Rolling Stones Records
Encyclopedia
Rolling Stones Records is the record label formed by The Rolling Stones
members Mick Jagger
, Keith Richards
, Mick Taylor
, Charlie Watts
and Bill Wyman
in 1970, after their recording contract with Decca Records
expired. They were first distributed in the United States by Atlantic Records
subsidiary Atco Records
. Beginning in 1973 they signed a distribution deal with Atlantic Records
. In 1986 Columbia Records
started distributing them. In the UK, they were distributed by EMI. The label was initially headed by Marshall Chess
, the son of Chess Records
founder Leonard Chess
. The label was discontinued in 1992 when the band signed to Virgin Records
, but the tongue-and-lips logo remains on all post-1970 Rolling Stones releases.
in 1971, and is widely credited with being the first World Music
LP. In 1972 the label released Jamming with Edward
, a collection of tracks recorded by Jagger, Wyman, and Watts with Nicky Hopkins
and Ry Cooder
in 1969.
Bill Wyman released his albums Monkey Grip
(1974) and Stone Alone in (1976). Wyman found out that he couldn't get proper attention from the promotion and sales people, as the Rolling Stones had albums due out shortly after both releases, and the label concentrated on the band's albums. Wyman ended up going to A&M Records
for further solo efforts. The label also released a solo single by Keith Richards in December 1978: a rendition of Chuck Berry
's "Run Rudolph Run
" backed by a version of Jimmy Cliff
's "The Harder They Come
".
, Purple Records or Apple Records
, the vanity label
s of Led Zeppelin
, Deep Purple and The Beatles
respectively, Rolling Stones Records never made much of an effort to sign outside artists. Kracker
, a Cuban rock group produced by Rolling Stones' producer, Jimmy Miller, was the first outside act to be signed to Rolling Stones Records in 1973. Kracker, along with Billy Preston
, opened the show for the Stones during their 1973 European Tour.
, formerly of The Mamas & the Papas
, had written before an English cricket match they were attending on holiday. That evening he signed Phillips to a contract on Rolling Stones Records and booked studio time in London's Olympic Studios
. Jagger and Richards were producers for the album; Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood also contributed. The initial sessions began a six-year recording odyssey. Jagger got increasingly dissatisfied with the project and the Richards/Phillips partnership as progress on the recording front was made very slowly while a lot of Richards' and Phillips' time was taken up by heavy drug use. Jagger reported to Ahmet Ertegün
, then head of Atlantic Records
, that he could not see the album ever getting completed. Atlantic cut off money for further recording and mixing in 1979 and the recordings were left unfinished. Ertegün in particular thought it lacked marketability and had no first single to release. As reported in Phillips biography, Papa John, hundreds of thousands of dollars had been spent recording in both London and New York. For decades illegal copies of the album known as Half Stoned or Phillips '77 circulated amongst bootleg traders and Rolling Stones fans. Eventually the record was officially released in 2001 under a Virgin/EMI imprint Eagle Records as Pay Pack & Follow.
, a former member of Bob Marley
's band The Wailers, to a contract. His first album for the label, Bush Doctor
, which featured Jagger on the track "Don't Look Back
", was moderately successful. Despite further moderate success, Tosh would later exit the label in 1981, citing lack of promotion and a personal feud with the Rolling Stones.
, and Primitive Cool
in 1985 and 1987, respectively, through a newly conceived partnership between Rolling Stones Records and CBS Records
(now Sony Music). Thus the trademark Rolling Stones logo was affixed to each record and the label "Rolling Stones Records" was also printed on each new release, which angered Keith Richards. In fact, through the 1980s and early 1990s, "Rolling Stones Records" continued to be printed on the labels of all new releases up through Flashpoint
(1991). However, as the back catalogue has been shifted to Virgin/EMI, these markers are the last vapour trails of Rolling Stones Records. In 2008, the group switched distribution of Rolling Stones Records back catalogue material as well as new material to Polydor Records
in the UK, and Interscope Records
in the US (both imprints of Universal Music Group
, also distributor of their pre-1971 catalogue as UMG is the distributor for ABKCO Records
).
