“I WANNA BE YOUR MAN”

(John Lennon / Paul McCartney)

By late 1963, the role of Ringo Starr within The Beatles was becoming increasingly important. In the band's 1962 Cavern / Hamburg days and before, a solo vocal spot was made for Ringo (as had been done for Pete Best earlier) to provide a performance spotlight on each member of the band. As fame increased in early 1963, The Beatles’ national tours required a much more abbreviated set list, so Ringo’s vocal spotlight “Boys” was usually omitted.

However, as their legion of fans grew larger and larger throughout the remainder of that year, lots continued to be cast among Britain’s fans as to which was each one’s “favorite Beatle.” Ringo’s popularity continued to grow to the point where chanting of “Ring-o! Ring-o!” were heard regularly at their performances. In order to satisfy public demand, it was decided to once again include a vocal spotlight for Ringo in their performances.

It also became obvious that another song needed to be added to their drummer’s vocal repertoire. It was decided by Lennon and McCartney that they would compose a new song particularly for Ringo to sing. After presenting their newly written composition “Little Child” for his approval, which he decided didn't suit him, the duo set out to compose something more appropriate to what he would be capable of performing live. 

Songwriting History

The origins of the song began when, as witnessed by Ron King who was the driver for The Beatles throughout their British touring schedule, Lennon jotted down the phrase “I Wanna Be Your Man” as a song title idea as he read in a newspaper. John was prone to keep a list of ideas such as this for possible inclusion as titles and/or lyrics for future songs. At some point, McCartney must have been clued in to this idea because he was the one to begin writing a song around this phrase with the intention of giving it to Ringo to sing. This must have taken place in September of 1963 since “Little Child,” also written early this month, had already been rejected by Ringo.

Although there are a few variations to the story of how "I Wanna Be Your Man" was written after this point, our best bet is to defer to Paul’s first-hand recollection. Regarding their intent for the song, he stated in his 1997 book "Many Years From Now," “We often used to say, 'the words don't really matter, people do not listen to the words, it is the sound they listen to.' 'I Wanna Be Your Man' was to try to give Ringo something like ‘Boys’; an uptempo song that he could sing from the drums. So again, it had to be very simple.” Using “Boys” as a template, McCartney came up with verses but then abandoned it after having difficulty coming up with a bridge or a chorus to go along with it. Nonetheless, it had already been decided that this was to be a song that Ringo would sing.

Here is where a chance meeting resulted in the song being completed just before The Beatles brought it into recording studio. In Paul's 2021 book "The Lyrics," he recounted the events of September 10th, 1963. "One day, around the time that we all moved down to London from Liverpool in the (late) summer of 1963, John and I were in Charing Cross Road, which was guitar central. We would get into a taxi and go down there just to look at the guitars. The whole area in the early '60s was guitar shops, and we would just go there and gaze longingly all afternoon at guitars we could not afford."

"We were looking at the guitars one day when a black London cab went by and we saw Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in it. So we yelled, 'Hey!' They saw us waving, so they pulled over. We ran up and said, 'Hey, give us a lift.' 'Yeah, alright. Where are you going?' 'We are going to north London.' So, we were just chatting in the car about what we were doing. 'Oh, we've got a recording contract,' Mick (Jagger) told us. 'The only trouble is, we haven't got a single.' They asked us if we had any songs, and I said, 'Well, there's a song...I think it would work great for you guys.'" In 2016, Paul related: "We were friends with them, and I just thought 'I Wanna Be Your Man' would be good for them. I knew they did Bo Didley stuff. They made a good job of it."

Lennon and McCartney were then invited to come with the pair to a club called Studio 51 in Great Newport Street in London where their group were rehearsing. Their manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham was anxious to find material for them to record and there was a bit of pressure from Decca Records to release a new single. "We knew (The Beatles) by then and we were rehearsing," related Mick Jagger in 1968. "Andrew (Oldham) brought Paul and John down to the rehearsal. They stated they had this tune, they were really hustlers then. I mean, the way they used to hustle tunes was great. 'Hey Mick, we got this great song.' So they played it and we thought it sounded pretty commercial, which is what we were looking for, so we did it like Elmore James or something." They agreed to use it, but they needed a finished song. 

