The Rolling Stones – I Wanna Be Your Man

“I Wanna Be Your Man” – Single by the Rolling Stones
A-side: “Not Fade Away” (US 2nd release)
B-side: “Stoned” (UK) & (US 1st release)
Released: November 1, 1963 (UK), March 1964 (US)
Recorded: October 7, 1963
Studio: De Lane Lea Studios, London
Label: Decca (UK) London (US)
Songwriters: Lennon–McCartney
Producers: Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton
Charted No.12 in UK

“I Wanna Be Your Man” is a Lennon–McCartney-penned song first recorded and released as a single by the Rolling Stones, and then recorded by the Beatles for their second studio album With the Beatles. The song was primarily written by Paul McCartney, and finished by McCartney with John Lennon in the corner of a Richmond, London, club while Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were talking.

Released as their second single on November 1, 1963, the Stones’s version was the group’s first UK top-20 hit, peaking at number 12 on the British chart. Their rendition features Brian Jones’s distinctive slide guitar and Bill Wyman’s driving bass playing. It is one of the few Rolling Stones songs to feature only Brian Jones on backing vocals. In the US, the song was initially released as London 45-LON 9641 (with “Stoned” on the B-side) without any success and was soon after re-released on March 6, 1964 as the B-side to “Not Fade Away”.

According to various accounts, either Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ manager/producer, or the Rolling Stones themselves ran into Lennon and McCartney on the street as the two were returning from an awards luncheon. Hearing that the group were in need of material for a single, Lennon and McCartney went to their session at De Lane Lea Studio and finished off the song – whose verse they had already been working on – in the corner of the room while the impressed Rolling Stones watched.

Released only as a single, the Rolling Stones’ rendition did not appear on a studio album. The song was reissued in the UK on the Decca compilation albums Milestones (1972) and Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones (1975). In 1989, it was issued on the US compilation album Singles Collection: The London Years. It is included on the four-CD version of the 2012 GRRR! compilation.

On January 1, 1964, the Stones’ “I Wanna Be Your Man” was performed on the first episode of the BBC’s Top of the Pops, making them the first band to appear on the show. A performance of the song on The Arthur Haynes Show recorded on 7 February 1964 appears in the 1995 docu-series The Beatles Anthology and as part of the bonus material on the 2012 documentary film Crossfire Hurricane.