The Rolling Stones
Encyclopedia
The Rolling Stones are an English rock
band, formed in London
in April 1962 by Brian Jones
(guitar, harmonica), Ian Stewart
(piano), Mick Jagger
(lead vocals, harmonica, guitar), and Keith Richards
(guitar, vocals). Bassist Bill Wyman
and drummer Charlie Watts
completed the early line-up. The emergence of the Rolling Stones has been credited for the greater international popularity of the primitive urban blues typified by Chess Records
' artists such as Muddy Waters
, who wrote "Rollin' Stone
", the song from which the band drew its name. Though R&B
and blues
cover songs dominated the Rolling Stones' early material, their repertoire has always included rock and roll. The Rolling Stones' endurance and relevance, critic and musicologist Robert Palmer said, is due to their being "rooted in traditional verities, in rhythm-and-blues and soul music" while "more ephemeral pop fashions have come and gone".
Jones led the band until Jagger and Richards
assumed leadership after teaming as songwriters. In 1969 Jones' diminishing contributions to the band and his inability to tour, due to poor health and legal complications, caused him to leave the band three weeks before drowning in his swimming pool. Jones' replacement Mick Taylor
stayed with the band until leaving voluntarily in 1974, with Ronnie Wood taking his place since then. Wyman retired from the band in 1993; his replacement Darryl Jones
has not been made a full member. Stewart was taken from the official line-up in 1963 and continued as the band's road manager and occasional pianist until his death in 1985. Since 1982, Chuck Leavell
has been the band's primary keyboardist.
First popular in Europe, the Rolling Stones quickly became successful in North America during the British Invasion
of the mid 1960s. Having released 22 studio albums in the United Kingdom (24 in the United States), nine live albums
(ten in the US), and numerous compilations, their worldwide sales are estimated at more than 200 million albums. Sticky Fingers
(1971) began a string of eight consecutive studio albums reaching number one in the United States. Their most recent album of entirely new material, A Bigger Bang
, was released in 2005. In 1989, the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
, and in 2004, they ranked number 4 in Rolling Stone
magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked the Rolling Stones at number ten on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists", and as the second most successful group in the Billboard Hot 100
chart.
, Kent until their families moved apart. In 1960, when Richards, on his way to class at Sidcup Art College
, and Jagger, on his way to class at London School of Economics
, met at Dartford
train station, the Chuck Berry
and Muddy Waters
records Jagger carried revealed a mutual interest, leading to the re-establishment of their friendship and the formation of a band with Dick Taylor
(later of Pretty Things
). Richards, Taylor, and Jagger found Brian Jones
as he sat in playing slide guitar with Alexis Korner
's seminal London R&B band, Blues Incorporated
, at the Ealing Jazz Club
. Blues Incorporated contained two other future members of the Rolling Stones: Ian Stewart
and Charlie Watts
.
Stewart found a practice space and joined with Jones to start an R&B band playing Chicago blues
. Besides Stewart, Jones, and Jagger, the first rehearsal of the as-yet-unnamed band also included Richards attending at Jagger's behest. Other participants were guitarist Geoff Bradford and vocalist Brian Knight, who objected to the rock 'n roll material Jagger and Richards played and wanted no part of forming a band with them. In June 1962 the line-up was: Jagger, Richards, Stewart, Jones, Taylor, and drummer Tony Chapman
. According to Richards, Jones christened the band during a phone call to Jazz News. When asked for a band name Jones saw a Muddy Waters
LP lying on the floor of which one of the tracks was "Rollin' Stone
".
billed as "The Rollin' Stones". The line-up was Jagger, Richards and Jones, along with Stewart on piano, Taylor on bass and Chapman on drums. Jones and Stewart wanted to play Chicago blues, but were agreeable to the Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley
numbers of Jagger and Richards. Bassist Bill Wyman
joined in December 1962 and drummer Charlie Watts the following January 1963 to form the band's long-standing rhythm section
.
The Rolling Stones' acting manager Giorgio Gomelsky
secured a Sunday afternoon residency at The Crawdaddy Club
, which, Gomelsky said, triggered an "international renaissance for the blues". Along with the arrival of The Beatles
, Gomelsky marked the Crawdaddy shows as a seminal facet of "Swinging London
".
