Who recorded it first

It's All Over Now

Not a Rolling Stones original — a 1964 Valentinos single on SAR Records

The Rolling Stones’ 1964 single is so completely the version people carry around that it is routinely assumed to be theirs. It is a cover. The song was written by Bobby Womack and his sister-in-law Shirley Womack, and first recorded by Womack’s group The Valentinos at United Recording in Hollywood on 24 March 1964, produced by Sam Cooke for his own SAR Records label. The Valentinos’ single crept onto the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 94 and was gone in two weeks; the Stones cut theirs at Chess Studios in Chicago on 10 June and released it on 26 June, and it became their first UK No. 1.

The record

Who recorded it first

Record
“It’s All Over Now” b/w “Tired of Living in the Country”
Artist
The Valentinos
Label & catalogue
SAR Records 152 (US, 1964)
Written by
Bobby Womack and Shirley Womack

Released Issued in 1964 as a 7-inch single on Sam Cooke’s SAR Records, catalogue number 152, backed with “Tired of Living in the Country.” Recorded at United Recording in Hollywood on 24 March 1964 with Bobby Womack on lead vocal and guitar, his brothers on backing vocals, and Cooke producing.

Charted Entered the Billboard Hot 100 on 27 June 1964 and peaked at No. 94, spending two weeks on the chart.

How to check it

Wikipedia’s entry for the song gives the Valentinos’ recording date as 24 March 1964 at United Recording, with Sam Cooke producing, and dates the Stones’ session to 10 June 1964 at Chess Studios: It’s All Over Now ↗.

MusicBrainz carries the 1964 US SAR single itself, catalogue 152, with “It’s All Over Now” as the A-side: SAR 152 ↗.

ABKCO, which controls the SAR catalogue, lists the track on its complete Valentinos SAR reissue and describes it as a hit for both the Valentinos and the Rolling Stones: Lookin’ For A Love ↗.

Wikipedia: “It’s All Over Now” — original, cover versions and chart history
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Fact-check

The record, corrected

The Stones’ single is one of the best-known records of 1964, which is exactly why the song is assumed to start there. It does not.

The beliefCover, 1964

The Rolling Stones

Their version was recorded at Chess Studios on 10 June 1964 and released on 26 June on Decca F11934 — their first UK No. 1, and No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. It came after the original, not before it.

The originalFirst recording, 24 March 1964

The Valentinos

Recorded at United Recording in Hollywood on 24 March 1964, produced by Sam Cooke, and issued on his SAR Records label as catalogue 152.

The writersComposition

Bobby Womack and Shirley Womack

Bobby Womack wrote the song with his sister-in-law Shirley Womack. Bobby sang lead on the Valentinos’ recording.

First recorded by The Valentinos, 24 March 1964, SAR Records — written by Bobby Womack and Shirley Womack.

Context

Why the cover swallowed the original

The interesting thing is not that the Stones covered it. It is how little daylight there was. The Valentinos’ single was still climbing when the Stones cut their version at Chess Studios, and both records were on the Billboard Hot 100 in the same summer. One entered at No. 94 and vanished in a fortnight; the other went to No. 1 in Britain. The original was not buried by time. It was overtaken almost in real time.

The mechanism was distribution and moment. SAR was Sam Cooke’s own small label, working an R&B market; the Stones had Decca, a British Invasion in full flood, and a DJ handing them the record. Bobby Womack’s own account — annoyance, then a royalty cheque, then complete forgiveness — is the neatest summary anyone has offered of what happened to his song.

The chronology, step by step
  • 24 March 1964 — The Valentinos record “It’s All Over Now” at United Recording in Hollywood, Sam Cooke producing, for SAR Records.
  • 1964 — SAR issues it as a single, catalogue number 152, backed with “Tired of Living in the Country.”
  • June 1964 — DJ Murray the K plays the record to The Rolling Stones in New York during their first North American tour.
  • 10 June 1964 — The Rolling Stones record their version at Chess Studios, Chicago.
  • 26 June 1964 — The Stones’ version is released on Decca F11934 in the UK; it becomes their first UK No. 1.
  • 27 June 1964 — The Valentinos’ single enters the Billboard Hot 100; it peaks at No. 94 and lasts two weeks.
Three months separated the record that made the song from the record that made it famous.

The original recording artist

The Valentinos

Active 1952–1974 · Cleveland, Ohio · SAR Records

Five Womack brothers — Friendly Jr., Curtis, Bobby, Harry and Cecil — who began singing in their father’s church around 1952 as the Womack Brothers. Sam Cooke signed them to SAR Records ↗ in 1960 and turned them secular as The Valentinos, scoring first with “Lookin’ for a Love.” Their “It’s All Over Now,” cut on 24 March 1964 with Bobby Womack on lead vocal and guitar and Cooke producing, is the first recording of the song. Cooke’s death that December, and the scandal that followed Bobby’s marriage to Cooke’s widow, effectively ended the group’s run.

Popularly credited as the original

The Rolling Stones

Formed 1962, London · Decca (UK) / London (US)

They heard the Valentinos’ record in New York in June 1964, played to them by DJ Murray the K during their first North American tour, and recorded their own version at Chess Studios in Chicago days later. Released on 26 June 1964 on Decca F11934, it gave them their first UK No. 1 and reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. The performance — Keith Richards’ lead against Brian Jones’ twelve-string, with Ian Stewart on piano — is a genuinely great record. The only error in the popular account is chronological.

The songwriters

Bobby Womack and Shirley Womack

Bobby Womack, 1944–2014 · co-written with his sister-in-law Shirley Womack

Bobby Womack wrote the song with Shirley Womack, his sister-in-law, and sang it himself on the Valentinos’ record. He objected when the Stones wanted it — the story, as Wikipedia and other accounts tell it, is that he wanted Mick Jagger to go and find his own song — and Sam Cooke talked him round. When the first royalty cheque arrived he reversed himself entirely and said Jagger could have anything he wanted. Womack went on to a long solo career as one of soul’s most durable writers and guitarists.