Being associated with the Beatles, especially during the early sixties, would be a boost to any young artist or band. Beatlemania was around every corner with their songs on every station, so to even get a little of their stardust to rub off on you might just be the thing that helps get you noticed.

Some artists wrote songs about them, Dora Bryan in 1963 sang about her ideal Christmas gift in her song, ‘All I want for Christmas is a Beatle’ (She didn’t get her wish!), and a year later, The Carefree’s penned, ‘We love you Beatles’ and of course everyone did, but some artists were lucky enough to get gifted a song by the band themselves.

So prolific was the songwriting partnership of Lennon and McCartney that they had songs to spare and even the throwaways were deemed good enough for other artists to record, good enough even for The Rolling Stones.

The story goes that the Stones, who at this point were not writing their own songs, needed a second single to follow up on their July 1963 debut, a Chuck Berry cover ‘Come on’. The song hit the NME top 20 but with Mick and Keith not yet writing their own songs, they were in search of another song to cover to build on ‘Come on’ and capitalise on an impending tour in support of the Everly Brothers, Little Richard, and Bo Diddley.

One September afternoon the Stones were at Studio 51 in London’s Soho trying to come up with another song to record and hitting a blank.

Later that day, their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, left the studio and happened on a slightly tipsy, Lennon and McCartney bundling out of a taxi on Charing Cross Road, not so fresh from the Variety Club luncheon. Within an hour, Oldham and the two Beatles had made their way back to the rehearsal and the Stones had their next single.

That afternoon, John and Paul played the Stones, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ and within a month, on a break from their ‘package tour’ with the Everleys, the Stones were back in Soho, this time at De Lane Lea Studios to record the song, complete with a dreamy slide guitar solo.

‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ having added a bit of that Beatle stardust to the fledgling Stones, hit 16 on the UK singles chart in November 1963, before peaking at 12 in January the next year and despite some less favourable reviews, including from the NME, who stated the obvious for a song they gave away, saying it was ‘Not one of Lennon and McCartney’s best numbers’, the song could be said to be transformational for the Stones in so many ways.

The collaboration with The Beatles not only provided the Stones with a commercially successful track but also showcased their ability to interpret and energise material from their contemporaries, not least that distinctive slide guitar by Brian Jones, which added a bluesy edge that would become the hallmark of the Stones sound.

Not only was the success of the single was a shot in the arm to the Stones’ reputation but it was a clear marker of the beginning of their evolution from a covers band to one developing their own songwriting partnership, a partnership that would eventually rival Lennon and McCartney.

Years later, Lennon would would be dismissive about giving the song away, saying, “It was only really a lick, so Paul and I went off in the corner of the room and finished the song off while they were all sitting there, talking. We came back and Mick and Keith said, ‘Jesus, look at that. They just went over there and wrote it.’ You know, right in front of their eyes. We gave it to them. It was a throwaway. Ringo sang it for us and the Stones did their version. It shows how much importance we put on them. We weren’t going to give them anything great, right? That was the Stones’ first record. Anyway, Mick and Keith said, ‘If they can write a song so easily, we should try it.’

Perhaps in some way, the two Beatles might have regretted sparking the Stones creativity, but it certainly made the Sixties more interesting, even if the Stones always seems a step behind, with John famously quipping being, ‘Every time the Beatles sneeze, The Stones catch a cold.’

That was the power of the Beatles at that time, everything they touched turned to gold and while some artists longing to be noticed and hanging to their coat-tails were little more than novelty (Sorry, Dora), The Stones used their brush with Beatlemania as a springboard…

And boy did they get some air.