Andrew Loog Oldham
, a former publicist of the Beatles, signed the Rolling Stones to a management deal, but Oldham's age of nineteen - younger than any of the band - made him ineligible for an agent's license. Out of necessity Oldham partnered with veteran booking agent Eric Easton in a deal with Oldham's mother signing on her son's behalf. Gomelsky, who had no written agreement with the band, was not consulted.
Decca Records'
regret at not signing The Beatles enabled Oldham and Easton to negotiate a recording/production contract with unusually favourable terms. The Rolling Stones got three times the typical royalty rate for a new act, full artistic control of recordings, as well as ownership of the recording masters.
The Decca deal also let Oldham use non-Decca recording studios, with Regent Sound Studios, a mono facility decorated by egg boxes on the ceiling for sound treatment, becoming the preferred facility. Oldham, who with minimal recording experience had made himself the band's producer, said at Regent "The sound leaked, instrument to instrument, the right way" creating a desired "wall of noise". The low cost of using Regent let the band record for extended periods, instead of booking the usual three hour blocks prevalent at the time, a practice the band continued to follow the rest of their career. All tracks on the first Rolling Stones UK album were recorded at Regent.
Oldham presented the Rolling Stones' use of independent studios to position his artists in the music press as more independent than The Beatles, who had used EMI
's studios. By doing so, The Beatles, Oldham said, seemed to be "mere mortals ... sweating in the studio for the man". Oldham initially dressed the band in identical suits, but the band returned to wearing their own clothes for public appearances. Oldham ended up promoting the Rolling Stones as the nasty opposites of The Beatles by having the band pose unsmiling on the cover of the first UK album, and by planting provocative headlines in the press such as "Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?" According to Wyman: "Our reputation and image as the Bad Boys came later, completely accidentally. Andrew never did engineer it. He simply exploited it exhaustively".
Oldham changed the spelling of the band from "The Rollin' Stones" to "The Rolling Stones" and changed the spelling of Richards last name to Richard because it "looked more pop". Stewart did not fit Oldham's mould, according to Wyman, of "pretty, thin, long-haired boys, and was removed from the line-up in May 1963 to become manager and occasional pianist for the band until his death in 1985.
A cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On
" was the Rolling Stones' first single, released on 7 June 1963. The Rolling Stones refused to play it at live gigs, and Decca bought only one ad to promote the single. With Oldham's direction fan-club members bought copies at record shops polled by the charts, helping "Come On" rise to No.21 on the UK singles charts. Having a charting single gave the band entree to play outside London, starting with a booking at the Outlook Club in Middlesbrough on 13 July, sharing the billing with The Hollies. Later in the year Oldham and Easton arranged the band's first big UK concert tour as a supporting act for American stars including Bo Diddley
, Little Richard
and The Everly Brothers
. This Autumn 1963 tour became a "training ground" for the young band's stagecraft.
During this tour the Rolling Stones recorded their second single, a Lennon/McCartney
-penned number entitled "I Wanna Be Your Man
"; it reached No.12 in the UK charts. Their third single, Buddy Holly
's "Not Fade Away
", was released in February 1964 and reached #3.
Oldham saw little future for an act that lost significant songwriting royalties by playing songs of "middle-aged blacks", limited the appeal to teenage audiences. At Oldham's urging, Jagger and Richards co-wrote songs, the first batch of which he described as "soppy and imitative." Because songwriting developed slowly, songs on the band's first album The Rolling Stones
, (issued in the US as England's Newest Hit Makers
) were primarily covers, with only one Jagger/Richards
original – "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)
" – and two numbers credited to Nanker Phelge
, the pen name for songs written by the entire group.
The Rolling Stones' first US tour, in June 1964, was, in Bill Wyman's words, "a disaster." "When we arrived, we didn't have a hit record [there] or anything going for us." When the band appeared on Dean Martin
's TV variety show The Hollywood Palace, Martin mocked both their hair and their performance. During the tour they recorded for two days at Chess Studios
in Chicago, meeting many of their most important influences, including Muddy Waters. These sessions included what would become the Rolling Stones' first number 1 hit in the UK: their cover of Bobby and Shirley Womack
's "It's All Over Now
".
