The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man - Edit / Mono Version

This song is representative of music industry insiders who work on the business end - the guys who have nothing creative to offer, but deem themselves important to the process. With convoluted titles and bad toupees, these guys fostered a stereotype that the Rolling Stones played up in this song, describing a guy who thinks he is far more important than he actually is. The song was directly inspired by George Sherlock, who a United States promotions man at Decca Records. Sherlock was assigned to travel with the Stones when they were on the West Coast, and unhappy with the chaperone, wrote this scathing song about him. The Stones eventually warmed to Sherlock and didn't mind having him around.

In the US, this was released as the B-side of "Satisfaction."

Most Rolling Stones songs are credited to just Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as writers, but some of their early ones, including "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man," are credited to the full band. Instead of listing each member in the credits, though, they had a little fun with it, listing the writer as "Nanker Phelge." According to Keith Richards, "Nanker" is a name Brian Jones devised, and "Phelge" was the nickname for someone he described as "The most disgusting person ever."