News The songs Paul McCartney recommended to The Rolling Stones: “Mick would deny it”
In conversations surrounding the greatest songwriters of all time, the name Paul McCartney is always guaranteed to crop up, and for good reason. Alongside his partner John Lennon, the bass-playing Beatle is the mind behind some of the most well-known and well-loved songs of all time, from the calming chords of ‘Hey Jude’ to the lyrical longing of ‘Yesterday’.
No one knows music quite like McCartney, and few people are more qualified to make song recommendations than he is. He’s so qualified, in fact, that even Mick Jagger was open to taking on his song suggestions, though he wouldn’t be quite as willing to shout about it.
Heading up fellow rock pioneers and British music legends the Rolling Stones, Jagger is one of few musicians who has honed a legacy that could compete with McCartney’s. Perhaps it was this similarly mammoth reputation that led Jagger to take song recommendations from the Beatle when the pair sat down together in a music room.
One of the songs McCartney suggested to Jagger was ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’, which had been a hit for The Temptations in the 1960s. The soul number paired piano flourishes with lyrical longing, topping the R&B charts and winning over the admiration of McCartney.
The Rolling Stones, upon McCartney’s recommendation, would record their own rendition of the song to feature on their 1974 album, It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll. True to the album title, they provided their own rocking take on the soulful song while retaining the groove of the original with gorgeous pianos and a powerful beat. Electric guitars and Jagger’s vocals bring the song firmly into their remit, giving it a characteristic Rolling Stones edge.
McCartney also claims to have recommended ‘She Said Yeah’ to the Stones, a song they would feature on their 1965 record December’s Children (And Everybody’s). The song was first written by Sonny Bono, of Sonny and Cher, and Roddy Jackson, but the Stones’ driving guitars and fuzzy vocals make the track seem as if it was always intended for them. It’s the perfect album opener, leading you into an album full of classic covers by Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and more.
Decades later, the Beatle attempted to rival the Stones’ rocking take on the track when he covered it himself as part of his 1999 record, Run Devil Run. In an archived interview to promote the album, McCartney remembered recommending the two songs to Jagger.
“Mick would deny it – ‘Wot? Never saw him, never met him’,” he joked, “but I distinctly remember having him up into a little music room and playing it to him.” Like McCartney, Jagger obviously knows good music. He was so taken by the songs he had been shown by the Beatle that he was moved to take them to the Stones and record his own renditions of them.
Even if Jagger were to refute McCartney’s claims, if he maintained that he had discovered ‘She Said Yeah’ and ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’ independent of the Beatle’s advice, it’s still an image that would surely bring joy to Beatles buffs, Rolling Stones enthusiasts, and wider music fans alike. A Beatle and a Rolling Stone, two of the biggest and best artists of all time, sat in a room swapping recommendations. Legends inspiring legends.
Revisit The Rolling Stones’ cover of ‘She Said Yeah’ below.