"The Stones" followed James Brown
in the filmed theatrical release of The TAMI Show, which showcased American acts with British Invasion artists. According to Jagger in 2003, "We weren't actually following James Brown because there were hours in between the filming of each section. Nevertheless, he was still very annoyed about it..." On 25 October the band also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show
. Regarding the pandemonium the Rolling Stones caused, Sullivan banned the band from his show, though he later did book them repeatedly. Their second LP – the US-only 12 X 5
– was released during this tour; like their first album, it contained mainly cover tunes, augmented by Jagger/Richards and Nanker Phelge tracks.
The Rolling Stones' fifth UK single – a cover of Willie Dixon's
"Little Red Rooster
" backed by "Off the Hook" credited to Nanker Phelge – was released in November 1964 and became their second No.1 hit in the UK – an unprecedented achievement for a blues number. The band's US distributors (London Records
) declined to release "Little Red Rooster" as a single there. In December 1964 London Records released the band's first single with Jagger/Richards originals on both sides: "Heart of Stone" backed with "What a Shame"; "Heart of Stone" went to number 19 in the US.
, was released in January 1965 charted at number 1 as an album, and the US version, released in February as The Rolling Stones, Now!
, reached number 5. The album was recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago and RCA Studios
in Los Angeles. In January/February 1965 the band played 34 shows for about 100,000 people in Australia and New Zealand.
The first Jagger/Richards composition to reach number 1 on the UK singles charts was "The Last Time
" (released in February 1965); it went to number 9 in the US. It was also later identified by Richards as "the bridge into thinking about writing for The Stones. It gave us a level of confidence; a pathway of how to do it." Their first international number-1 hit was "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
", recorded in May 1965 during the band's third North American tour. In recording the guitar riff with the fuzzbox that drives the song, Richards had envisioned it as a scratch track to guide a horn section. Disagreeing, Oldham released "Satisfaction" without the planned horn overdubs. Issued in the US in June 1965, it spent four weeks at the top of the charts there, establishing the Rolling Stones as a worldwide premier act.
The US version of the LP Out of Our Heads
(released in July 1965) also went to number 1; it included seven original songs (three Jagger/Richards numbers and four credited to Nanker Phelge). Their second international number-1 single, "Get Off of My Cloud
" was released in the autumn of 1965, followed by another US-only LP: December's Children.
Aftermath (UK number 1; US 2), released in the late spring of 1966, was the first Rolling Stones album to be composed entirely of Jagger/Richards songs. On this album Jones' contributions expanded beyond guitar and harmonica. To the Middle Eastern
-influenced "Paint It Black" he added sitar, to the ballad "Lady Jane
" he added dulcimer
, and to "Under My Thumb
" he added marimba
s. Aftermath was also notable for the almost 12-minute long "Goin' Home", the first extended jam on a top-selling rock & roll album.
The Stones' success on the British and American singles charts peaked during 1966. "19th Nervous Breakdown
" (Feb. 1966, UK number 2, US number 2) was followed by their first trans-Atlantic number-1 hit "Paint It Black" (May 1966). "Mother's Little Helper
" (June 1966) was only released as a single in the US, where it reached number 8; it was one of the first pop songs to address the issue of prescription drug abuse. Notably, Jagger sang the lyric in his natural London accent, rather than his usual affected southern-US accent.
The September 1966 single "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
" (UK number 5, US number 9) was notable in several respects: It was the first Stones recording to feature brass horns, the (now-famous) back-cover photo on the original US picture sleeve depicted the group satirically dressed in drag
, and the song was accompanied by one of the first purpose-made promotional film clips (music videos), directed by Peter Whitehead.
January 1967 saw the release of Between the Buttons
(UK number 3; US 2); the album was Andrew Oldham's last venture as the Rolling Stones' producer (his role as the band's manager had been taken over by Allen Klein
in 1965). The US version included the double A-side single "Let's Spend the Night Together
" and "Ruby Tuesday", which went to number 1 in America and number 3 in the UK. When the band went to New York to perform the numbers on The Ed Sullivan Show, they were ordered to change the lyrics of the refrain to "let's spend some time together".
Jagger, Richards and Jones began to be hounded by authorities over their recreational drug use in early 1967, after News of the World
ran a three-part feature entitled "Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You". The series described alleged LSD
parties hosted by The Moody Blues
and attended by top stars including The Who
's Pete Townshend
and Cream
's Ginger Baker
, and alleged admissions of drug use by leading pop musicians. The first article targeted Donovan (who was raided and charged soon after); the second instalment (published on 5 February) targeted the Rolling Stones.
