The Rolling Stones eventually developed into a band capable of writing their own No. 1 hits, but they relied on cover songs and kind composers giving them music on many of their early tunes. John Lennon and Paul McCartney gave the Stones the song that became their first hit. Mick Jagger and Keith Richard gave away a top-10 hit to another musician before The Rolling Stones notched a top-10 tune of their own.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards gave away their first top-10 song, ‘That Girl Belongs to Yesterday’
The Beatles mined the catalogs of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry for some of their earliest hits. The Rolling Stones were no different. They relied on cover songs early in their career. A Berry cover (“Come On”) became the band’s first charting single in July 1963. Their version of Holly’s “Not Fade Away” was the Stones’ first top-10 single in England, in April 1964.
That’s because Jagger and Richards gave away the song that became their first hit single.
Gene Pitney’s rendition of the Jagger-Richards song “That Girl Belongs to Yesterday” rose to No. 7 in England in March 1964. It beat “Not Fade Away” into the top 10 by a month.
The band topped the charts with covers of “It’s All Over Now” and “Little Red Rooster” in 1964. The first successful Stones single written by Richards and Jagger was “The Last Time,” which soared to No. 1 in early 1965, per the Official Charts Company.
It’s easy to see why Jagger and Richards gave away the song to Gene Pitney
Keith and Mick didn’t write a Rolling Stones hit single until “The Last Time,” but that was a watershed moment. The duo took their band to No. 1 with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Get Off My Cloud” later in 1965.
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It’s hard not to believe that their hidden success with “That Girl Belongs to Yesterday” helped spark Jagger and Richards as songwriters. Still, it’s easy to see why they let Pitney have the song.
The mid-tempo tune with lyrics about puppy love sounded reminiscent of some early Beatles songs. The underlying piano riff and saxophone in Pitney’s arrangement leaned more R&B, but lyrically and melodically, it recalled Fab Four tunes such as “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” and “Baby It’s You.” For a band looking to carve out its own identity, copying the most popular band in England would have been a terrible move.
Along those lines, the tone of the song didn’t suit the Stones, either. At the time, they dressed in suits like the Fab Four did, but they positioned themselves as the edgier, street-wise group that leaned more toward a gritty blues sound than a lighter pop tone. Putting “That Girl Belongs to Yesterday” under the Stones banner would have made creating their own identity more of a struggle.
The Rolling Stones’ songwriting duo came into their own in a big way
Jagger and Richards relied on covers and gifted songs early in the Stones’ career, but they got on a roll once they started racking up songwriting credits.
It was the third chart-topper for the band, but “The Last Time” was the first No. 1 song Keith and Mick wrote for the Stones. After that, all of the band’s biggest hits were originals. The songwriting duo penned classic rock standards such as “Paint It, Black,” “Street Fighting Man,” “Brown Sugar,” and too many more to mention. It wouldn’t be all that hard to argue that some of the most famous Stones songs weren’t singles, and Jagger and Richards had a hand in writing all of them.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards gave away the song that was a top-10 hit before The Rolling Stones climbed that high on the charts. “That Girl Belongs to Yesterday” didn’t suit the band, but Gene Pitney found success with it. Once Keith and Mick got on a songwriting roll, they helped the Stones become one of the most successful groups of all time.
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