The Top 10 Rolling Stones Track That Keith Richards Once Called a “Terrible Piece of Tripe”

All artists who share their work with the world will, at some point, realize that an underlying dissonance often exists between the personal taste of the artist and the taste of their audience. This isn’t always the case, of course. But it can manifest in songs that the public loves but an artist hates, whether from the beginning or after years of overplaying it. For The Rolling Stones, one of their first experiences with this strange phenomenon happened early in their songwriting career with a Top 10 hit for someone else, “As Tears Go By”.

Keith Richards and Mick Jagger wrote “As Tears Go By” in the early 1960s. They did so at the behest of their producer, Andrew Loog Oldham. Oldham wanted the musicians to begin writing their own material, but the process was choppy at first. According to Richards in his memoir, Life, he and Jagger produced “some terrible songs” at first. Those included “We Were Falling In Love”, “So Much In Love”, and “(Walkin’ Thru The) Sleepy City”. None of these felt worthy enough to show the band.

Then, “As Tears Go By” fell out. “We thought, ‘What a terrible piece of tripe,’” Richards wrote. “We came out and played it to Andrew, and he said, ‘It’s a hit.’ We actually sold this stuff, and it actually made money. Mick and I were thinking, this is money for old rope!”

Their Old Rope Song “As Tears Go By” Became a Top 10 Hit

What might have seemed like old rope to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards became commercial hits for other artists. In the case of “As Tears Go By”, the recording artist who enjoyed the first successes of this song was the band’s long-time friend, muse, and occasional collaborator Marianne Faithfull. Richards mused in his memoir that other songs he and Jagger wrote early in their career turned into duds for some artists. But with “As Tears Go By”, it had “the opposite effect on Marianne Faithfull.”

Faithfull’s version of “As Tears Go By”, which she put out in June 1964 with the B-side “Greensleeves”, peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. It performed even better in her native United Kingdom, breaking into the Top 10 at No. 9. The Rolling Stones released their own single version as an A-side in the States and a B-side in the U.K. (with “19th Nervous Breakdown” serving as the lead single). The Stones’ version was also a hit, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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