We challenge you to make a list of the greatest songwriters in rock and roll history. If you don’t include Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, you should probably start over. The two men have composed the bulk of the imposing catalog of The Rolling Stones, an all-time band that refuses to slow down.
Yet Jagger and Richards might not have reached that pinnacle as writers if they hadn’t been forced into it. Once they wrote a song in 1964 and saw the publishing royalties rolling into their accounts as a result of a version that they didn’t even initially record, there was no stopping them.
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Covers No More
The Rolling Stones essentially originated as a blues cover band. Unlike The Beatles, who were writing songs from the outset of their recording career, the Stones managed to gain a great deal of popularity right off the bat by imbuing the force of their personality on songs from the blues songbook.
But the band’s producer and manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was not about to let that stand. Oldham realized that The Stones’ output might start to become a bit limited if they never came up with anything original. The fact that they had to borrow a song (“I Wanna Be Your Man”) written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for an early single also might have highlighted the problem.
Still, Jagger and Richards were reluctant to make the move into the world of songwriting. Richards, for one, didn’t think it was part of his job description. But Oldham gave them an ultimatum. Considering where the song the two men eventually wrote ended up, he might have had ulterior motives for doing so.
Captive Songwriters
Oldham used a somewhat crude method for getting Jagger and Richards to compose a song. He locked them in a kitchen and told them that they weren’t getting out of there until they had composed a worthwhile song. His instructions also insisted that the pair create something separate from a rewrite of an old blues song.
Jagger and Richards eventually emerged. As would often be their working method in the future, Jagger wrote the lyrics based on a piece of music created by Richards. It was a soft ballad, one about someone looking back from the standpoint of old age at happier times he can’t reclaim.
Neither Jagger nor Richards thought the song was any good. But Oldham heard dollar signs when the two played it for him. The only suggestion he had was to change the title from “As Time Goes By”, already used in a popular standard featured in the classic film Casablanca. For that, Oldham received a songwriting credit on the rechristened “As Tears Go By”.
Happy “Tears”
Jagger and Richards never even considered bringing the song to the Stones. They knew that such a ballad would tarnish their gritty reputation. Instead, they let Oldham shop it around. But the manager already had a good idea where it was headed.
Oldham had recently gained Marianne Faithfull, a promising newcomer, as a client. It was originally intended as a B-side, at least until folks heard the song. It was shifted to the A-side and became a major hit for Faithfull on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Rolling Stones eventually got around to doing their own version of “As Tears Go By”, and they enjoyed a US hit with the song. But its ultimate importance was in demonstrating to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards that they could write as well, if not better, than they could interpret.
(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)