Songfacts®:

• This was the first Mick Jagger/Keith Richards composition. They wrote it when their manager, Andrew Oldham, locked them in his kitchen and told them to write some songs. At the time, The Stones were content to interpret songs written by other artists. This helped give Mick and Keith the confidence that they could be songwriters as well as performers.
• A Pop ballad, this was a big departure from the Blues songs The Stones were covering at the time.
• This was released as a single only in the US. It was their first Top 40 hit in America.
• Keith Richards said in 1971: "'Tell Me,' which was pulled out as a single in America, was a dub. Half those records were dubs on that first album, that Mick and I and Charlie and I'd put a bass on or maybe Bill was there and he'd put a bass on Let's put it down while we remember it and the next thing we know is, Oh look, track 8 is that dub we did a couple months ago. That's how little control we had."
• Mick Jagger explained in a 1995 promotional interview: "Keith was playing 12-string and singing harmonies into the same microphone as the 12-string. We recorded it in this tiny studio in the West End of London called Regent Sound, which was a demo studio. I think the whole of that album was recorded in there. But it's very different from doing those R&B covers or Marvin Gaye covers and all that. There's a definite feel about it. It's a very POP song, as opposed to all the blues covers and the Motown covers, which everyone did at the time." >>>

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  Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 2