The Crown Princess of swinging London whose tumultuous affair with Mick Jagger nearly destroyed her: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS on the turbulent life of Marianne Faithfull

A unique chanteuse, a chronicler of her era and once proclaimed the most beautiful woman of her generation, Marianne Faithfull – who has died aged 78 – was the Crown Princess of Swinging London. But she has never able to truly escape her role at the centre of rock's most lurid story involving Mick Jagger, a sex act and a chocolate bar. From the height of her 1960s infamy, as the girlfriend of Jagger caught up in a notorious drugs bust, to the end of a magnificent career, one salacious detail defined Marianne.

The facts have been debunked numerous times by everyone involved, from the Rolling Stones to the police to the drug dealers and potheads who were witnesses. To omit it from her obituary would be pointless, though compared to the self-inflicted tragedies of the years that followed, this brush with the law was almost trivial. But the truth is – yes, there was a Mars bar. A statement released late last night, said: 'It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull.

'Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.'. Sir Mick paid tribute to Faithfull in a social media post. 'I am so saddened to hear of the death of Marianne Faithfull,' he wrote. Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull pictured together in circa 1967. Marianne Faithfull and actress Anita Pallenberg at Heathrow Airport ahead of flying to Tangiers with their Rolling Stones boyfriends -- March 11, 1967.

'She was so much part of my life for so long. She was a wonderful friend, a beautiful singer and a great actress. She will always be remembered.'. Bandmate Keith Richards wrote: 'My heartfelt condolences to Marianne's family! I'm so sad and will miss her!'. Marianne was 17 when her wide-eyed, waiflike looks attracted the attention of the Stones' dissolute manager Andrew Loog Oldham, at a London party. There with her boyfriend, artist John Dunbar, she was, 'an angel with big breasts', Loog Oldham said.

After hearing her sing, in a mournful alto with heavy Austrian inflection – her mother was from Vienna – he urged Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards to come up with a hit for her. It had to be ominous and virginal, he announced: 'A song with brick walls all around it, high windows and no sex.'. The duo, who had not yet written their breakthrough single Satisfaction, protested they hadn't the first idea what to do.

Loog Oldham pushed them to the kitchen table and ordered them to get on with it. They picked a title, stolen from Casablanca – As Time Goes By – and handed in 'a terrible piece of tripe', Richards remembered. But in the teenage Marianne's lovelorn, aching treatment of the song – renamed As Tears Go By – it was far from tripe. It became one of the most poignant and heartbreaking pop songs of the decade, part lament and part grand European melodrama. The press called it 'baroque-and-roll'. She simply said, 'it fitted me so perfectly'.

Oscar Dunbar and Marianne Faithfull attend the launch of the Mulberry x Alexa Chung collection at 180 Studios on July 22, 2021 in London. Her other hits in the 1960s included As Tears Go By - co-written by her then-boyfriend Mick Jagger (the couple are pictured together in Sydney in July 1969). Marianne pictured with Mick Jagger at Euston station in 1967. The pair dated for four years and split in 1970.

A top ten hit in the UK and top 30 in the US, the song created an air of mystery around the girl dubbed 'the greatest discovery of 1964'. In a year that included the Beatles' first American tour and Michael Caine's arrival in Zulu, that was quite an accolade. The Stones immediately claimed Marianne for their own, even though she soon married Dunbar and had a child with him. The marriage was over within a year.

Rebelling against her strict Catholic convent school upbringing, she had a one-night stand with Richards: 'Wonderful,' she remembered, 'but it was just one night so it's completely idealised.'. Richards then urged her to sleep with his bandmate, Jagger: 'He thought it would be good for the band. And instead of saying, 'But I love you,' I said, 'OK'. I didn't really love Mick when I was first with him, I was just obeying Keith.'.

It wasn't love at first sight for Jagger either, she believed. For years Marianne harboured a vaguely jealous suspicion that he took up with her only because actress Julie Christie, who shared her porcelain prettiness, had turned him down. Yet she made him the envy of other stars, including Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, who pursued her without success. As the band skyrocketed with a series of hits, Marianne's own career faltered. She soon became a heavy drugs user, addicted to pills and cocaine as well smoking marijuana constantly.