How 'As Tears Go By' Got Written: Andrew Loog Oldham Locks Jagger and Richards in a Room

The most interesting thing about “As Tears Go By” is that it only exists because Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones’ manager, literally locked Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in a kitchen and told them not to come out until they’d written a non-R&B song. Up to that point, the band had been covering American blues and R&B—Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry—and Oldham wanted to prove they could write their own material, especially something melodic enough for pop radio. They banged it out in about an hour, a wistful ballad with string arrangement, and the irony is that they didn’t even record it themselves first.

Oldham gave the song to Marianne Faithfull instead, then a 17-year-old singer he was promoting. Her version became a Top 10 UK hit in 1964, and the Stones didn’t release their own take until 1965 on the December’s Children album. For the band, “As Tears Go By” was a radical departure—a