Rod Stewart is in no doubt about the significance of the song Maggie May, the lament to a lover which made him a star — released 50 years ago, in July 1971: 'Maggie May changed everything. Suddenly I was rolling in fame and money.'
The same cannot be said of the talented musicians who wrote the hit alongside him.
While Rod still enjoys worldwide fame, it can be revealed that Martin Quittenton, the guitar genius who co-wrote Maggie May, died in obscurity in rural Wales, having left the music industry and given away his fortune.
His widow told the Mail that he had endured a lifelong battle with eating disorders, and while Rod's life was a whirl of blondes, booze and acclaim, Quittenton — who also wrote You Wear It Well alongside Stewart — spent every penny he had on animal rescue and planting trees.
Ray Jackson, the mandolin player who claims he wrote the riff which is arguably the key to the success of the song, was paid a paltry £15 by Rod and not even properly credited on the album notes. (Stewart has previously denied Jackson wrote part of the song.) 'It's very sad,' Jackson said this week.
Rod Stewart is in no doubt about the significance of the song Maggie May, the lament to a lover which made him a star — released 50 years ago, in July 1971: 'Maggie May changed everything. Suddenly I was rolling in fame and money'
Another uncredited talent on the album, singer Maggie Bell, has claimed that she wasn't paid for her work on Every Picture Tells A Story.
She described the famously parsimonious singer as: 'The only person I know who could peel an orange in his pocket with one hand.'
It seems that Rod's great good fortune is in contrast to the bad luck which has dogged everyone else. While his great friend, guitarist Ronnie Wood, is still flourishing, some of the others who played on the album are not.
Guitarist Sam Mitchell died aged 56 following alcohol issues and violin player Dick Powell died of cancer.
Drummer Mickey Waller died of liver failure aged 66. Singer Maggie Bell suffered the horrifying ordeal of seeing her fiancee Les Harvey being electrocuted on stage by a faulty microphone in 1972.
In the beginning, nobody thought Maggie May was going to be a hit. It was initially released as the B-side of Reason To Believe, but it found favour with DJs, reaching No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic three months later, taking Rod by surprise — he hadn't even been sure it should be on the album.
At that point Rod was best known as the singer with The Faces. He had produced two solo albums, neither of them making a splash.
While Rod still enjoys worldwide fame, it can be revealed that Martin Quittenton, the guitar genius who co-wrote Maggie May, died in obscurity in rural Wales, having left the music industry and given away his fortune
For his third attempt, he assembled musicians at the Morgan Sound Studios in Willesden, North London.
Waller introduced Rod to Quittenton, then a shy, young guitarist.
He and Rod unexpectedly hit it off, and Quittenton stayed at Rod's house in Highgate during the recording period.
Rod described him as 'quiet and studious, with a permanently furrowed brow' — and the most inventive guitarist he had ever met.
One night, the pair wrote Maggie May in his sitting room. 'I didn't think it was very good,' Quittenton later said, modestly.
The acoustic introduction came to Quittenton when he was riding the Piccadilly Line a couple of days later.
Rod struggled to write the lyrics, which were about his 'first s**g' in a tent at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival in 1961.
He made them up virtually off the cuff in the studio. He told Q magazine: 'I was 16 and it lasted precisely 28 seconds.
'She was older and bigger than me. I don't think her name was Margaret.' In fact, Maggie May was the name of a well-known prostitute who plied her trade on the Liverpool docks.
The song was finished in a hurry during a recording session at Morgan Studios. Rod was always keen to work quickly, because studio time was so expensive.
One of the last pieces of the puzzle came when Rod hired Ray Jackson, mandolin player in the Geordie group Lindisfarne.
Stewart liked the 'folk texture' of the instrument and had initially asked him to play on the song Mandolin Wind.
According to Jackson: 'Rod then said, "I've got this other song called Maggie May.
"I don't know what to do with it. I might not even use it and probably it won't even go on the album, but I've got nothing to put on the end, so can you put some mandolin down?"'
Jackson did so. 'I had two minutes to improvise it around the chords: suddenly they like the song.
'The people at the mixing desk were looking at each other in delight. They were applauding.'
He was paid £15 for the session — the standard Musician's Union fee for a three-hour session.
'I'm not bitter. I am proud to have been a part of that album,' he says
'It was groundbreaking and sold millions around the world. It still gets played on the radio.
'It was pretty much the first time a mandolin had been on a pop record and so the first time a lot of people would have heard one.'
It is thought Maggie May makes around £250,000 a year in royalties, split between the credited writers Stewart and Quittenton so, if he had been recognised as a co-author as he claims he should have been, over the years Jackson could have made millions from it.
'It is what happens to artists,' he said. 'Every autobiography you
