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Rolling Stones Songs: Not Fade Away
Your love for me has got to be real/ For you to know just how I feel…
More about The Rolling Stones’ version of Not Fade Away
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
Not Exactly a Rock ‘n Roll Invasion
The Rolling Stones’ first trip to the United States in 1964 wasn’t the British Invasion-style explosion they hoped for—it was more of a cautious toe-dip. Unlike The Beatles’ headline-grabbing arrival a year earlier, the Stones touched down at JFK Airport to a shrug of indifference. No screaming teens, no mass hysteria—just a promo tour trying to drum up interest in a debut album and a band still looking for its first real American hit. Their early singles hadn’t landed with much force, and selling gritty blues back to its birthplace was proving to be a tough sell. Still, the Stones made their rounds. They charmed through TV interviews, performed on variety shows, and got a crash course in American showbiz chaos—including one particularly weird gig involving clowns, cowboys, and a very drunk Dean Martin on Hollywood Palace. Welcome to America, boys.
Bo Diddley Beats and Bottled Magic
The real magic happened off-stage, in a studio session fueled by mischief and cognac. Singer Gene Pitney tricked the band into celebrating his “birthday” with drinks, which loosened things up enough to get them recording. The track? A raw, reworked version of Buddy Holly and the Crickets’ B-side Not Fade Away. What made it pop? That infectious “Bo Diddley beat”—a cha-cha-like rhythm with roots in African American spirituals and Cuban grooves. Phil Spector even joined in, adding percussion by shaking an empty cognac bottle with a coin inside. The Stones had also toured with Bo Diddley himself, and it shows—they didn’t just cover a song, they reimagined it with swagger and soul.
Bill Wyman: “The rhythm thing was formed basically around the Buddy Holly thing. We brought the rhythm up and emphasized it. Holly had used that Bo Diddley trademark beat on his version, but because he was only using bass, drums and guitar, the rhythm element is sort of a throwaway. Holly played it lightly. We just got into it more and put the Bo Diddley beat up front.”
In Charlie Watts’s words: “We did it with a Bo Diddley beat, which at the time was very avant-garde for a white band to be playing Bo Diddley’s stuff. It was a very popular rhythm for us in clubs; looking at it from the drumming point of view. So we did it in this slightly different way than Buddy Holly did it.”
From TV Taunts to Chart Triumph
Their U.S. television debut wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. During the taping of Hollywood Palace, Dean Martin openly mocked the band’s look, their rivalry with The Beatles, and even cracked a joke before a commercial break: “You wouldn’t want to leave me alone with these Rolling Stones, would you?” But the band played on, powering through Not Fade Away and I Just Want to Make Love to You with cool detachment. Their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, saw the potential immediately. “This was the beginning of them as songwriters,” he later said. Released in February 1964, Not Fade Away hit #3 in the UK and became the lead track on their U.S. debut England’s Newest Hit Makers. The song didn’t fade—it kicked the doors wide open.
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