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Rolling Stones Unreleased: That Girl Belongs to Yesterday
Also known as: My Only Girl Written by: Jagger/Richard Recorded: Regent IBC Studios, London, England, Nov. 20-21 1963
From Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012: Gene Pitney recorded the Richards (with s and before Mick in the credits) and Jagger composition That Girl Belong to Yesterday. The original tune was called My Only Girl and intended for George Bean but Gene changed the melody, left the lyrics as they were and recorded it for himself. It was released in March 1964 and reached number 7 in the charts. This was the first time a Jagger/Richards song had gone Top Ten in the UK.
Before they were rock icons, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were just beginning to test the waters as songwriters. In a twist of fate, their early composition—originally titled My Only Girl—caught the attention of Gene Pitney, already an international pop star. The song had been intended for British singer George Bean, who recorded it but never saw it released. Pitney, however, made a few key changes: he kept the lyrics, reshaped the melody, and renamed it That Girl Belongs to Yesterday. Released in March 1964, the track reached No. 7 in the UK, becoming the very first Jagger/Richards song to crack the Top Ten. Interestingly, this was even before the Rolling Stones themselves had released an original Jagger-Richards single. The collaboration came about through Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, who had promoted Pitney in the UK and introduced him to the young songwriting duo during a formative phase in their careers.
An Unlikely Collaboration with a Wall of Sound
That Girl Belongs to Yesterdayis a stylistic outlier in both Pitney’s and the Stones’ catalogs. Co-produced by Oldham and Pitney and arranged by Charles Blackwell, the song opens with a Spector-style flourish—crashing instrumentation and descending piano chords. Its emotional structure and drawn-out phrasing suit Pitney’s dramatic style, though the track itself plays more like a strong album cut than a timeless hit. Oddly, the song’s title doesn’t appear until late in the track, and the background chorus even sings the original title, My Only Girl. Despite underperforming in the U.S., the song’s UK success marked a crucial turning point for Jagger and Richards, giving them the confidence to further explore their songwriting, and laying the first stone in a legacy that would soon dominate rock history.
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