[2] The songwriting duo of the group Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane already had the melody for the song, the inspiration coming from Solomon Burke's hit record "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love."

However they had no lyrics, so their manager, Don Arden, brought in Ian Samwell and Brian Potter to provide the words for the song.

[3] Kenney Jones recalled to Uncut magazine: "We hadn't fully established our own songwriting abilities – our stage show was mainly covers of things like Otis Redding's 'Shake' – and this really suited the power of Steve's voice.

According to Marriott, the group had by the end of July entered IBC Studios and recorded an earlier version of the song, which he claimed to love.

Years later, Arden admitted to spending £12,000 on chart fixing to ensure the band's debut song would be a hit.