I Wanna Be Your Man

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I Wanna Be Your Man is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was first given to The Rolling Stones, and was later recorded by The Beatles.

Contents

[edit] Writing

I Wanna Be Your Man was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who, apparently, did not rate the song highly. Lennon recalled in 1980, "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?" What I Wanna Be Your Man was written for varies by account. Paul McCartney remembers the song being written for Ringo to sing, and then offered to The Rolling Stones. He recalled how he and John were passed on Charing Cross Road by a taxi carrying Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. McCartney remembered, "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.'" John recalled completing the song in front of Jagger and Richards. He said in 1980, "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." I Wanna Be Your Man was intentionally written as a simple song for Ringo to sing. Paul commented, "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."

[edit] Recording

I Wanna Be Your Man was recorded in one take on September 11, 1963, the day after it was offered to The Rolling Stones. They returned to it the next day, recording six more takes. At the end of the month, George Martin added an organ part onto Take 7 when The Beatles were on holiday. On October 3, Ringo added a maraca part, and on October 23 finishing the song. The song was recorded for BBC radio two times. The first was for Saturday Club, recorded on January 7, 1964 and broadcast on February 15. It was again recorded on March 28, 1964 and broadcast on March 30 for From Us To You. This recording was later included on the compilation Live at the BBC. The Beatles also rerecorded the song for a TV special called Around The Beatles. This version was recorded on April 19, 1964 and is included on the 1995 compilation Anthology 1.

[edit] Recording Sessions

[edit] The Rolling Stones version

The Rolling Stones recorded the song on October 7, 1963 (See The Rolling Stones record I Wanna Be Your Man - October 7, 1963). It was released as their second single and would become their first Top 20 hit.

[edit] Live Performances

I Wanna Be Your Man was performed live by The Beatles several times following it's release. In fact, it was the oldest Lennon/McCartney song performed at The Beatles' final concert of August 29, 1966 (See Live Performance - August 29, 1966).

[edit] Personnel (Beatles version)

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Guest Musicians

[edit] Production

[edit] Available Versions

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Paul McCartney

To Be Completed...

[edit] Ringo Starr

To Be Completed...

[edit] Available On

[edit] Cover Versions

[edit] Sources

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