Every Picture Tells A Story

Maggie

Maggie May

"Maggie May" is a song written by singer Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton and recorded by Stewart in 1971 for his album Every Picture Tells a Story. Most versions of "Maggie May" incorporate a 30-second solo guitar intro, "Henry", composed by Martin Quittenton. "Maggie May" expresses the ambivalence and contradictory emotions of a young man involved in a relationship with an older woman, and was written from Stewart's own experience. In the January, 2007 issue of Q magazine, Stewart recalled: "Maggie May was more or less a true story, about the first woman I had sex with, at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival." It was initially released in the United Kingdom as the B-side of the single "Reason to Believe," but DJs became fonder of the B-side and, after two weeks on the charts, the song was reclassified, with "Maggie May" becoming the A-side. However, the single continued to be pressed with "Maggie May" as the B-side. In October 1971, the song went to number one in the UK and simultaneously topped the charts in the United States. Every Picture Tells a Story achieved the same status at the same time, a feat achieved by only a handful of performers, notably The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Beyoncé. The song was Stewart's first substantial hit as a solo performer and launched his solo career. It remains one of his best-known songs. A famous live performance of the song on Top of the Pops saw The Faces joined onstage by DJ John Peel, who pretended to play the mandolin (the mandolin player on the recording was Ray Jackson of Lindisfarne). Stewart himself was amused by the song's success, saying, "I still can't see how the single is such a big hit. It has no melody. Plenty of character and nice chords, but no melody. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the song #130 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. [Read more on Last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/Rod+Stewart/_/Maggie+May). User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Maggie May is een single van Rod Stewart. Hij schreef het samen met gitarist Martin Quittenton. Hij bracht het in augustus 1971 uit op de B-kant van de single Reason to believe. Maggie May op de B-kant sloeg echter meer aan bij dj's waardoor ze vooral dit nummer draaiden in plaats van de A-kant. Beide nummers verschenen dat jaar ook op Stewarts derde solo-album Every picture tells a story. Op dat moment zong hij ook nog voor The Faces. Met deze band was Stewart al bekend in zijn thuisland het Verenigd Koninkrijk. Deze single en elpee belandden beiden in thuisland het Verenigd Koninkrijk op de nummer 1-positie van de UK Singles Chart. Ook in de Verenigde Staten werd de nummer 1-positie in de Billboard Hot 100 bereikt en in Canada. Dit betekende voor Stewart ook zijn doorbraak aan de andere kant van de Atlantische Oceaan.

"Maggie May" is a song written by singer Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton and recorded by Stewart in 1971 for his album Every Picture Tells a Story. Most versions of "Maggie May" incorporate a 30-second solo guitar intro, "Henry", composed by Martin Quittenton. "Maggie May" expresses the ambivalence and contradictory emotions of a young man involved in a relationship with an older woman, and was written from Stewart's own experience. In the January [Read more on Last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/Rod+Stewart/_/Maggie+May).