“Maggie May” by Rod Stewart

"Maggie May" sits at the heart of Every Picture Tells a Story, Rod Stewart's 1971 album. Stewart wrote it with guitarist Martin Quittenton and produced it himself, and it's a ramshackle, lived-in beauty: acoustic guitars strummed like they're in the back room of a pub, a band that sounds half-sober and wholly in love with the song, and Stewart's sandpaper voice pleading, grumbling and gloating all at once.

The credits run long. Ronnie Wood handles guitars, bass guitar and pedal steel, Quittenton and Stewart play acoustic, Ian McLagan adds organ, Pete Sears sits at the piano, Danny Thompson plays double bass, Sam Mitchell brings slide guitar, Dick Powell plays violin and Micky Waller keeps it all rolling on drums, with Madeline Bell among the voices.

Nobody seems to be trying too hard, and that's the magic. It has come to stand as Stewart's signature song. Rolling Stone placed it at number 130 on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, and the Mercury Records single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2017.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.