The Rolling Stones song Steve Van Zandt called “one of the great ballads of all time”
The Rolling Stones aren’t necessarily most well-known for their soft, slow tunes. Led by Mick Jagger, they spent the 1960s completely enveloping themselves in the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, even coming to embody it. Along the way, they penned some truly inimitable rockers, from ‘Start Me Up’ to ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, songs with iconic riffs and mammoth influence on rock as a genre. But the Stones weren’t a one-trick pony.
In fact, their talent for balladry was almost as strong as their love for rock. ‘Angie’, for example, shows off Jagger and Keith Richards’ combined talent for slower offerings, charting the bittersweet end of a romance. Over soft strums and twinkling keys, Jagger sings, “Angie, you’re beautiful, yeah, but ain’t it time we said goodbye?” It’s just as beautifully crafted as any of their more raucous hits, showing off another side to the Stones.
‘Wild Horses’ is another example of a softer song that managed to make its way through the ranks in the Stones’ discography. Released as a single in 1971, the song showed off Jagger’s talent for emotive vocal delivery, sitting perfectly amongst the country-infused soundscape. Though ‘Angie’ and ‘Wild Horses’ are two of the most well-known ballads in the Stones’ discography, neither takes the title for E Street Band member Steve Van Zandt’s favourite.
While picking out some of his favourite tracks from the British Invasion era for Uncut, Van Zandt shared his love for a slightly more obscure Stones ballad titled ‘Tell Me’. Released in 1964, ‘Tell Me’ became the first original song that the rock and roll band put out. Prior to this, they had been releasing covers of classic rockers by the likes of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly.
With their first self-penned single, Jagger and Richards quickly asserted themselves as a songwriting duo to watch. ‘Tell Me’ featured gorgeous guitar strums, joint vocals from Jagger, Richards, and Brian Jones, and love-laden lyricism. “You gotta tell me you’re coming back to me,” they sing in unison, repeating the line over and over in desperation.
The song didn’t necessarily show off the hard rocking style that they would come to be known for, but it did demonstrate their songwriting abilities in the realm of balladry. It also captured the attention of Van Zandt, who described it as “one of the great ballads of all time”.
“I don’t think it was released in the UK,” he explained, “but it was a single in the US. Though it wasn’t a hit, I got it in my local store, so it had some distribution.”
‘Tell Me’ may not have been a hit, but it has since found an important place in the Stones’ catalogue as their first original single, the beginning of one of the most important legacies in rock and roll. It is also a fine example of their talent for softer, slower songwriting. Pop balladry may not have remained their focus in the years to come, as they pushed into more rocking and rolling territory, but ‘Tell Me’ proved that they were capable of both rockers and swayers.
As they forged their more raucous rock sound in the decades that followed, ballads would still crop up here and there in their songwriting, but none quite matched the impact of ‘Tell Me’, at least for Van Zandt.
