Composer: Norman
Petty & Charles Hardin Holly
Original
performer: Buddy
Holly (1957)
Recording date: January
1964
Recording location: Regent
Sound Studios, London
Producer: Andrew
Oldham Engineer:
Bill
Farley
Performed onstage: 1964-66,
1994-95

Probable line-up:
Drums: Charlie
Watts
Bass: Bill Wyman
Acoustic guitar: Keith
Richards
Electric guitar: Keith
Richards
Vocals: Mick
Jagger
Harmonica: Brian
Jones
Tambourine: Mick
Jagger
Maracas: Mick
Jagger
Handclaps: Mick
Jagger
I'm going to tell you how it's going to be
You're going to give your love to me
I'm going to love you night and day
Well love that's love will not fade away
My love is bigger than a Cadillac
I'll try to show it if you drive me back
Your love for me has got to be real
Before you can know just how I feel
(Well) Love real not fade away
Yeah
I'm going to tell you how it's going to be
You're going to give your love to me
Love to last more than one day
Well love that's love will not fade away
Love that's love will not fade away
Not fade away
TrackTalk
I suppose I suggested (we record) it. I have the song on an EP by Buddy Holly - he always seemed to go in for these Bo Diddley things. I mentioned it when we started talking about a new single. Well, we all tossed the idea around, and in the end we thought it was a good one because it had a vague tune - which does help commercially, and that's more than you can say for a lot of the tunes in that Diddley style, isn't it?
Although it was a Buddy Holly song, I considered
it to be like the first song Mick and Keith wrote, in that they picked
the concept of applying that Bo
Diddley thing to it. The way they arranged it was the beginning of
the shaping of them as songwriters. From then on they wrote. At that time,
Mick, Keith, and I lived together. They were into the last half bottle
of wine and going through, it was one of those magical moments. When Keith
played that to me in the front room you could actually HEAR the record
in that room. What basically made the record was that whole Bo Diddley
acoustic guitar thrust. You heard the whole record in one room. We gotta
record it! But there's no way if someone had just said coldly, Right,
let's do "Not Fade Away" that we would have wanted to do it without
hearing the way that Keith was playing it on the guitar. Keith just did
it. And that was that. To me, they wrote the song. It's a pity we couldn't
have gotten the money.
Keith played guitar on that track, Brian the
harmonica. The rhythm thing was formed basically around the Buddy Holly
thing. We brought the rhythm up and emphasized it. Holly had used that
Bo Diddley trademark beat on his version, but because he was only using
bass, drums and guitar, the rhythm element is sort of a throwaway. Holly
played it lightly. We just got into it more and put the Bo Diddley beat
up front.