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
members Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
, Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
, Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. He is also the leader of a jazz band, a record producer, commercial artist, and horse breeder.-Early life:...
and Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman is an English musician best known as the bass guitarist for the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1992. Since 1997, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings...
in 1970, after their recording contract with Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
expired. They were first distributed in the United States by Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
subsidiary Atco Records
Atco Records
ATCO Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, currently operating through WMG's Rhino Entertainment.-Beginnings:Atco Records was founded in 1955 as a division of Atlantic Records. It was devised as an outlet for productions by one of Atlantic's founders, Herb Abramson, who...
. Beginning in 1973 they signed a distribution deal with Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
. In 1986 Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
started distributing them. In the UK, they were distributed by EMI. The label was initially headed by Marshall Chess
Marshall Chess
Marshall Chess is the son and nephew of the founders of Chess Records, the Chicago-based independent record label that first recorded an unprecedented list of African-American, blues and early rock and roll artists such as: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy...
, the son of Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
founder Leonard Chess
Leonard Chess
Leonard Chess was a record company executive and the founder of Chess Records. He was influential in the development of electric blues.- Early life :...
. The label was discontinued in 1992 when the band signed to Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, but the tongue-and-lips logo remains on all post-1970 Rolling Stones releases.
History
In its original concept, the label was thought of as a way for members of the Rolling Stones to release solo albums. The first album to be released was Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At JoujoukaBrian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka
Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka was an album produced by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. The album was a recording of the Moroccan group the Master Musicians of Joujouka, in performance on 29 July 1968 in the village of Jajouka in Morocco and released on Rolling Stones Records,...
in 1971, and is widely credited with being the first World Music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
LP. In 1972 the label released Jamming with Edward
Jamming with Edward
Jamming with the Edward! is an album recorded by three members of The Rolling Stones with Nicky Hopkins and Ry Cooder at London's Olympic Studio during the Let It Bleed sessions of 1969, and released on Rolling Stones Records in 1972...
, a collection of tracks recorded by Jagger, Wyman, and Watts with Nicky Hopkins
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....
and Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
in 1969.
Bill Wyman released his albums Monkey Grip
Monkey Grip (Bill Wyman album)
The album Monkey Grip by Bill Wyman was released in 1974 on Rolling Stones Records.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Bill Wyman, except where noted....
(1974) and Stone Alone in (1976). Wyman found out that he couldn't get proper attention from the promotion and sales people, as the Rolling Stones had albums due out shortly after both releases, and the label concentrated on the band's albums. Wyman ended up going to A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
for further solo efforts. The label also released a solo single by Keith Richards in December 1978: a rendition of Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
's "Run Rudolph Run
Run Rudolph Run
"Run, Rudolph, Run" is a Christmas song popularized by Chuck Berry and written by Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie and published by St. Nicholas Music . The song was first recorded by Berry in 1958 and released as Chess Records 1714...
" backed by a version of Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff, OM is a Jamaican musician, singer and actor. He is the only currently living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences...
's "The Harder They Come
The Harder They Come (song)
"The Harder They Come" is a reggae song by the Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff. It was first recorded for the soundtrack of the movie by the same name....
".
Other artists
Unlike Swan Song RecordsSwan Song Records
Swan Song Records was a record label launched by the English rock band Led Zeppelin on 10 May 1974. It was overseen by Led Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant and was a vehicle for the band to promote its own products as well as sign artists who found it difficult to win contracts with other major labels...
, Purple Records or Apple Records
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
, the vanity label
Vanity label
A vanity label is an informal name given sometimes to a record label founded as a wholly or partially owned subsidiary of another, larger and better established record label, where the subsidiary label is controlled by a successful recording artist, designed to allow this artist...
s of Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, Deep Purple and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
respectively, Rolling Stones Records never made much of an effort to sign outside artists. Kracker
Kracker
Kracker were an American rock band active in the 1970s.-Biography:The band was originally formed in South Florida in 1970, but moved to Chicago in April 1971, where they were introduced to producer Jimmy Miller. With Miller, they recorded their first album, La Familia, which was released on ABC...
, a Cuban rock group produced by Rolling Stones' producer, Jimmy Miller, was the first outside act to be signed to Rolling Stones Records in 1973. Kracker, along with Billy Preston
Billy Preston
William Everett "Billy" Preston was a musician who gained notoriety and fame, first as a session musician for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and later finding fame as a solo artist with hits such as "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from...
, opened the show for the Stones during their 1973 European Tour.
John Phillips
In 1973, Mick Jagger listened to songs John PhillipsJohn Phillips (musician)
John Edmund Andrew Phillips , was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter and promoter . Known as Papa John, Phillips was a member and leader of the singing group The Mamas & the Papas...
