Chart entered : 25 July 1963
Chart peak : 21
Number of hits : 51
When it comes to the
Beatles and the Stones, I admit I fall on the side of the Scousers. That said,
when it comes to their respective debut singles, I'd have to give Mick, Keef
and the boys the victory.
Perhaps that's helped
by the fact it's a cover of a Chuck Berry song, therefore had an extra quality
that the relatively inexperienced Lennon and McCartney didn't have. The Stones
had worked on their blues chops for some years, especially the rhythm section
of Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, who keep it chugging along at a nice speed.
Brian Jones also provides some good fills on the harmonica. Such is the Stones'
desire to be faithful to the original that there's only a second in difference
in running time!
Mick Jagger, of
course, doesn't sound as "authentic" as Berry, and his quasi-American
accent on certain parts is fairly amusing with the benefit of half a century's
hindsight. But it's not difficult to see why the Stones' popularity took off,
especially with people who may have thought the Beatles a bit too clean-cut and
nice. "Come On" set the tone of their early days - cover versions,
usually of blues numbers - before Jagger and Keith Richards were pushed into
writing their own material by manager Andrew Loog-Oldham.
The Stones, of course,
are still out there doing their thing, raking in huge mountains of cash for
doing so. So their "goodbye" entry is still up in the air as to when
it will appear!
D.C. Harrison
D.C. Harrison
The Stones also score over their rivals in how they treated their "square peg", Ian Stewart , who was dropped from the line-up just before this release. The initiative came from Oldham in contrast to Epstein being asked to do Macca and co's dirty work and Stu worked with the band for the rest of his life. There is a case for saying that his death in 1985 marked the changeover from being a band to a brand.
ReplyDelete