Reportedly, Lennon then said, “Listen, if you guys really like the main part of the song, we’ll finish it for you right now.” As explained in David Sheff's book "All We Are Saying," Lennon's account from 1980 specified: "I think we finished it off for The Stones. They needed a song so we went to see 'em to see what kind of stuff they did. Mick and Keith had heard that we had an unfinished song. Paul just had this bit...'I wanna be your lover, baby, I wanna be your man,' and we just needed another verse or something. We sort of played it roughly for them and they said, 'Yeah, OK, that's our style.' So Paul and I just went off in the corner of the room and finished the song off while they were all still there talking. We came back and that was how Mick and Keith got inspired to write, because, 'Jesus, look at that. They just went in the corner and wrote it and came back!' Right in front of their eyes we did it." It was right then that John added the chorus with only the title of the song repeated four times as the lyrics. This corresponds with what Lennon at one point said regarding the song, “Both of us wrote it but mainly Paul…I helped him finish it.”

"John and Paul came down to rehearsals and laid the song on us," explained Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. "We just heard John and Paul on a piano banging it out. We picked it up and it was just one of those jams. They got enthusiastic and we got enthusiastic and said, 'Right. We'll cut it tomorrow,' and that was it." Bassist Bill Wyman added: "We kind of learned it pretty quickly because there wasn't much to learn. Then Brian (Jones) got his slide out, his steel out and dadaw...dadaw and we said, 'yeah, that's better, dirty it up a bit and bash it out,' and we kind of completely turned the song around and made it much more tough, Stones- and Elmore James- like." Mick Jagger added: "Nobody really produced it. It was completely crackers, but it was a hit and sounded great on stage." Author Kevin Howlett, as detailed in his "Track By Track" section of the book contained in the 2021 Anniversary edition of the "Let It Be" album, writes that "John revealed at Apple that, in late 1963, he had offered 'One After 909' to The Stones, who opted instead to record Lennon / McCartney's 'I Wanna Be Your Man' for their second single."  

As history shows, The Rolling Stones did record the song on October 7th, 1963, becoming their first big British hit, peaking at #12 on the UK charts (missing the Top 40 in the US). Their version of "I Wanna Be Your Man" was the first song ever to be performed on the BBC television show "Top Of The Pops" on January 1st, 1964, a select portion of this footage being featured in the 1995 "Beatles Anthology" TV documentary. However, history also shows that The Beatles still decided to record the song themselves as Ringo's vocal highlight on their second British LP "With The Beatles." The day after their chance meeting with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and their offering the song to The Rolling Stones on September 10th, 1963, The Beatles entered EMI recording studios on September 11th, 1963, to begin recording it themselves.

As to the inspiration for this song, other than attempting to mimic The Shirelles track “Boys,” Paul described it as “a Bo Diddley kind of thing” while also giving credit to the song “Fortune Teller” by Benny Spellman for the last phrase in the chorus “I wanna be your ma-an” with the downturned final note. The style of the song can also be credited to a favorite of the band, “Some Other Guy,” that was originally recorded by Richie Barrett and had been included in The Beatles set lists well into their national tours of 1963. This song included the downturned final note as well.

Indicating what he thought about "I Wanna Be Your Man," John remarked in 1980, as documented in David Sheff's book "All We Are Saying," that the song “was a kind of lick Paul had…it was a throwaway. The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones. That shows how much importance we put on it. We weren’t going to give them anything great, right?” 

Recording History

For such a simple song, The Beatles had quite a difficult time recording it, probably because of the song being just recently composed and the group not being exactly sure what kind of arrangement would suit it. On September 11th, 1963, the day after they finished composing it in front of The Rolling Stones, they attempted to record it in EMI Studio Two at around 2:30 pm. After one take, they decided to leave it for another day.

