and, due to a misprint on some original pressings, a collector’s treasure.
Legacy and Lasting Impact
I Wanna Be Your Man never appeared on an original Stones studio album, but it has been kept alive across several major compilations, including Milestones, Rolled Gold, The Singles Collection: The London Years, and GRRR!. More importantly, its legacy lives in what it sparked: the Jagger–Richards songwriting engine, the emergence of Brian Jones as a slide-guitar pioneer in British pop, and the band’s early rise to national visibility.
The song also became part of broadcast history. On January 1, 1964, the Stones performed it on the very first episode of the BBC’s Top of the Pops, opening the show before Dusty Springfield, The Hollies, and The Dave Clark Five. A later performance on The Arthur Haynes Show would find its way into The Beatles Anthology and the documentary Crossfire Hurricane, a reminder of the intertwined early days of Britain’s two greatest rock groups.
Through accident, generosity, and a spark of competition, I Wanna Be Your Man helped transform the Rolling Stones from up-and-coming blues enthusiasts into serious contenders—foreshadowing the era-defining rivalry and mutual inspiration that would shape the sound of the 1960s.
Like what you see? Help keep it going! This site runs on the support of readers like you. Your donation helps cover costs and keeps fresh Rolling Stones content coming your way every day. Thank you!
