Rolling Stones songs: My Girl
*Click for MORE ROLLING STONES SONGS 1962-PRESENT

I go so much honey, the bees envy me/ I’ve got a sweeter song, baby, than the birds in the trees…

Written by: Robinson/White
Recorded: RCA Studios, Hollywood, USA, May 12-13 1965; IBC Studios, London, England, Aug. 31-Sept. 2 1966
*Data taken from Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012

From Songfacts:
This was written by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White, who were both members of The Miracles. Robinson wrote the lyrics – he was married at the time to his first wife, Claudette (they were wed from 1957-1986), but Smokey said that the song is not about a specific girl, but “written with all the women in the world in mind.”

This song was written in the Apollo Theater when The Temptations were playing as part of a package tour with The Miracles. According to Robinson, he was working out the song on a piano at the theater when his bandmate Ronald White joined him and they hashed out the song. When The Temptations heard it, they convinced Robinson to let them record it instead of The Miracles. Robinson, who was Berry Gordy’s right-hand man at Motown agreed, and rehearsed the song with The Tempts over the next week. When they returned to Detroit, Robinson and White produced the session on December 21, 1964 when they recorded this song.

From the The Rolling Stones – All the Songs book:
“My Girl” was written in 1964 by two members of the Miracles, Smokey
Robinson and Ronald White, as a tribute to Smokey’s wife, Claudette
Rogers. Recorded by the Temptations, with David Ruffin singing lead
vocals, the song was released as a single (with “[Talking ’bout] Nobody But
My Baby” as the B-side) on December 21, 1964. It reached number 1 on
the Billboard pop chart on March 6, 1965 (and the same position on the
R&B chart). This was the Temptations’ first number 1 and one of the
biggest hits in Motown’s history.