"I Wanna Be Your Man"

"I Wanna Be Your Man" is a rock song written by Paul McCartney with John Lennon, and recorded separately by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones' version was released earlier.

The Rolling Stones' version

The Rolling Stones' version was an early hit single for them; their rendition is a frenetic electric rock/blues song featuring Brian Jones' distinctive slide guitar and Bill Wyman's driving bass playing. It is one of the few Rolling Stones songs featuring backing vocals by Jones. In the USA the song was released later as B-side to "Not Fade Away" on 6 March 1964.

According to various accounts, either the Rolling Stones' manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham or the Rolling Stones themselves ran into Lennon and McCartney on the street as the two were returning from an awards luncheon. Listening to the Rolling Stones' camp plea for a single, the pair travelled back to rehearsal 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. Lennon later commented, "That shows how much importance we put on it. We weren't going to give them anything great, right?"

In his review, Bruce Eder says, "the Stones went into the studio and cut a slashing, savage rendition that betrayed not a trace of Beatlesque cuteness, Brian Jones', Keith Richard's, and Bill Wyman's amps were seemingly turned up to "11" while Mick Jagger turned the lyrics — which sounded like bold yearnings in Ringo's voice — into what could have been a prelude to sexual assault. That performance, coupled with Jones' distinctive (and equally savage) slide guitar work, said volumes about who the Stones were (versus the Beatles), even as it marked them as British rock & roll's premiere stylists, and put them out there on the cutting edge of what could even get played. And it did get played, and did sell — as a cover of a Lennon-McCartney song (released three weeks before the Beatles' own version), at a moment when anything about rock & roll from Liverpool would get a chance at a hearing, and anything to do with the Beatles demanded extra attention, the song made it to number 12 in the U.K. in the hands of the Rolling Stones."

The Rolling Stones' rendition did not appear on a regular album. (Except the Around and Around compilation album in 1964). It first appeared as a single. In 1989 it was issued on Singles Collection: The London Years.

Personnel

* Mick Jagger – lead vocals
* Brian Jones – slide guitar, backing vocals
* Keith Richards – rhythm guitar
* Bill Wyman – bass
* Charlie Watts – drums

The Beatles' version

The Beatles' version was sung by Ringo Starr and appeared on the album With The Beatles. It was driven by a heavily tremoloed, open E chord on a guitar played through a Vox AC30 amplifier with the "tremolo" setting turned up.

Personnel

* John Lennon – rhythm guitar, harmony vocal
* Paul McCartney – bass, harmony vocal
* George Harrison – lead guitar
* Ringo Starr – drums, maracas, lead vocal
* George Martin – Hammond organ

Single by The Rolling Stones
B-side: "Stoned" (Nanker Phelge)
Released: 1 November 1963
Format: 7" single
Recorded: 7 October 1963
Genre: Beat
Label: Decca Records F.11764
Writer(s): John Lennon/Paul McCartney
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham

Song by The Beatles
Album: With The Beatles
Released: 22 November 1963
Genre: Beat
Length: 1:58
Label: Parlophone
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Producer: George Martin

Wikipedia