Rolling Stones, The #4 Artist of the Rock Era, Part One

"The rock band by which all others are measured."

"The Rolling Stones shook the world with their RHYTHM & BLUES happy days."

"What a band/ cant imagine the music world without the Rolling Stones."

"Let there be no mixed emotions about who the greatest band in the world is. Long live The Stones!"

"I like the 60s Stones, 70s Stones, 80s Stones, 90s Stones, 00s Stones, 10s Stones, 20s Stones"

"The Rolling Stones are the best of the best."

"I'm a Rolling Stone fan forever."

"One of the most timeless bands ever."

"So much talent in this band--the songwriting, the vocals, the awesome drumming of Charlie Watts and the great bass lines of Wyman."

"They are legends."

"It took Jagger and Richards a while to hone their craft but they became great songwriters. So many classics."

"Rolling Stones are awesome and have such a range in their music."

"Another timeless band. The Stones are one of my favorite bands. I have so many from this era it's really hard to pick an exact favorite. Keep on Rocking."

"The Rolling Stones are the epitome of cool. They're one of my favorite Rock groups."

"I think it's what makes the Stones stand out from all the other bands.   They are diverse; its incredible."

"The Greatest Rock and Roll Band. They listened to the Delta Blues and Urban Blues and took the narrative one step further."

"The greatest Rock and Roll band in the world!"

"Thanks again for all your talents for the WORLD, to admire, you gentlemen are mentors,and putting this mildly, (lol) "LEGENDARY!"

"THE ROLLING STONES FOREVER! LONG LIVE THE ROLLING STONES!"

"I have been a Rolling Stones fan for 56 years! They are the greatest and longest-playing Rock ‘n’ Roll band in history."

"The Rolling Stones are the BEST band on Earth, their songs are incredible"

"The greatest Rock n' Roll band that’s ever lived…what other band can top what they have done in nearly 60 yrs ?? "

This legendary act began when Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were friends in Dartford, Great Britain in 1950.  Five years later, Jagger and friend Dick Taylor formed a band which played covers of Blues artists such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and early Rock artists such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard.  

Richards spotted Jagger carrying Berry and Waters records at a train station on October 17, 1961 and the two began collaborating soon after.  Soon, Bob Beckwith and Alan Etherington joined Jagger, Richards and Taylor to form the Blues Boys.

In 1962, the group heard about the Ealing Jazz Club in a local newspaper which mentioned the group Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated.  Korner's group was the forebearers of thousands of British groups and are an important element of the British Rock Family Tree.  The Blues Boys sent a tape to Korner, who invited the group to the Club to meet the members in his band, which included slide guitarist Brian Jones, keyboardist Ian Stewart and drummer Charlie Watts.  They began jamming together and the Blues Boys joined Blues Incorporated.

Jones and Stewart soon left and formed their own group, with Jagger, Richards and Taylor soon joining them.  When drummer Tony Chapman came along in June of 1962, they had a complete lineup and took the name Rollin' Stones, after a track on a Muddy Waters LP that Jones owned.  The group debuted on July 12 at the legendary Marquee Club in London playing material they had worked on as the Blues Boys.  

Soon after, the band altered their name to the Rolling Stones.  Acting manager Giorgio Gomelsky landed them a residency at the Crawdaddy Club.  But the following year, the group signed nineteen-year-old Andrew Oldham as their manager.  Oldham, who had previously been the publicist for the Beatles, would prove to be one of the best managers of the Rock Era.

Stewart by this time had left the group, though he stayed on as road manager and keyboardist for live shows.  The Stones signed a recording contract with Decca Records, and thanks to the shrewd Oldham, they were allowed full artistic control of their recordings and ownership of the master tapes. 

 

The band released their first single, a remake of "Come On" by Chuck Berry, in 1963.  It was a stiff at #21 in the U.K., but it did lead to the group landing gigs to open for the Everly Brothers, the Hollies and Little Richard.  The Rolling Stones had more luck when John Lennon and Paul McCartney gave the song "I Wanna' Be Your Man" to them, and it topped out at #12.  

 

Oldham was sure the group would be successful after hearing this song.  "Although it was a Buddy Holly song, I considered it to be like the first song Mick and Keith wrote," Oldham said.  "They picked the concept of applying that Bo Diddley thing to it," he continued.  "The way they arranged it was the beginning of the shaping of them as songwriters.  From then on, they wrote."  The Stones finally cracked the Top 10 with their remake of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away", which hit #3.

The band released their debut album England's Newest Hit Makers in 1964.  It reached #1 in the U.K. and Australia and has since went Gold.

But to this point, the group had performed and recorded other people's songs.  Jagger and Richards soon began writing their own.  But it still wasn't up to snuff as only one of the songs on their self-titled debut album was original.  

 

The Stones recorded the album while on a tour in the U.S. and included another remake after hearing it played for them by legendary New York DJ Murray the K.  The group released their cover of the Valentino's song "It's All Over Now".  This one climbed to #1 in the U.K. but only #26 in the United States. 

 

The band appeared in the movie T.A.M.I. Show later in the year and on The Ed Sullivan Show the following year.  The Rolling Stones released the album 12 x 5 during their next tour.  The album did not sell well initially but eventually went Gold, led by this song, yet another remake.  The lyrics were mostly original, recorded by trombonist Kai Winding and his Orchestra in 1963, with just the title lyric sung by Dionne Warwick, Cissy Houston and Dee Dee Warwick.   Here's "Time Is On My Side", which hit #3 in Switzerland, #4 in France and #6 in the U.S. 

We also want to feature another cut on the album, a remake of a Chuck Berry song.  It was the first song Jagger sang when he and Richards sat in with the Blues Inc. in 1962 and also the first song the Stones recorded.  They re-recorded it two years later for this album.  The band performed this as well as "Time Is On My Side" for their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on October 25, 1964.  Here is "Around And Around".

 

The group rebounded with their album The Rolling Stones, Now!, which reached #5.  Recorded at RCA Studios in Los Angeles, this single became just the second hit written by the group, but "Heart Of Stone" stalled at #19.

 

The band recorded a remake of Bo Diddley's "Mona (I Need You Baby)" and played it in concerts to promote the album.

 

Here is the Stones' remake of the Howlin' Wolf song "Little Red Rooster".  They chose it as the single in the U.K. rather than "Heart Of Stone" and it reached #1 there.

 

The project gave the band their third Gold album.  The Rolling Stones were in the middle of a stressful American tour but recorded this song in Los Angeles before heading to Australia.  The single "The Last Time" hit #1 in the U.K. and #9 in the United States, which was later released on the album Out of Our Heads.  It to date was by far the biggest hit the group had writtenthemselves, even though they based it on the Gospel song "This May Be The Last Time" by the Staple Singers.  

Richards said about "The Last Time" that it was "the bridge into thinking about writing...It gave us a level of confidence:  a pathway of how to do it." 

So to this point, the group had paid the bills mostly by doing covers of other people's songs, and even those didn't do well.  They had written a couple of their own hits, but only minor ones.  The band we all know today as The #4 Artist of the Rock Era* was dangerously close to falling into the trash heap of history.  Until the next song that you will hear in Part Two!