The next day, September 12th, 1963, the band returned to the song during their evening session, which ran from 7 to 11:30 pm. After working extensively on George's “Don’t Bother Me” and then “Little Child,” The Beatles returned to “I Wanna Be Your Man” at approximately 10:45 pm for six more takes, numbered two through seven. The Beatles played their usual instruments while Ringo performed his lead vocals live throughout these takes. "Take seven" was deemed to be the best at this point, this being a composite of two takes edited together just before the final verse, and they called it a night, although much more work would be needed on this track.

Two and a half weeks later, this being September 30th, 1963, another recording session took place that focused on "I Wanna Be Your Man," but The Beatles were not involved at all. While the group was out of the country, George Martin decided to overdub a Hammond organ onto the song. Starting approximately at 8:30 am, with the original two-track tape being re-recorded to another two-track machine, he did six attempts at recording this overdub simultaneously onto the September 12th "take seven," the last attempt being deemed the best, thus taking the song to "take 13." Interestingly, the liner notes from the British "With The Beatles" LP state that John Lennon played the Hammond Organ, but the official documentation confirms otherwise.

Three days later, October 3rd, 1963, the group (minus George Harrison) reassembled in Studio Two of EMI for more work on this song. This three hour session took place from 10 am to 1 pm and began with the drummer double-tracking his vocals and adding maracas onto the song simultaneous with the two-track tape of "take 13" being recorded yet again onto another two-track machine. Two attempts of this overdub now brought the song to "take 15."

With the deadline for finishing their second LP perilously close, The Beatles all convened once again in Studio Two of EMI on October 23rd, 1963 for their final contribution to the album, this being a tambourine overdub by Ringo for “I Wanna Be Your Man.” This last overdub was recorded at the beginning of this session by the identical process of once again re-recording the two-track tape onto another two-track machine while Ringo did the new tambourine overdub, this being accomplished between 10 am and 1 pm. Afterwards, the group observed George Martin and Norman Smith prepare a mono mix with a final fade-out for the song, the same being done for “Little Child” and “Hold Me Tight.” These were the final mono mixes for the album as released on the British "With The Beatles" album, all of these being done in the EMI Studio Two control room. The stereo mix with fade-out for “I Wanna Be Your Man,” as well as for the rest of the album, was performed on October 29th, 1963 in the EMI Studio Three control room by George Martin, Norman Smith and Geoff Emerick, the mysterious B.T. also indicated as engineer.

Their first of two BBC radio recordings of this song was on January 7th, 1964 at The Playhouse Theatre in London between 2:30 and 4 pm for the very popular BBC radio show “Saturday Club,” which was produced by Jimmy Grant and Bernie Andrews and broadcast on February 15th between 10 am and 12 noon. The second occured on February 28th, 1964 in Studio One of BBC Piccadilly Studios in London between 6:30 and 9 pm, which was produced by Bryant Marriott for the second edition of the radio show “From Us To You” that was broadcast on March 30th of that year between 10 am and 12 noon. This was the version that was officially released on the “Live At The BBC” album.

The Beatles had another recording session for “I Wanna Be Your Man” on April 19th, 1964 to do a pre-recorded soundtrack for the British television special “Around The Beatles,” which aired on the BBC on May 6th and June 8th, 1964. The Beatles lip-synced this song before a studio audience for the broadcast of this program. This session, which had been recorded on a three-track tape, took place at London's IBC Studios, the producer being Jack Good, Terry Johnson being the engineer and Glyn Johns the second engineer and tape operator. Glyn Johns was to later become the producer/engineer for The Beatles' “Let It Be” LP that came out in 1970.

Two final Beatles' recording sessions featuring the song "I Wanna Be Your Man" was during the Hollywood Bowl performances in August of 1965. Neither their August 29th, 1965 show (produced by Karl Engemann and engineered by Hugh Davies) nor their August 30th, 1965 performance (produced by Voyle Gilmore and engineered by Pete Abbott) were deemed worthy to be included on either of the official Beatles Hollywood Bowl releases.

