After Reg left Bluesology, Baldry and Stewart formed
Hoochie Coochie Men and then Shotgun Express. Don’t panic, I don't know them
either. The point is, Baldry played with the soon to be Elton John and discovered Rod Stewart. Soon after, Stewart
became the voice of The Jeff Beck Group with Ronnie Wood. After Beck came a contract with Mercury, Rod's
first solo work and his stint with Faces.
"Maggie May" was already in the works at this point, but Rod
at the time was more of a crooner than a singer/songwriter, relying on his
unusually raspy tenor. Before the release of Rod's third LP, among the greatest
recordings of the rock era, Mercury Records released the single "Reason to Believe," a cover of the Tim Hardin song, another relative unknown who wrote "If I were a
Carpenter." But here was a case when the public won out over the record label –
everyone was listening to the B-side, "Maggie May," the true story of an older woman
referred to in the song only as Maggie.
The studio line-up for the track included the partial-Faces
gathering of Ian McLagan on organ and Ronnie Wood on electric guitar, bass and
12-string. Micky Waller was on drums and Martin Quittenton on acoustic guitar,
while the crucial feature of the song's success, the mandolin, was played by
Ray Jackson, lead singer with another band no one's ever heard of,
Lindisfarne, a band that has now been around for 52 years.
Stewart first appeared on Top Of The Pops performing "Maggie
May" on August 19, 1971. The next day, "Maggie May" was listed as the "top side" of the single. Subsequent pressings switched the A and the B.
By the time Every Picture Tells a Story was released, the
"Maggie May" had reached No. 1 in both the U.K. and the U.S. and spent five weeks at the
summit.
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