“Maggie May” (Rod Stewart)

Today’s classic song from 1971 is Rod Stewart’s big hit, “Maggie May.” Rod released this single in June of 1971 and it went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Cash Box Top 100, and similar charts in Australia, Canada, and the UK. It ended up being Billboard’s number-two song for all of 1971, behind yesterday’s classic song of the day, Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World.”

“Maggie May” was written by Rod Stewart and guitarist Martin Quittenton. It tells the story of a young man’s first experience with an older woman and, according to Mr. Stewart, is somewhat autobiographical. Here’s what he remembers:

“At 16, I went to the [1961] Beaulieu Jazz Festival in the New Forest. I’d snuck in with some mates via an overflow sewage pipe. And there on a secluded patch of grass, I lost my not-remotely-prized virginity with an older (and larger) woman who’d come on to me very strongly in the beer tent. How much older, I can’t tell you—but old enough to be highly disappointed by the brevity of the experience.”

“Maggie May” was a track on Rod’s 1971 album, Every Picture Tells a Story. It was originally released as the B-side to the “Reason to Believe” single, itself a darn good little tune. But disc jockeys flipped the single over and started playing “Maggie May” instead, and a hit was born.

Interestingly, “Maggie May” was the first big hit of the rock era to feature a mandolin. (Rod used mandolin a lot on the Every Picture Tells a Story album.) It remains the biggest hit recording to feature a mandolin. So there.

The name “Maggie May” comes from a Liverpudlian folk song about a Lime Street prostitute named “Maggie Mae.” You can hear a bit of that original song on the Beatles’ Let It Be album as the boys were joking around in the studio.

“Maggie May” was Rod’s first hit as a solo artist and the first of three number-one tracks. The others were 1976’s “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” and 1978’s disco anthem, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” For my tastes, Rod’s early work, especially on Every Picture Tells a Story, was his best—although I’m also a huge fan of his covers of the Isley Brothers’ “This Old Heart of Mine” and Van Morrison’s “Have I Told You Lately,” the later of which was the main song at my wife and mine’s wedding.