Interestingly, their final live performance on August 29th, 1966 at Candlestick Park included "I Wanna Be Your Man," introduced by Paul as the "special request for the wonderful backroom boys on this tour." As detailed in the Keith Badman book "The Beatles Off The Record," the group's press officer Tony Barrow explained: "There was a sort of end of term spirit thing going on, and there was also this kind of feeling amongst all of us around The Beatles, that this might just be the last concert that they will ever do. I recall Paul, casually, at the very last minute, saying, 'Have you got your cassette recorder with you?' and I said, 'Yes, of course.' Paul then requested, 'Tape it, will you? Tape the show,' which I did, literally just holding the microphone up in the middle of the field. As a personal souvenir of the occasion, it was a very nice thing to have." Even though Tony Barrow insists that he only made one copy of the tape, which he had locked in a drawer in his London office giving the original to Paul, this recording has been available on bootleg releases throughout the years. 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A BRIEF AUDIO HISTORY OF THIS SONG ON OUR PARTNER WEBSITE "THE BEATLES SONG BY SONG"

Song Structure and Style

We see here another example of Lennon and McCartney utilizing a chorus in a song, which wasn’t done to a great degree this early in their career. This track consists of a 'verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus' format (or abab). After the second chorus, an instrumental section was added before another verse and chorus was heard.

The intro should not be viewed as a separate section of the song as it consists of only a simple but rousing lead guitar flourish from Harrison. We then jump headlong into the first verse performed in a bluesy style and sung solo by Ringo himself. This verse encompasses an odd 17 measures, but comes across very symmetrical in that it consists of two identical eight measure sections with another measure thrown in to give Ringo time to take a breath before the chorus begins. E major appears as the only chord used in the entire verse, the only exception being the hint of a B chord in the seventh and fifteenth measure. The odd 17th measure actually consists of the customary Beatles ‘break’ with the beginning of the chorus being sung a cappella.

The eight measure chorus, which lyrically only consists of the title of the song sung four times, features pedestrian but effective chord changes as a contrast to with the single chord verse. The chorus shows both John and Paul harmonizing with Ringo, although what this results in might very well be termed "overpowering" him since we can almost not hear Ringo at all throughout the chorus. The seventh measure of the chorus displays the “Fortune Teller” downturned final note.

After the second verse and an identical repeat of the chorus, we enter into a guitar solo section featuring Harrison’s simple but energetic guitar riffs. This solo performance is all but overtaken by Paul and John’s shouting and carrying-on. The instrumental section is 12-measure-long and centers only on the E major chord, making it unlike either the verse or chorus of the song. This part of the song appears to be aimless vamping which ends somewhat embarrassingly with muffled talking as it segues to a rough edit into another performance of the first verse.

After another chorus appears, the band rides out the remainder of the song on E major similar to the instrumental section, but this time with the song's title being repeated with the same melody line as the chorus. As the song fades, we hear exuberant shouting and barking (?!?) from Paul and John. All in all, rock and roll "energy" is the name of the game here, and the band delivers this in an excellent fashion.

Lyrically, there isn’t much to tell. In a nutshell, it appears that the singer wants to be someone’s “man” and his qualifications for this proposed job is that he can love the girl in question “like no other baby.” Unfortunately, the song goes unresolved because the listener never finds out if he did indeed achieve his goal. The only resolution would have been if Ringo had released a follow-up entitled “I Got To Be Her Man!”

All kidding aside, the obvious thrust to this track is not in its lyrics, as Paul explained, “we were in love with the sound, the music. We often used to say to people, the words don’t really matter. People do not listen to the words, it's the sound they listen to. So ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ was to try and provide Ringo something like ‘Boys.’” The bluesy and free-spirited, high energy, rock ‘n’ roll feel to the song fit perfectly with the image The Beatles wanted to portray to US audiences, and therefore fit in perfectly on their first Capitol album "Meet The Beatles."

