"
As Tears Go By" is a song written by
The Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
frontman
Mick JaggerSir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, guitarist
Keith RichardsKeith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
, and their manager
Andrew Loog OldhamAndrew Loog Oldham is an English producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of The Rolling Stones from 1963, and was noted for his flamboyant style.-Biography:...
, and was a popular hit for both British singer
Marianne FaithfullMarianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
in 1964 and The Rolling Stones in 1965.
History
"As Tears Go By" was one of the first original compositions by Jagger and Richards, as until that point The Rolling Stones had chiefly been performing covers of blues standards. The myth surrounding the song's genesis has it that Rolling Stones manager
Andrew Loog OldhamAndrew Loog Oldham is an English producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of The Rolling Stones from 1963, and was noted for his flamboyant style.-Biography:...
locked Jagger and Richards in a kitchen forcing them to write a song together, even suggesting what type of song he wanted: “I want a song with brick walls all around it, high windows and no sex.” The result was initially named “
As Time Goes By"As Time Goes By" is a song written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. It became most famous in 1942 when it was sung by the character Sam in the movie Casablanca. The song was voted #2 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs special, commemorating the best songs in film. It was used as a fanfare for Warner...
”, the title of the song
Dooley WilsonArthur "Dooley" Wilson was an American actor and singer. He was born in Tyler, Texas, and is remembered as piano-player "Sam" who sings "As Time Goes By" at the request of Ilsa Lund in the 1942 film, Casablanca - the Sam in the famously misremembered line "Play it again, Sam" -- a phrase which...
sings in the film
CasablancaCasablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
. It was Oldham who changed “Time” for “Tears". Oldham subsequently gave the ballad (a format that the Stones were not yet known for) to Faithfull, then 17, for her to record as a B-side. The success of the recording caused the record company, Decca, to switch the song to an A-side, where it became a very popular single. It reached # 9 in the British charts and launched Faithfull's career as a major singer. The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 in America the week ending November 28, 1964, where it stayed for nine weeks peaking at # 22. Faithfull also performed the song on the television show
HullabalooHullabaloo is an American musical variety series that ran on NBC from January 12, 1965 through August 29, 1966. Similar to Shindig! it ran in prime time in contrast to ABC's American Bandstand.-Overview:...
, in the segment presented by Beatles manager
Brian EpsteinBrian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
from London.
Another myth is that the song was written as an answer to
The Beatles'The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
"
Yesterday"Yesterday" is a song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. The song first hit the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 cover versions, one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded...
," a strings-driven ballad that became one of the band's biggest hits in 1965. However, this is false; "As Tears Go By" was written at least one year before "Yesterday"'s parent album,
Help!Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
, was even released (although Paul McCartney had written and played the song for many people in 1964 before finally releasing it on the album
Help!).
The Rolling Stones recorded their own version in 1965. This recording is notable for its heavy string arrangement by
Mike LeanderMichael George Farr professionally known as Mike Leander was an arranger and record producer for Decca Records in the 1960s and Bell Records in the 1970s and worked with such artists as Marianne Faithfull, Billy Fury, Marc Bolan, Joe Cocker, The Small Faces, Van Morrison, Alan Price, Peter...
. It was one of the three songs ("
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" Satisfaction" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in 1965. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Richards's throwaway three-note guitar riff — intended to be replaced by horns — opens and drives the song...
" and "19th Nervous Breakdown" being the other two) the band performed live during their third appearance on
The Ed Sullivan ShowThe Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
. It was released as a single in December 1965 by their American record label, London Records, due to popular demand after radio DJs across the country started playing the song from the band's recently released album
December's Children (And Everybody's). The song peaked at #6 on the American Billboard Charts. The song also had great success on the Billboard Easy Listening chart (#10 peak) years before the seemingly more wholesome Beatles would see their first entry. The song was later released in the UK in 1966 as the B-side to the single "
19th Nervous Breakdown"19th Nervous Breakdown" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones.The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards during their 1965 tour of the United States. The song was recorded during the Aftermath sessions between 3 and 8 December 1965 at RCA Recording Studios in Hollywood,...
