Remember When: The Beatles Wrote a Single for the Rolling Stones

The Beatles versus the Rolling Stones is a popular debate. It really strikes a cord with rock fans. Everyone has their pick and they stick by it, vehemently. Though the bands don’t necessarily fuel that fire these days, there was a time when their friendly rivalry was real.

Their intertwining histories as a band started in the early ’60s, when John Lennon and Paul McCartney penned a single for the Stones. Revisit that story, below.

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Remember When: The Beatles Wrote a Single for the Rolling Stones

In 1963, Lennon and McCartney happened to run into the Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham. At the time, the Beatles were steadily rising in the rock ranks and the Stones’ were still trying to find their footing.

“Oldham had almost literally bumped into Lennon and McCartney as they stepped out of a cab,” Bill Janovitz wrote in Rocks Off: 50 Tracks that Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones. “He invited them to the studio where the Stones were rehearsing…The two finished off what had been a McCartney sketch of an idea, handing it the Stones for their single.”

The song in question was “I Wanna Be Your Man.” Though the Beatles would go on to release a version of the up-tempo tune themselves, the Stones were the first to put it out. It helped to not only establish the band in England, but also began to set them apart from their fellow mop tops.

The Stones’ version of this song is a little harder edged than the Beatles’. It’s a trend that would continue throughout both of the bands’ tenures. They were just different enough to spark the question “Who’s better, the Beatles or The Rolling Stones?”

Despite that comparison, not even the Stones deny the fact that the Beatles helped them earn their break. Without “I Wanna Be Your Man,” we might not have ever seen the Stones flourish the way they have.

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