Performance-wise, Ringo fit the bill perfectly as vocalist on this song. Although it was composed with a specific limited range for the vocalist, and Ringo did stray off-key at times, this was a great vehicle for him to perform live, which was the intent of the song. "Ringo wasn't the best vocalist in the group," Paul relates in his book "The Lyrics," "but there was no doubt he could hold a song. (It was) pretty basic, but was a cool enough little song, and Ringo did this really well." Subsequently, his vocal work appeared to improve noticeably during its performance life as he grew more accustomed to it. He even added different embellishments, as witnessed on both “Live At The BBC” and “Anthology 1.” His drum work is an excellent example of the "beat" style The Beatles spearheaded during their Cavern / Hamburg days, complete with the idiosyncrasies in his drum fills at the end of each verse.

Harrison can next be mentioned for his stunning guitar licks heard throughout the track, as well as the subtle phrases performed during the solo. His chromatic riffs heard during the chorus add a distinctive contrast to the bluesy tone on display in these verses. John accentuates the Bo Diddley sound by adding tremolo to his rhythm guitar throughout. One can easily claim that John sings lead vocals during the chorus, which fits the criteria of their usual routine of singing lead on whatever song they predominantly wrote. This may be an unpopular view, but is of interest to note here.

Paul’s bass playing was pedestrian here compared to what we have seen otherwise up to this point, but fits in well with the feel of the song. Since the song was recorded shortly after it was writen, Paul may simply have felt this was good enough for this “throwaway” song. Paul’s harmonies are of his usual high quality, while his wails and barks appear as a little much (or possibly as comic relief). George Martin’s Hammond organ (or John's), while a semi-essential ingredient to the mix, is more felt than heard with the exception of his flourishes at the end of each chorus.   

American Releases

January 20th, 1964, was the first US release of “I Wanna Be Your Man” on the Capitol “Meet The Beatles!” album. Incidentally, the mono copies of this album contained a "Type B" foldover mix of the song created by Capitol combining both of the stereo channels into one instead of just including George Martin's superior mono mix. This LP was finally released on an individual compact disc on January 21st, 2014, both mono and stereo mixes being contained on a single disc. A mono edition of the album on opaque blue vinyl was then released on November 22nd, 2024 for purchase exclusively at Target stores. The second official release was also in January of 1964, on Capitol's "Meet The Beatles!" Compact 33 Disc intended primarily for jukebox play. This track was the third and last on side two of this disc, which was not intended for sale.

Although "I Wanna Be Your Man" made an appearance in their movie “A Hard Day’s Night,” it didn't appear on the soundtrack album due to its already having been released on another album.

The song was noteworthy enough to be included on the compilation “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music,” which was a double album released on June 7th, 1976, during a revival of the group's popularity. George Martin was consulted regarding the preparation of the album and, with access to only the old Capitol mixes, he chose to make noteworthy adjustments. While the original stereo mix has all instruments on the left channel and all the vocals on the right, George Martin decided to center the instruments between both channels and put the vocals slightly to the left channel, boosting the bass frequencies in the right channel and lifting the treble in the left channel to create a stereo effect. Later, on October 27th, 1980, this double album set was divided by Capitol into two budget single albums and re-released individually, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, Vol. 1” containing "I Wanna Be Your Man."

The first time the original UK "With The Beatles" LP was made available in America was with the "Original Master Recording" vinyl edition, this officially being released through Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in January of 1987. This was the first release of the official 1963 mono version of "I Wanna Be Your Man" in the US and was prepared utilizing half-speed mastering technology from the master tape on loan from EMI. This title had a limited production, reportedly because of a damaged metal part that was needed for pressing the vinyl. Therefore, this album is known to be the rarest and most valuable Beatles album in the “Original Master Recording” series.

February 26th, 1987 saw the CD release of the "With The Beatles" album in the US that included "I Wanna Be Your Man." A standard vinyl edition of this LP was released in America on July 21st, 1987. While these releases were only made available in mono at first, the September 9th, 2009 remastered CD version was in stereo, the vinyl edition released on November 13th, 2012 being in stereo as well.