A reporter who contributed to the story spent an evening at the exclusive London club Blaise's, where a member of the Rolling Stones allegedly took several Benzedrine
tablets, displayed a piece of hashish
and invited his companions back to his flat for a "smoke". The article claimed that this was Mick Jagger, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity—the reporter had in fact been eavesdropping on Brian Jones. On the night the article was published Jagger appeared on the Eamonn Andrews
chat show and announced that he was filing a writ for libel against the paper.
A week later on Sunday 12 February, Sussex police, tipped off by the News of the World
, who in turn were tipped off by Richards' chauffeur, raided a party at Keith Richards' home, Redlands. No arrests were made at the time but Jagger, Richards and their friend Robert Fraser (an art dealer) were subsequently charged with drugs offences. Richards said in 2003, "When we got busted at Redlands, it suddenly made us realise that this was a whole different ball game and that was when the fun stopped. Up until then it had been as though London existed in a beautiful space where you could do anything you wanted." On the treatment of the man responsible for the raid he later added: "As I heard it, he never walked the same again."
In March, while awaiting the consequences of the police raid, Jagger, Richards and Jones took a short trip to Morocco
, accompanied by Marianne Faithfull
, Jones' girlfriend Anita Pallenberg
and other friends. During this trip the stormy relations between Jones and Pallenberg deteriorated to the point that Pallenberg left Morocco with Richards. Richards said later: "That was the final nail in the coffin with me and Brian. He'd never forgive me for that and I don't blame him, but hell, shit happens." Richards and Pallenberg would remain a couple for twelve years. Despite these complications, the Rolling Stones toured Europe in March and April 1967. The tour included the band's first performances in Poland, Greece and Italy.
On 10 May 1967—the same day Jagger, Richards and Fraser were arraigned in connection with the Redlands charges—Brian Jones' house was raided by police and he was arrested and charged with possession of cannabis
. Three out of five Rolling Stones now faced criminal charges. Jagger and Richards were tried at the end of June. On 29 June Jagger was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for possession of four amphetamine
tablets; Richards was found guilty of allowing cannabis to be smoked on his property and sentenced to one year in prison. Both Jagger and Richards were imprisoned at that point, but were released on bail the next day pending appeal. The Times
ran the famous editorial entitled "Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?
" in which editor William Rees-Mogg
was strongly critical of the sentencing, pointing out that Jagger had been treated far more harshly for a minor first offence than "any purely anonymous young man".
While awaiting the appeal hearings, the band recorded a new single, "We Love You", as a thank-you for the loyalty shown by their fans. It began with the sound of prison doors closing, and the accompanying music video included allusions to the trial of Oscar Wilde
. On 31 July, the appeals court overturned Richards' conviction, and Jagger's sentence was reduced to a conditional discharge
. Brian Jones' trial took place in November 1967; in December, after appealing the original prison sentence, Jones was fined £1000, put on three years' probation and ordered to seek professional help.
December 1967 also saw the release of Their Satanic Majesties Request
(UK number 3; US 2), released shortly after The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
. Satanic Majesties had been recorded in difficult circumstances while Jagger, Richards and Jones were dealing with their court cases. The band parted ways with producer Andrew Oldham during the sessions. The split was amicable, at least publicly, but in 2003 Jagger said: "The reason Andrew left was because he thought that we weren't concentrating and that we were being childish. It was not a great moment really – and I would have thought it wasn't a great moment for Andrew either. There were a lot of distractions and you always need someone to focus you at that point, that was Andrew's job."
Satanic Majesties thus became the first album the Rolling Stones produced on their own. It was also the first of their albums released in identical versions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Its psychedelic sound was complemented by the cover art, which featured a 3D photo by Michael Cooper
, who had also photographed the cover of Sgt. Pepper. Bill Wyman wrote and sang a track on the album: "In Another Land
", which was also released as a single, the first on which Jagger did not sing lead vocal.
