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This song is about the woman who deflowered Stewart when he was 16. In the January, 2007 issue of Q magazine, Stewart said: "Maggie May was more or less a true story, about the first woman I had sex with, at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival. It nearly got left off because the label said it didn't have a melody. I said, 'Well, we've run out of time now, these are all the tracks we've recorded. They said, Alright, then, bring it on."
The name "Maggie May" does not occur in the song; Rod borrowed the title from a
Liverpool Folk song about a Lime street prostitute.
Stewart's record company didn't think this was a hit, so they released it as the B-side of "Reason To Believe." Disc jockeys liked this better, so they played it as the single instead. The first station to flip the single and play this as the A-side was WOKY in Milwaukee.
This became a huge hit in England and America, topping both the UK and US charts at the same time. Every Picture Tells A Story was also the #1 album on both sides of the Atlantic, making him the first artist to have the #1 song and album in both the US and UK simultaneously. Stewart's success in the UK was expected, as he had a following there as a member of The Faces, but he was little known in America before "Maggie May" took off.
Stewart was the lead singer of The Faces when this was released. He put out solo albums while he was with the band because of contract obligations. When this became a hit, Faces shows were billed as "The Faces with Rod Stewart." He became the focus of the group.
Stewart moved to America a few years after this came out. He was doing very well there, but also wanted to avoid the huge taxes England charged high-income entertainers. This was around the same time The Rolling Stones left England for tax reasons. Their album Exile On Main Street is a reference to their "tax exile" status.
When this track was being recorded in the studio, there was a problem with the bass/kick drum pedal. Either it wasn't brought to the session or it was broken. To get the drum part completed, the drummer had to actually play the bass/kick drum part on it's own track using a drum stick and played it like a tom-tom with his hand! You can clearly hear the hi-hat and snare drum more robust as the bass/kick lacks that padded and punchy foot sound. (thanks, Joey Fulco - NY, New York)
In 2003, Ray Jackson, who played mandolin on this, sued Stewart for royalties. Jackson claimed he was paid a small sum for the session and never made any more when the song became a hit.
In October 1971 Stewart became the first artist in history to hold all four #1 positions in the British and American singles and albums charts. While "Maggie May" topped the singles tally in both territories, Every Picture Tells A Story achieved the same feat on the album charts.
Comments (44):
Cy Curnin of The Fixx
The man who brought us "Red Skies" and "Saved By Zero" is now an organic farmer in France.
Randy Newman
Newman makes it look easy these days, but in this 1974 interview, he reveals the paranoia and pressures that made him yearn for his old 9-5 job.
JJ Burnel of The Stranglers
JJ talks about The Stranglers' signature sound - keyboard and bass - which isn't your typical strain of punk rock.
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jan antwerp
they were never in the yardbirds together but rod stewart was the original singer for the jeff beck group but didnt want to play second fiddle to jeff beck being the main focus so left
I'm not gonna say you're drunk, but I don't think it can be a Yardbirds album you have there with both Jeff Beck's as Rod Steward's name on it.
While Jeff Beck was in The Yardbirds for a short time in the beginning of his career, he left that band in 1966 to form The Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart on lead vocals and a certain Ron Wood on bass.
But Jeff and Rod were never in The Yardbirds together.
The story unfolds like this. Disc jockey John Peel had signed the group (Python Lee Jackson)to his Dandelion record label, but they were having problems with the vocals. From the liner notes of a little misunderstood - The Sixties Sessions:
Around October 1968 - or possibly month or so later - Rod recorded the infamous In a Broken Dream with Python Lee Jackson. Although originally put down as a guide vocal, Rod's performance was so strong that the band's lead singer, Dave Bentley (who'd penned the song), never got around to putting his own vocals over the top. Although it flopped upon its initial 1970 release, it became a huge worldwide hit when reissued in 1972. As Rod later recalled:
"It was all John Peel's fault. He said, 'come down and show this guy how to sing the tune'. So me, being naive, and in no particular group at that time [which was patently untrue - Rod was always in a group, and was at that time in the Jeff Beck Group], I went and showed him how to sing it. Then suddenly, three years later, it ends up as a hit single. I don't think Peely had anything to do with that, though. On the other side of the single [the 1970 release] there's a really bad version of the Temptations' Cloud Nine, with me singing the wrong words. But it wasn't called 'Cloud Nine' on the record...they renamed it 'So Fine' [NB: Rod got it wrong - it was actually mistitled Doin' Fine]. I didn't even get a mention."
Peel was quick to confirm he had nowt to do with the reissue:
"It all happened about four years ago ... I'd seen this Australian group called Python Lee Jackson at the Arts Lab in Drury Lane. We tried various singers on the song and one of them happened to be Rod. I didn't particularly want to issue anything with a session singer because it wouldn't be representative of what the group was really like, so when Miki Dallon [who'd produced the session] offered to buy the tapes, I was more than willing to sell..."
The initial 1970 release, on Dallon's Youngblood label, had indeed paired up In a Broken Dream and Doin' Fine (YB 1017); however, a different B-side, Boogie Woogie Joe (which didn't feature Rod), appeared on the 1972 reissue (YB 1002). Rod had also recorded a third track with the band, The Blues, which appeared on their album, In A Broken Dream (SYB 3001), and was later paired up with (a by now correctly titled) Cloud Nine on a 1976 Younglood single (YB 1077). Confusing or what ? [NB: Rod later said that the fee he was paid for singing these three tracks was a set of new mats for his car!!!] --- liner-notes by N. E. Fulcanwright
Think about this...who has been more commercially successful from the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's than Rod Stewart. Also, think of all the times his songs have been used on soundtracks (Patch Adams, Three Musketeers, Nightshift, Eulogy, Innerspace, Legal Eagles).
Ooh La La, True Blue and You Wear It Well all have been featured in commercials.
Anybody know anything about Rod's work with Python Lee Jackson?
You know she's bad for you but you want her anyway
[here insert R. Crumb's Devil Woman]
Have heared that Rod still feels that Ron Wood was only "on loan" to the Stones
Jimmy Page also played with the Yardbirds as did Jeff Beck(i think) and Clapton