Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 11, 12, 30 September; 3, 23 October 1963
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 22 November 1963 (UK), 20 January 1964 (US)
Available on:
With The Beatles
Live At The BBC
Anthology 1
Personnel
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums, maracasJohn Lennon: backing vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: lead guitar
George Martin: Hammond organ
Ringo Starr’s vocal contribution to With The Beatles, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ was also recorded and released in 1963 by The Rolling Stones as their second single.
The song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who evidently didn’t rate it that highly.
It was a throwaway. The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones. That shows how much importance we put on it: We weren’t going to give them anything great, right?
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Accounts of its genesis vary. Paul McCartney recalled that ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ was written for Starr and later offered to the Stones. He recounted how he and Lennon were passed by a taxi containing Jagger and Richards while walking down London’s Charing Cross Road.
So they shouted from the taxi and we yelled, ‘Hey, hey, give us a lift, give us a lift,’ and we bummed a lift off them. So there were the four of us sitting in a taxi and I think Mick said, ‘Hey, we’re recording. Got any songs?’ And we said, ‘Aaaah, yes, sure, we got one. How about Ringo’s song? You could do it as a single.’
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
John Lennon recalled completing it with McCartney in front of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who were impressed enough to begin songwriting themselves shortly afterwards.
‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ was a kind of lick Paul had: ‘I want to be your lover, baby. I want to be your man.’ I think we finished it off for the Stones… yeah, we were taken down to meet the Stones at the club where they were playing in Richmond by Brian and some other guy. They wanted a song and we went to see them to see what kind of stuff they did. Mick and Keith had heard that we had an unfinished song – Paul just had this bit and we needed another verse or something. We sort of played it roughly to them and they said, ‘Yeah, OK, that’s our style.’ So Paul and I just went off in the corner of the room and finished the song off while they were all still there talking. We came back and that’s how Mick and Keith got inspired to write, because, ‘Jesus, look at that. They just went in the corner and wrote it and came back!’ Right in front of their eyes we did it.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
It was important that the song was simple, in order for Starr to be able to sing it. As McCartney explained:
We often used to say to people, the words don’t really matter, people don’t listen to words, it’s the sound they listen to. So ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ was to try and give Ringo something like ‘Boys’; an uptempo song he could sing from the drums. So again it had to be very simple.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ was performed live by The Beatles many times, following its release on With The Beatles. Indeed, it was the oldest Lennon-McCartney song performed at their final concert, on 29 August 1966 at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.
The Beatles also recorded it on two occasions for BBC radio. The first was for Saturday Club, recorded on 7 January 1964 and first broadcast on 15 February. The second, which was included on Live At The BBC, was for the From Us To You show. It was recorded on 28 February 1964 and broadcast on 30 March.
A version from the Around The Beatles TV show, recorded on 19 April 1964, was released on Anthology 1 in 1995.
In the studio
Although musically one of The Beatles’ most rudimentary songs, the recording of ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ was a surprisingly drawn out affair. They recorded a single take during the 11 September 1963 session, the day after they had offered it to Jagger and Richards.
The Beatles returned to it the following day, recording a further six takes but leaving it unfinished. Then, on 30 September, George Martin overdubbed an organ part onto take seven while The Beatles were on holiday.
Ringo Starr overdubbed a maraca part on 3 October 1963, and on 23 October The Beatles finally completed the recording with the addition of a tambourine part.
John played the Hammond, not Martin.
No, you’re wrong. The Beatles were on holiday when that overdub was recorded.
According to the liner notes by Tony Barrow it was John playing the organ, but of course he could have been mistaken.
Barrow was a PR guy whose job it was to play-up – and sometimes slightly
exaggerate – the Beatles’ talent and involvement in thier recordings. He didn’t keep session data nor an official diary.
That’s right – he made some errors or omissions in the liner notes to “With the Beatles”, such as incorrectly saying that Paul played claves on “Don’t Bother Me” (he actually played a wood block and even the photo taken at the session confirms this) plus failing to mention that George sang backing vocals on “All I’ve Got to Do”. This is not to say that he never got anything in album liner notes correct, because he correctly stated that John and George switched to acoustic guitars on “Till There Was You” plus Ringo played bongos on that song as well as maracas on “Devil in Her Heart”.
I guess it never occurred to him to go to Abbey Road Studios and ask for some photocopies of the session sheets as a means of fact-checking prior to writing the liner notes.
Tony also made some unconvincing claim that John called Pete Best a good drummer and Ringo a good Beatle, but I have never come across any evidence to confirm that John ever said anything positive about Best as a drummer.
Just a dumb little song, but its the pre-Rubber Soul song that gets stuck in my head the most. Unfortunately.
I like the “roughness” of the song’s performance. I imagine that this would have been a great song for the Cavern concerts: yes, rudimentary, but full of verve, energy, fun.
love the beatles…but in this one the Stones are better.
I’ve always wondered what Ringo mutters right before the solo is done and the vocals kick back in.
Not lines on the cover says that it´s John whoplays Hammond
Sorry Carlos, but all four Beatles were holidaying abroad when the organ overdub was added, so it wouldn’t have been possible for John to play the organ at the session.
I have to agree with Victor, the Stones absolutely killed it on this one.
When you play the Stones’ & Beatles’ versions back-to-back, it’s clear who the better musicians are. As much as I love the Stones (and I do), to this day they still sound like a semi-out-of-tune bar band (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
At that time, The Rolling Stones hadn’t been together all that long, so they were obviously still recording novices at this point in time. They also hadn’t polished their musicianship in the clubs of Liverpool and Hamburg, but rather, their native London.
