How 'As Tears Go By' came from Andrew Loog Oldham locking Jagger/Richards in a room

Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ manager and producer, locked Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in a kitchen in 1963 and told them to write a song. They came out with the first version of “As Tears Go By”—a conscious attempt to write a slow, commercial ballad, something totally unlike their R&B covers. Oldham wanted to prove they could do pop, and he was right.

The lyrics were deliberately simple and melancholy, inspired partly by Oldham’s suggestion that they think about lost innocence and nostalgia. But here’s the twist: the teenage Jagger and Richards had barely any life experience to draw on, so the lyrics read like a very young person imagining being old. “My riches can’t buy everything” – that line hits harder when you remember Mick was 20. Oldham then gave the song to Marianne Faithfull, who recorded it as her debut single in 1964. The Stones didn’t release their own version until 1965.