The classic Rod Stewart single that almost wasn't released

I heard the 1971 ROD STEWART single "MAGGIE MAY" driving back to work after lunch today.
The classic song's "late September" lyrics and mandolin riff seemed perfectly suited to the sunny autumn day.
Oddly, Stewart himself originally viewed the song as a misfit with few commercial prospects.
Stewart describes "Maggie May" as a "nice-enough song" in "Rod: The Autobiography."
Stewart writes:
"Good little tale. Nice mandolin part, played by Ray Jackson from the folk-rock ground Lindisfarne -- and you don't often hear mandolin on a pop song, but it was a texture I had always loved in folk music."
Stewart didn't consider releasing "Maggie May" as a single.
"Actually, I even wondered for a while about leaving it off the album. It didn't have a chorus. It just had these rambling verses. It didn't really have a hook. How could you hope to have a hit single with a song that was all verse and no chorus and no hook?"
Stewart ended up releasing "Maggie May" as the B side to "Reason to Believe."
Disc jockeys apparently preferred "Maggie May," playing the track so often that the record company reclassified it as the A side.