How 'The Last Time' Made the Stones Their Own Songwriters

Before 1965, every Rolling Stones single was a cover. Then came “The Last Time” – their first A-side written entirely by Jagger and Richards. The band had tested originals on B-sides, but this was the moment they bet on themselves. Released in February 1965, it shot to #1 in the UK and cracked the US Top 10, proving they could write hits as good as the blues and R&B songs they’d been borrowing.

The riff was directly lifted from a 1954 gospel song by the Staple Singers called “This May Be the Last Time.” Jagger and Richards never hid the debt – later they’d give a co-writer credit to Roebuck “Pops” Staples to avoid a lawsuit. But they stamped it with their own paranoid, restless delivery and a stop-start chorus that felt like a door slamming shut. The impact: it ended the Stones’ identity as a pure cover band and opened the door for “Satisfaction” later that same year.

Beyond the charts, “The Last Time” changed the band’s creative control. Record labels had been skeptical that Jagger/Richards could produce commercial originals. After this single, the Stones never needed to ask permission again. It also introduced a new strain of anxiety into their sound – less “I need you,” more “I’m done with you” – a mood that would define their next decade.