The next release of the song did not occur until December 6th, 1994 on the Apple release “Live At The BBC.” The version on this release was recorded by the group for the BBC on February 28th and aired on British radio on March 30th on the “From Us To You” program. The version featured here differs dramatically from the EMI recording heard on “Meet The Beatles!” due to the band getting more comfortable with playing it. Some arrangement changes were made, such as adding a full four bar introduction, changing both the solo and closing sections of the song to a standard 12-bar-blues chord pattern, and Ringo accentuating his vocals differently. Also missing was the Bo Diddley-esque vibrato on John’s rhythm guitar as well as the Hammond organ part originally played by George Martin. On November 11th, 2013, this album was remastered, re-packaged and re-released.

Almost one year later, the next release of the song occurred on November 21st, 1995 on the Apple album “Anthology 1.” This rendition was what they recorded on April 19th, 1964 at IBC Studios, London, for the BBC TV special entitled “Around The Beatles.” The striking difference here was the total elimination of the last verse, which they may have been instructed to do in order to shorten the song's length for inclusion in the television special.

Just prior to this release, a sampler disc was sent out to US radio stations featuring this same rendition of "I Wanna Be Your Man." Since not many copies of this disc had been manufactured, the CD has become quite a collector's item.  

November 15th, 2004 saw the release of the box set “The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1,” which featured this song in stereo and "Type B" foldover mono as appearing on the original "Meet The Beatles!" releases. A promotional CD sampler of this box set was also put out just before its release that included both the stereo and mono versions of  "I Wanna Be Your Man."

On September 9th, 2009, the CD box set “The Beatles In Mono” was released by Apple featuring the newly remastered mono version of "I Wanna Be Your Man." Their vinyl edition of this box set was first released on September 9th, 2014.

Also released on September 9th, 2009, in promotion of the remastered Beatles catalog, the "09.09.09 Sampler" was distributed to retailers and radio programmers, "I Wanna Be Your Man" being featured therein. This CD has become quite the find for collectors.

Paul McCartney released a version of the song on November 15th, 1993 on his live album "Paul Is Live," this rendition being improvised by him and his band at a soundcheck sometime during his "New World Tour" of 1993. 

Ringo has taken advantage of this song with his All-Starr Band throughout the majority their career. Six of their live albums included the song: "Ringo Starr and his third All-Starr Band, Volume 1" (released on August 12th, 1997), "King Bisciut Flower Hour" (released on August 6th, 2002), "Tour 2003" (March 23rd, 2004), "Ringo Starr & Friends" (August 15th, 2006), "Ringo Starr & his All-Starr Band Live 2006" (July 7th, 2008) and his "Live At The Greek Theatre 2008" (July 27th, 2010). The song was also included within the 2CD set "Live At The Greek Theatre 2019," which was released on November 25th, 2022, this also being released on on 2CD/Blu-Ray set that same day.

Live Performances

Having finally given Ringo a song other than “Boys” to sing, The Beatles were quick to opt for this change. The British album “With The Beatles,” which included “I Wanna Be Your Man,” was released there on November 22nd, 1963, and the group starting performing the song on December 24th, 1963 in their stage production “The Beatles’ Christmas Show,” that ran in London non-stop through January 11th, 1964.

Ringo then started to alternate his vocal spot during 1964, performing “Boys” when The Beatles were in Paris in January and early February, but returning to “I Wanna Be Your Man” during their brief American tour in February. After going back to “Boys” during the entire 1964 world tour and briefly adding new Ringo songs “Honey Don’t” and “Act Naturally” to their set list, he returned to “I Wanna Be Your Man” periodically during their 1965 world tour, such as at the Hollywood Bowl on August 30th of that year. The Beatles then finished off their performance history in 1966 by including the three-year-old song in their set list, the oldest Lennon / McCartney composition performed at these shows, including their final paid concert at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on August 29th, 1966.

It has become apparent that the group had quite a relaxed attitude toward the song in their live shows. Not only was it extremely easy to play, it was a "no brainer" for Ringo to remember the song's simple lyrics. With their "who cares" philosophy during their final year of touring, Ringo tended to lyrically repeat the opening verse throughout the whole song, possibly forgetting that there actually was a different second verse. Nobody thought to correct the matter.

