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Rolling Stones Songs: That’s How Strong My Love Is
The Rolling Stones didn’t exactly become famous for wearing their hearts on their sleeves, which makes That’s How Strong My Love Is such an intriguing detour. Recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago in 1965, their take on the Roosevelt Jamison song finds Mick Jagger dialing down the swagger and leaning into something far more tender. But there’s a twist: the version that really caught the Stones’ attention wasn’t the original—it was Otis Redding’s soulful reinterpretation. With Ian Stewartr on piano, Keith Richards adding sharp guitar touches, and the band blending British rock attitude with Southern soul, this overlooked Stones cover reveals a surprisingly vulnerable side of the group. And yes, Jagger could actually behave.
I’ll be the ocean so deep and wide/ I’ll dry the tears when you cry…
Written by: Roosevelt Jamison Recorded: Chess Studios, Chicago, USA, May 10 1965
Mick Jaggeer: vocals Keith Richards: guitar Breian Jones: organ Bill Wyman: bass Charlie Watts: drums Guest musicians: Ian Stewart (piano)
More about The Rolling Stones’ take on That’s How Strong My Love Is
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
A Soul Ballad with a Complicated History
By the time The Rolling Stones recorded That’s How Strong My Love Is the song had already taken a fascinating journey through the Southern soul scene. Written by Roosevelt Jamison, a Mississippi-born songwriter who settled in Memphis, Tennessee, it was first recorded in 1964 by O. V. Wright for Goldwax Records, the label run by Quinton Claunch. Jamison had discovered Wright in the Beale Street district and persuaded the blues and gospel singer to record the song. Wright’s version helped broaden his audience, but it was Otis Redding who radically reshaped the composition. His 1964 recording transformed Jamison’s original into the passionate, pleading soul ballad that caught the attention of The Rolling Stones. By 1965, Mick Jagger and the band were not simply covering a song—they were responding to Redding’s reinterpretation.
From O. V. Wright to Otis Redding
The history of That’s How Strong My Love Is is slightly more complicated than the credits on the record sleeve might suggest. Roosevelt Jamison wrote the song, but the version that ultimately mattered most to The Rolling Stones was not O. V. Wright’s original recording. Wright’s 1964 interpretation belongs firmly to the deep soul tradition, with a plaintive character that makes it sound almost like a different composition when compared with what came next.
Otis Redding took Jamison’s basic idea and gave it a dramatic makeover. Released as the B-side of Mr. Pitiful in December 1964, his version became one of Redding’s signature performances. It later appeared on The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, reaching No. 18 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 74 on the US pop chart.
Redding’s genius was not simply in singing the song differently. He virtually reconstructed it, retaining the central lyrical imagery while creating a new melody better suited to his pleading vocal style. The result was relaxed without becoming sleepy, dramatic without losing its emotional intimacy, and perfectly suited to the Stax Records sound.
The lyrics themselves are unabashedly romantic, using the sun, moon, ocean and other forces of nature to measure the scale of devotion. Redding’s delivery made those grand declarations feel personal rather than theatrical. His version was the one that The Rolling Stones heard—and the one they followed.
Mick Jagger Finds a Different Voice
For Mick Jagger the material presented an opportunity to step away from the swaggering attitude that had increasingly become part of his public image. That’s How Strong My Love Is demands something more vulnerable, and Jagger rises to the occasion with one of his finest performances on Out of Our Heads.
His control of the vocal is particularly striking. He moves between rougher, more forceful phrases and unexpectedly gentle passages, while also taking liberties with the melody. In fact, the verses can sound almost unfamiliar compared with Redding’s interpretation, with the refrains providing the strongest point of recognition.
The Stones also give the song considerably more energy. The grandly ascending instrumental opening immediately establishes a different atmosphere, while Charlie Watts keeps the performance moving with his ride cymbal. The rhythm occasionally halts and then gathers momentum, allowing the band to push harder into the chorus and the more dramatic bridge.
There is a warmth here that could easily be overlooked when discussing Jagger. He does not treat the song as an exercise in imitation. Instead, he absorbs Redding’s approach and filters it through the Stones’ own musical personality.
The Stones Turn Soul Into Their Own Language
The arrangement contains several intriguing details. Keith Richards plays rhythm guitar on his Gibson Les Paul, essentially carrying the guitar foundation himself. Brian Jones appears to play organ, although the instrument is difficult to hear clearly on the recording. One possible clue comes from the Stones’ appearance on Ready Steady Go! broadcast on September 10, 1965, and recorded on September 2, where Jones can be seen playing organ. The piano, meanwhile, is audible but discreet, and marks Ian Stewart’s return to the Stones’ recordings after a brief absence.
The Stones’ relationship with Otis Redding was hardly accidental. During the mid-1960s, they were deeply influenced by his music, covering other Redding material such as Pain in My Heart and absorbing elements of his vocal and songwriting approach. That’s How Strong My Love Is sits neatly within that exchange between British rock and American soul.
A Song That Came Back Decades Later
The story did not end with Out of Our Heads. The Rolling Stones eventually returned to That’s How Strong My Love Is during the Licks Tour of 2002–2003, bringing a song rooted in the Memphis soul scene back into their live repertoire almost four decades after the original recording.
The song had meanwhile accumulated an impressive list of interpretations. Besides O. V. Wright, Otis Redding and The Rolling Stones, versions were recorded by The In Crowd, The Hollies, Millie Small, Georgie Fame, The Creation, Bryan Ferry, Humble Pie, Taj Mahal, Alan Price, Iggy Pop, ? & the Mysterians, Percy Sledge, Steve Young and The Youngbloods.
Yet the Stones’ recording remains particularly interesting because it captures a moment when their musical curiosity was running in several directions at once. They were a British rock band borrowing from an American soul singer who had himself radically reworked a song by a Memphis songwriter.
That chain of influence is what makes That’s How Strong My Love Is more than another cover buried in the Stones’ catalogue. O. V. Wright recorded Jamison’s composition. Otis Redding transformed it. The Rolling Stones heard Redding and transformed it again. By the time Mick Jagger sang it, the song had traveled from Mississippi and Memphis through the Southern soul tradition and into the hands of a British rock band determined to make it their own.
And perhaps that is the real trick: the Stones did not need to pretend they had invented the song. They simply knew what to steal—and, more importantly, what to change.
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