{"id":529406,"date":"2026-04-14T00:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529406\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:09:11","slug":"the-beatles-song-mick-jagger-thought-was-below-the-rolling-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529406\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles song Mick Jagger thought was below The Rolling Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mick<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n

Mon 13 April 2026 21:30, UK <\/p>\n

Looking back on the rivalry between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones<\/a> feels more cute than anything else. <\/p>\n

They may have had their times where they would gripe at each other in the press, but the main goal behind each of them was to bring the British invasion to the forefront of culture, with the Fab Four eventually gifting The Stones their first hit with \u2018I Wanna Be Your Man\u2019. Mick Jagger had standards as a songwriter, and he thought that some of his friends\u2019 attempts at whimsy sounded a bit too trite on \u2018Yellow Submarine\u2019.<\/p>\n

Granted, The Rolling Stones were always a band with a severe lack of whimsy. Even when they tried their hand at making baroque music on albums like Between the Buttons, they were still the kind of band that felt like the tough guy attempting to dress up nice for a date instead of genuinely sincere.<\/p>\n

The Fab Four could be just as wild as The Stones behind the scenes, but Lennon and McCartney could pull off that kind of whimsy whenever they wanted to. Even though McCartney would often take it too far when working on songs like \u2018Maxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer\u2019, efforts like \u2018Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite\u2019 and \u2018Hello Goodbye\u2019 are still brilliant pieces of friendlier rock.<\/p>\n

That difference in approach was always going to create a bit of a divide between the two camps. Where The Beatles seemed comfortable dipping into fantasy and character work, The Stones were far more interested in keeping their feet planted firmly in something that felt real, even if that meant sacrificing a bit of charm along the way. It wasn\u2019t that they couldn\u2019t write lighter material, it\u2019s just that it never really suited the image they were building.<\/p>\n

\"Mick<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

And that image mattered more than people might think. The Stones had carved out their identity as the darker alternative, the band that didn\u2019t smile quite as much and didn\u2019t soften the edges for the sake of a singalong. So when something like \u2018Yellow Submarine\u2019 came along, it wasn\u2019t just a different kind of song, it was a reminder of how far apart the two bands actually were in terms of what they wanted to be<\/p>\n

Even as the band entered their psychedelic raga rock phase on Revolver, they still had time for softer material on \u2018Yellow Submarine\u2019. Despite the psychedelic sound effects, giving the song to Ringo Starr to sing was perfect, taking his (comparatively) weaker voice and letting him sing the kind of song that wouldn\u2019t feel out of place on a kid\u2019s show.<\/p>\n

Although some of the Stones ended up visiting the sessions while the band were working on the tune, Marianne Faithfull recalled that Jagger wasn\u2019t that enamoured with this kind of tune, writing in her memoir Memories, Dreams and Reflections<\/a>, \u201cHe\u2019d never put their music down. Well, of \u2018Yellow Submarine\u2019 or those whimsical Beatle songs, he might say, \u2018Now that is a bit silly.\u2019 I never thought so; I loved it, still do. Also, something like \u2018With a Little Help from My Friends,\u2019 but these are obviously not the sort of things the Stones would be into.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the first half of The Stones\u2019 albums involved them basically taking everything The Beatles did and making a more dangerous version, the second half of their classic period involved them going in a much different direction. The Beatles could still make great songs like \u2018The Long and Winding Road\u2019 with a bit of schmaltz, but Jagger was too busy writing tracks like \u2018Bitch\u2019 and \u2018Sympathy for the Devil\u2019 instead.<\/p>\n

When they did decide to break out of the softer material, Jagger was looking to get back to the world of the country and write tunes that could break people\u2019s hearts. The Beatles had their fair share of great ballads, but Jagger connected more to the sour side of love on songs like \u2018Wild Horses\u2019<\/a> than he ever would have when looking at the lighthearted side of The Beatles.<\/p>\n

Because The Stones were never about being lighthearted. It was always about making music that felt tough, and considering their reputation, they weren\u2019t going to be caught dead writing something that sounded like it could be sung by kids and grandparents alike.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still) Mon 13 April 2026 21:30, UK Looking back on the rivalry between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,25722,128,15747,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-529406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-mick-jagger","tag-music","tag-the-rolling-stones","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}