There were three TV performances of the song, the first being on February 23rd, 1963 on the British program "Big Night Out," which was a mimed performance at the Teddington Studio Centre of ABC Television that was broadcast on February 29th of that year, then the British TV special titled "Around The Beatles," which was first broadcast on May 6th, 1964, and finally, a live performance in Paris on June 20th, 1964 was broadcast on a French TV show entitled "Les Beatles" on October 31st of that year.

Interestingly, McCartney and his band worked up a bluesy/jazzy rendition of this song that they'd perform during soundchecks before gigs on their 1993 "New World Tour," although the band never played it during actual shows on this tour. Paul did, however, decide to feature "I Wanna Be Your Man" in its original arrangement during the 2017 leg of his "One On One" tour, this leg spanning from April 25th (Tokyo, Japan) to December 16th (Aukland, New Zealand). Also, on June 9th, 2018, Paul and his band played the song at the Philharmonic Pub in Liverpool for a special segment of "The Late Late Show With James Corden," an edited version of the song appearing on an hour-long CBS prime-time special entitled "When Corben Met McCartney, Live From Liverpool," which aired on August 20th of that year.

Another noteworthy performance of the song by Paul took place on June 16th, 2022 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey during his "Got Back" tour. McCartney was joined by Bruce Springsteen on stage to perform his hit "Glory Days" as well as "I Wanna Be Your Man," then returning to the stage to play guitar on the final song of the concert, the "Abbey Road" classic "The End."

Interestingly, Paul and his group played a surprise three night residency at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on February 11th, 12th and 14th, 2025, this final night being Valentine's Day. They played "I Wanna Be Your Man" at each one of the concerts held in this quaint 575-capacity venue in Manhattan.

Ringo also took good advantage of performing this song with his All-Starr Band throughout the years, wisely choosing to sing the song in a lower key, which suited his voice more comfortably than during his Beatles' career. Ringo performed "I Wanna Be Your Man" in every tour he has done, his 1992 set list being the only exception. Notable Ringo performances of the song include the funny January 31st, 2012 episode of "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" on CBS, as well as an all-star jam of the song at the end of his induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland's Public Hall on April 19th, 2015.

Conclusion

So started the pattern of allowing Ringo to have one vocal song on each Beatles album. Although this pattern was not strictly adhered to throughout the band's career, it did leave behind a small legacy of songs for Ringo to claim as his own. Although The Rolling Stones were the artists to have British chart success with this song, because of the nearly three years of performance history, the composition known as “I Wanna Be Your Man” will always be viewed as being a Beatles' song, and more appropriately, as a Ringo song. 

Song Summary

“I Wanna Be Your Man”

Written by:  John Lennon / Paul McCartney

• Song Written: September 1963
• Song Recorded: September 12& 30, October 3& 23, 1963
• First US Release Date: January 20, 1964
• First US Album Release: Capitol #ST-2047 “Meet The Beatles!”
• US Single Release: Capitol #SXA 2047 (Meet The Beatles Jukebox EP)
• Highest Chart Position: n/a
• British Album Release: Parlophone #PCS 3045 “With The Beatles”
• Length: 1:58
• Key: E7
• Producer: George Martin
• Engineers: Norman Smith, Richard Langham

Instrumentation (most likely):

• Ringo Starr – Lead Vocals, Drums (1963 Ludwig Downbeat Black Oyster Pearl), maracas, tambourine
• George Harrison – Lead Guitar (1962 Gretsch 6122 Country Gentleman)
• John Lennon – Rhythm Guitar (1958 Rickenbacker 325), Background Vocals (Lead Vocals in Chorus)
• Paul McCartney - Bass Guitar (1961 Hofner 500/1), Background Vocals
• George Martin - Organ (Hammond RT-3) 

Written and compiled by David Rybaczewski

"Hold Me Tight" PREVIOUS     -     NEXT "Not A Second Time"

"Clarity" by Dave Rybs

CLICK HERE to hear the author's new album "Clarity"

Sign Up Below for our MONTHLY BEATLES TRIVIA QUIZ!