Not Fade Away

Buddy Holly and Norman Petty are the credited writers; Petty's credit may be a formality, and Jerry Allison wrote some lyrics uncredited. Holly and the Crickets released the original on Brunswick on October 27, 1957 as the B-side of Oh, Boy!, and it is on The "Chirping" Crickets. It was recorded at Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico, with Petty producing, and its beat is a Bo Diddley variant that Allison played on a cardboard box. Rolling Stone placed it at number 107 on its 2004 list.

The Stones recorded their version on January 10, 1964 at Olympic Studios in London according to Wikipedia, though uDiscover gives late January or February 4 at Regent Sound; the dates are disputed. Andrew Loog Oldham produced. It was their third UK single, released on Decca as F 11845 on February 21, 1964 with Little by Little on the B-side, and their US debut single on London on March 6, 1964 with I Wanna Be Your Man on the B-side. It reached number 3 in the UK and number 48 on the US Hot 100, and its first television showing was on Top of the Pops on March 4, 1964. Cash Box called it a wild, freewheeling full-sounding pounder.

Who plays

Per Margotin and Guesdon as cited on Wikipedia: Mick Jagger double-tracked the lead vocal and played handclaps, tambourine and maracas; Keith Richards played twelve-string acoustic and lead guitar; Brian Jones harmonica; Bill Wyman bass; Charlie Watts drums. Oldham said Phil Spector played maracas, which Wyman disputed, and two sources credit Jagger.

On record it opens the US album England's Newest Hit Makers, released by London on May 29, 1964, at 1:48; it was not on the UK debut album, and a UK compilation, Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass), followed in 1966. It was an early mainstay of Stones concerts, usually the opener, and was revived as the opener of the Voodoo Lounge Tour of 1994 and 1995; setlist.fm lists it in 218 setlists and calls it the band's most-played cover, and a live version is on Live in Buenos Aires 1995. The Grateful Dead first played it on February 19, 1969 and have played it more than 600 times; others who have covered the song include Bobby Fuller, the Everly Brothers, Rush, Stephen Stills, Tanya Tucker, Florence and the Machine and Stevie Nicks. The upload on hypersongs is the 1964 studio recording in mono from the auto-generated Topic channel; the compilation it was drawn from is not confirmed.