"We Love You" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones that was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Their first new release of the summer of 1967, it was first released as a single on 18 August in the United Kingdom, with "Dandelion" as the B-side. The song peaked at number eight in Britain and number 50 in the United States, where "Dandelion" was promoted as the A-side and peaked at number 14.
Written as a message of gratitude to their fans for the public support towards them during the drug arrests of Jagger and Richards, the recording features guest backing vocals by John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles. It is considered one of the Rolling Stones' most experimental songs, featuring sound effects, layers of vocal overdubs, and a prominent Mellotron part played by Brian Jones. The single's two tracks were the final new Stones recordings for which a production credit was given for band manager Andrew Loog Oldham. The recording sessions that produced "We Love You" and "Dandelion" represented Oldham's last work with the band before resigning as their producer over personal and professional conflicts with them.
Critics at the time of its release praised the song for its production and vocal and instrumental performances, while also noting its significance to the band's current status. However, some at the time viewed the song as somewhat overproduced. Retrospective reviews have been more mixed, with some describing its sound as too similar to the Beatles, and emblematic of the band losing its identity over the Summer of Love in favor of following trends. However, others praise the song as a unique offering to the genre of psychedelic music, and for its diverse range of musical influences.
Background
By the late 1960s, drugs were common in the British music industry, although this fact was not commonly known by much of the public. In 1966, the ITV documentary A Boy Called Donovan publicised Donovan's use of marijuana to the wider world, marking one of the first times a musician's drug use had become so publicly known. Donovan later described how "this was the first time a British television audience had caught a glimpse of the lifestyle of the beatniks and many were shocked". In early 1967, Jagger, Richards and Jones began to be hounded by authorities over their recreational drug use, after the News of the World ran a three-part feature entitled "Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You". The series described alleged LSD parties hosted by the Moody Blues attended by top stars including the Who's Pete Townshend and Cream's Ginger Baker, and alleged admissions of drug use by leading pop musicians. The first article targeted Donovan, who as a result was raided soon after, the second article (published on 5 February) targeted the Rolling Stones.
In February 1967, two members of The Rolling Stones, lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards were arrested at Richards' home, Redlands, West Wittering, Sussex for drug possession. By this point, Jagger had begun suing News of the World for libel over their article on the Rolling Stones' drug use. Although both Jagger and Richards were convicted following the raid, a publicity campaign by their colleagues in the music industry encouraged popular support and criticism of the decision to prosecute them. Most notably, the traditionally conservatively oriented newspaper The Times published an op-ed by William Rees-Mogg asking Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?, in which he criticised the prosecutions as unfounded and unnecessary. Additionally, the Who recorded cover versions of Stones songs "Under My Thumb" and "The Last Time" as a show of solidarity with the Stones throughout the trials.
Composition
"We Love You" was written in the aftermath of the drug arrest and the public outrage that followed it, and has traditionally been interpreted as a message to fans of the group thanking them for their support through the controversy. Conversely, the song's lyrics have been described as "a spoof" of the Lennon–McCartney song "All You Need Is Love", which the Beatles performed on the Our World satellite broadcast on 25 June. However, the Rolling Stones began recording the song two weeks prior to the Our World broadcast. Alternatively, as Lennon insisted was the case, in his 1970 Rolling Stone interview, the lyrics can be seen as echoing the message of the Beatles song, on which Jagger and Richards were among the many chorus singers. Bill Wyman later said that Jagger and Richards had been working on the song "for some time".