This video also addresses Andrew Loog Oldham’s contributions to the early records as producer and yes, I do acknowledge that the sound quality is a little bit distorted on their early 45’s in terms of clarity.
Throw away song by the Beatles for Ringo, of course they weren’t trying to “kill it”, so sure the Stones did a good job as it meant a lot to them.
Here’s more Stones doing the Beatles.
At the end of the guitar solo I can hear john say “Tell them, slow” before the song is cut into a different take.
Ringo , Paul and John wrote the song. George played lead on it . As for the Stones , John said to me , when i interviewed him when he was appearing on Mike Douglas Show in Phila Pa , ” before Brian was drugged up all the time , he was the only one who was worth his weight as far as playing anything and everything in that band ! ” John also said some other very interesting things to me , about back then ! He also said to me , ” YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON TO INTERVIEW ME (AND YOKO) THAT DID NOT ASK ” when are THE BEATLES getting back together “
Great Ringo vocals on this Lennon-McCartney song off “With the Beatles”. But I have to admit I much prefer The Rolling Stones version. Jagger’s vocals, Brian Jones brilliant lead guitar work and Bill Wyman’s bass.Add up to a great cover. It may have been a Lennon-McCartney throw away, The Rolling Stones transform this song.
Ringo’s vocals are heavily supplemented byJohn and Paul. Listen to the song and you can hear it. George Martin turns Ringo’s vocals way up for the chorus, so the listener clocks the singer as Ringo, but the rest of the time it’s mostly John and Paul.
I never liked The Beach Boys that much,I don’t dislike them either though.But really,all of their 1960’s hit songs were non-rocking beach surfing hits,and the early Beatles hit songs like I Want To Hold Your Hand,She Loves You,I Saw Her Standing There,Can’t Buy Me Love,You Can’t Do That,I Feel Fine,She’s A Woman,I’m Down etc,are much harder rocking than anything out at the time especially the 1963 and early 1964 songs,including those Beach Boys beach surfing hits.I never heard the Pet Sounds album,but everyone who did describes it as a pop,not rock album.
And see what poster Ed Sulivan says in the comments here about how obviously better The Beatles version of the rock n roll song, I Wanna Be Your Man they wrote and gave to The Rolling Stones,which was one of their first hits,was much better,and what he says about how this comparison becomes doubly true between The Beach Boys version of the cover Rock & Roll Music and what is presented on The Beatles For Sale album,and he rightfully said that The Beatles are obviously in a class by themselves.
https://www.popmatters.com/115747-re-meet-the-beatles-the-records-day-one-1963-1964-2496121029.html
Here is The Beach Boys bad,non-rocking version of Rock n Roll music that they recorded in 1976 with much better recording technology too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS3h5oGEuqk
Also quite a few people in comments on youtube showing The Beatles version with The Rolling Stones version said The Beatles version was faster and more rocking.And a 28 year old guy from France said this too and he also said The Rolling Stones version put him to sleep.
For the Beatles the song was an album filler; a throwaway. For the Rolling Stones it became the group’s first hit, peaking at No. 12 in the UK. Even John Lennon underrated the song. Any other group could make a hit out of it.
This song rocks. It rocks 1000 times more than the Stones version. They may have originally thought it was a throwaway but The Beatles played it live until their last show because it rocks. The Stones version is an out of tune bore. They sound bored playing it. The Beatles threw in energy to burn.
a filler for the Beatles = a great hit for any other band even the stones
their standards were just higher than anyone else
For a song that’s considered a “throwaway”, this song, for me anyway, may be the best song on the With The Beatles album. It’s “raunchy”, fast paced, and the energy level is “off the charts”. The only possible downside is the lyrics which are laughably simple but the music is great, and George Harrison’s guitar solo rocks.
When you play the Stones’ & the Beatles’ versions back-to-back, it’s quite obvious to notice how sloppy the Stones’ musicianship was at this point.
I’m almost speechless to see you referring to the Stones playing as sloppy,but if you like to view it like that then who’s gonna worry.The two versions are hardly comparable..they’re so different.In a way the Stones kind of “murdered” it..but as a timeless piece of rock’n’roll it’s masterful…one of my favourites.I’ve heard many people say Jimi Hendrix version of “Watchtower” is so much better than Dylans’ and personally I like both equally…but the Stones are (mostly)still alive and kicking nearly 60 years on and even as a huge Beatles fan I find their version of the song very tame.The guitar work by Brian Jones is brilliant and nasty at the same time,complimenting Jaggers’ sneering vocals,and ya have to admit that the bass is unusually whacky and intriguing.During the 60’s many people rated a rock vocalist on “how good a snarl” he had.If ya don’t like talking about rock ‘n’roll in these kind of terms you’re just not really a rock ‘n’roll animal.Let’s just say the Stones version is an example of how competition can be a positive impetus.Peace to ya brother
I like both versions of the song, but I prefer the Beatles’ version. It’s mindless, simple, rocking and repetitive, and Ringo sings it well. The dog bark sounds at as it ends have always made me laugh and I hate remixes and remasters that fade it out before the song’s end.
On the other hand, the Stones’ version plays a vital role in the evolution of heavy-metal rock. That this fuzz-fest was recorded in 1963 is amazing, a whole year before the Kinks “You really got me.” No rock journalist I’ve ever come across in 49 years of reading rock journalism has ever made the connection.
So I’m afraid in both his instances of put-downs regarding this song {“Ringo and the Rolling Stones…”}, John got this one majorly wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time !