, formerly of The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
, had written before an English cricket match they were attending on holiday. That evening he signed Phillips to a contract on Rolling Stones Records and booked studio time in London's Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios was a renowned independent commercial recording studio located at 117 Church Road, Barnes, South West London, England. The studio is best known for the huge number of famous rock and pop recordings made there from the late 1960s onward....
. Jagger and Richards were producers for the album; Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood also contributed. The initial sessions began a six-year recording odyssey. Jagger got increasingly dissatisfied with the project and the Richards/Phillips partnership as progress on the recording front was made very slowly while a lot of Richards' and Phillips' time was taken up by heavy drug use. Jagger reported to Ahmet Ertegün
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
, then head of Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, that he could not see the album ever getting completed. Atlantic cut off money for further recording and mixing in 1979 and the recordings were left unfinished. Ertegün in particular thought it lacked marketability and had no first single to release. As reported in Phillips biography, Papa John, hundreds of thousands of dollars had been spent recording in both London and New York. For decades illegal copies of the album known as Half Stoned or Phillips '77 circulated amongst bootleg traders and Rolling Stones fans. Eventually the record was officially released in 2001 under a Virgin/EMI imprint Eagle Records as Pay Pack & Follow.
Peter Tosh
In 1978 Rolling Stones Records signed Peter ToshPeter Tosh
Peter Tosh, born Winston Hubert McIntosh , was a Jamaican reggae musician who was a core member of the band The Wailers , and who afterward had a successful solo career as well as being a promoter of Rastafari.Peter Tosh was born in Grange Hill, Jamaica, an illegitimate child to a mother too young...
, a former member of Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
's band The Wailers, to a contract. His first album for the label, Bush Doctor
Bush Doctor
Bush Doctor is an album by Peter Tosh. It was released in 1978.A British record retailer banned the album upon its release because of a scratch-n-sniff sticker on its cover, that apparently smelled of ganja .-Track listing:...
, which featured Jagger on the track "Don't Look Back
Don't Look Back (Temptations song)
"Don't Look Back" is a 1965 song recorded by The Temptations for the Gordy label. The flip side to their Top 20 hit "My Baby", "Don't Look Back" broke out and became a hit among the R&B audience on its own, reaching #14 on the R&B charts...
", was moderately successful. Despite further moderate success, Tosh would later exit the label in 1981, citing lack of promotion and a personal feud with the Rolling Stones.
The 1980s onwards - the end
Jagger released his first solo albums, She's the BossShe's the Boss
She's the Boss is the solo album debut by The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger released in 1985. When the Stones signed with CBS Records in 1983, one of the options available to them was for individual projects, and Jagger—ready to spread his wings after recording exclusively with the famous...
, and Primitive Cool
Primitive Cool
Primitive Cool is the second solo album by The Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger and was released in 1987. As the follow-up to Jagger's 1985 success She's the Boss, Primitive Cool was another attempt by Mick to make him a solo star, being more ambitious...
in 1985 and 1987, respectively, through a newly conceived partnership between Rolling Stones Records and CBS Records
CBS Records
CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...
(now Sony Music). Thus the trademark Rolling Stones logo was affixed to each record and the label "Rolling Stones Records" was also printed on each new release, which angered Keith Richards. In fact, through the 1980s and early 1990s, "Rolling Stones Records" continued to be printed on the labels of all new releases up through Flashpoint
Flashpoint (album)
Flashpoint is a live album by British rock band The Rolling Stones. It was released in 1991, having been recorded throughout 1989 and 1990 on the mammoth Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour...
(1991). However, as the back catalogue has been shifted to Virgin/EMI, these markers are the last vapour trails of Rolling Stones Records. In 2008, the group switched distribution of Rolling Stones Records back catalogue material as well as new material to Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
in the UK, and Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
in the US (both imprints of Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
, also distributor of their pre-1971 catalogue as UMG is the distributor for ABKCO Records
ABKCO Records
ABKCO Music & Records, Inc. is a major independent record label, music publisher, and film and video production company. It owns and or administers the rights to music by Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Herman's Hermits, Marianne Faithfull, The Kinks as well as the Cameo Parkway label,...
).
See also
- List of record labels
- Rolling Stones
- 1970 in music1970 in music- Events :*January 3**Davy Jones announces he is leaving the Monkees**Former Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett releases his first solo album The Madcap Laughs....