".
The Stones released a version with Italian lyrics as a single in Italy, under the title "Con Le Mie Lacrime".
It was performed live on tour for the first time in November 2005 on the Stones'
A Bigger Bang TourA Bigger Bang Tour was a worldwide concert tour by The Rolling Stones which took place between August 2005 and August 2007, in support of their album A Bigger Bang...
. A performance from the 2006 leg of the tour was captured for the 2008 live release
Shine a Light. On July 11 in Milan they performed the song with the Italian lyrics.
Cover versions
Other live versions include a rendition by French pop star
Vanessa ParadisVanessa Chantal Paradis is a French singer, model and actress. She became a child star at 14 with the worldwide success of her single "Joe le taxi"...
and Marianne Faithfull accompanied by guitarist
Johnny MarrJohnny Marr is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse...
during a tribute concert to
Linda McCartneyLinda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
at the Royal Albert Hall in April 1999.
It was covered by British pop band
The PrimitivesThe Primitives are a British indie pop band from Coventry, best known for their 1988 international hit single "Crash".-Biography:The Primitives were part of the indie music scene of the mid-1980s alongside bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, the Soup...
on the 12" of "Sick of It" and as a regular part of their live show.
It has also been recorded in
CatalanCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
by Majorcan singer
Maria del Mar BonetMaria del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer is a Balearic singer from the island of Majorca.-Early life and career:She studied ceramics in the school of arts, but eventually she decided to dedicate herself to song. She arrived in Barcelona in 1967, where she began to sing with the group Els Setze Jutges...
.
It was also covered by
Nancy SinatraNancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
in 1966 on her album
Boots and PP Arnold in 1970, once again produced by Andrew Loog Oldham.
The New Age group
Angels of VeniceAngels Of Venice is a harp, cello, flute and vocal group founded by harpist Carol Tatum in 1993.The group's core sound is harp, flute and cello but also combines Middle Eastern, medieval and neoclassical styles.- Members :...
made an instrumental cover of this song on their self-titled album.
The song appears as bonus track on the 1984
Psychic TVPsychic TV or PTV, is a video art and music group that primarily performs psychedelic, punk, electronic and experimental music...
album of demo recordings
A Pagan DayA Pagan Day is a 1984 album by electronic music group Psychic TV.This recording was first released as TOPY 003 on 23 December 1984 as a picture disc, limited to 999 copies. One side was a full color photograph of Carresse P-Orridge as a baby, the other side had text in red on white...
.
The song was translated into Italian ("Con le mie lacrime") and released in 1965 as a bonus track on "As Tears Go By" single album in Italy. It was also performed live in the last Bigger Bang tour in Milan, on July 2006.
On the 1990 Stones tribute album
Stoned Again, the song was recorded by
The WaltonesThe Waltones were an indie band from Manchester, England, who formed in September 1984.-History:The band consisted of Alex Fyans , Mark Collins , James Knox and Manny Lee...
.
In 1998,
new ageNew Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
pianist
David LanzDavid Lanz is a Grammy-nominated New Age pianist. His most popular album, Cristofori's Dream, topped the New Age charts in 1988, which was No. 1 on Billboard's first adult alternative/New Age chart for 27 weeks and eventually sold platinum. Natural States peaked at No...
covered the song from his album
Songs from an English Garden.
Briget Boden covered this song on
Chill Out in Paris Vol 2 (2002).
It was covered by Indie Rock band Exsonvaldes on their 2010 album
There's No Place.
The song has also been covered by Antony & The Johnsons.
Melanie (Safka) recorded this song on her album
Moments From My Life from 2002.
Flemita - Raro? Raro Tenes El Orto (1998) - Mientras Caen Lagrimas
In popular culture
The song is featured at the end of the season five finale of the American TV show
HouseHouse is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
(entitled
"Both Sides Now""Both Sides Now" is the twenty-fourth episode and season finale of the fifth season of House. It originally aired on May 11, 2009.-Plot:...
), in which it is used to link scenes of Cameron and Chase's wedding with scenes of House's internment in a psychiatric hospital.
External links