Word started to spread that Bruce Springsteen was in the house with Paul McCartney long before the first ticketholder was admitted.
Out in the MetLife Stadium parking lot, we speculated about what song(s) the pair might perform if Paul invited Bruce on stage during the show.
I was certain they wouldn’t choose one of Bruce’s. (I was wrong.) And among all of Paul’s songs I could have guessed, I doubt I’d have landed on the one they surprised us with.
The Beatles thought so little of “I Wanna Be Your Man” that they gave it away to some friends. McCartney did most of the heavy lifting, but John Lennon helped him polish it in the corner of a room while said friends–Mick and Keith–chatted.
Grateful for the gift, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards recorded “I Wanna Be Your Man” with their up-and-coming band. The resulting single became the first Top Twenty hit for The Rolling Stones, peaking at #12 in the U.K.
Although The Beatles recorded a version of their own, they only released it as an album track, three weeks after the Stones’ single. Technically, that meant The Beatles version was a cover.
Credit each band for arranging the song in their own style, though: The Stones’ version is gritty and dirty compared to the poppier Beatles track–exactly what we’d expect to hear from each band.
So when speculating which song Paul and Bruce might perform from McCartney’s vast catalog, I didn’t expect a rarely performed (setlists.com ranks it the 109th most frequently performed song in McCartney’s sets) album track The Beatles never got around to releasing as a single.
Of course, it was perfect. Following an even more surprising “Glory Days,” Sir Paul and The Boss traded vocals on “I Wanna Be Your Man,” with Bruce providing a tasty mid-song guitar solo.
The crowd ate it up, so much so that McCartney invited Bruce to join him again only nine days later–this time across the Atlantic at McCartney’s headline set at Glastonbury. It was another crowd-pleasing performance, captured professionally by the BBC.
Bonus: Although they’d played the same songs together just nine days earlier, the two rock legends took some time to rehearse with McCartney’s band before they took the stage in Glastonbury. Check out this rare behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage.
I Wanna Be Your Man
First performance: June 16, 2022 (East Rutherford, NJ)
Last performance: June 25, 2022 (Pilton, England)