The band spent the first few months of 1968 working on material for their next album. Those sessions resulted in the song "Jumpin' Jack Flash
", released as a single in May. The song and the subsequent album, Beggars Banquet
(UK number 3; US 5), an eclectic mix of country and blues-inspired tunes, marked the band's return to their roots, and the beginning of their collaboration with producer Jimmy Miller
. Featuring the lead single "Street Fighting Man
" (which addressed the political upheavals of May 1968) and the opening track "Sympathy for the Devil
.
Beggars Banquet was well received at the time of release. Richards said, "There is a change between material on Satanic Majesties and Beggars Banquet. I'd grown sick to death of the whole Maharishi guru shit and the beads and bells. Who knows where these things come from, but I guess [the music] was a reaction to what we'd done in our time off and also that severe dose of reality. A spell in prison... will certainly give you room for thought... I was fucking pissed with being busted. So it was, 'Right we'll go and strip this thing down.' There's a lot of anger in the music from that period." Richards started using open tunings for rhythm parts (often in conjunction with a capo
), most prominently an open-E or open-D tuning in 1968. Beginning in 1969, he often used 5-string open-G tuning (with the lower 6th string removed), as heard on the 1969 single "Honky Tonk Women
", "Brown Sugar
" (Sticky Fingers
, 1971), "Tumbling Dice
"(capo IV), "Happy
"(capo IV) (Exile on Main St.
, 1972), and "Start Me Up
" (Tattoo You
, 1981).
The end of 1968 saw the filming of The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
. It featured John Lennon
, Yoko Ono
, The Dirty Mac
, The Who
, Jethro Tull
, Marianne Faithfull
and Taj Mahal
. The footage was shelved for twenty-eight years but was finally released officially in 1996.
By the release of Beggars Banquet, Brian Jones was increasingly troubled and was only sporadically contributing to the band. Jagger said that Jones was "not psychologically suited to this way of life". His drug use had become a hindrance, and he was unable to obtain a US visa
. Richards reported that, in a June meeting with Jagger, Richards, and Watts at Jones' house, Jones admitted that he was unable to "go on the road again". Richards said all agreed to let Jones "...say 'I've left, and if I want to I can come back'". On 3 July 1969, less than a month later, Jones drowned in the swimming pool at his Cotchford Farm home in Sussex
.
The Rolling Stones were scheduled to play at a free concert in London's Hyde Park
two days after Brian Jones' death; they decided to proceed with the show as a tribute to Jones. The concert, their first with Mick Taylor, was performed in front of an estimated 250,000 fans. The performance was filmed by a Granada Television
production team, and was shown on British television as Stones in the Park. Jagger read an excerpt from Percy Bysshe Shelley
's elegy Adonaïs
and released thousands of butterflies in memory of Jones. The show included the concert debut of "Honky Tonk Women
", which the band had just released. Their stage manager Sam Cutler
introduced them as "the greatest rock & roll band in the world" – a description he repeated throughout their 1969 US tour
, and which has stuck to this day.
The release of Let It Bleed
(UK number 1; US 3) came in December. Their last album of the sixties, Let It Bleed featured "Gimmie Shelter"(which would later be described by journalist Greil Marcus as "the greatest ever rock and roll recording")
The lead female vocals - and legendary solo - on Gimmie Shelter is performed by singer Merry Clayton
who also performs on the album with female vocalist Nanette Workman
).
Other tracks include "You Can't Always Get What You Want
" (with choral accompaniment by the London Bach Choir, who asked for their name to be removed from the album's credits after being apparently 'horrified' by the content of some of its other material, but later withdrew this request), "Midnight Rambler
" as well as a cover of Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain
". Jones and Taylor are featured on two tracks each. Many of these numbers were played during the band's US tour in November 1969, their first in three years.
Just after the tour the band performed at the Altamont Free Concert at the Altamont Speedway, about 60 km east of San Francisco. The biker gang Hells Angels
provided security, and a fan, Meredith Hunter
, was stabbed and beaten to death by the Angels after they realised that he was armed. Part of the tour and the Altamont concert were documented in Albert and David Maysles
' film Gimme Shelter
. As a response to the growing popularity of bootleg recording
s (in particular the still sought-after Live'r Than You'll Ever Be
), the album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!
(UK 1; US 6) was released in 1970; it was declared by critic Lester Bangs
to be the best live album ever.
, performing Gimme Shelter on the show, which was broadcast live on 1 January 1970. Later in 1970 the band's contracts with both Allen Klein
and Decca Records
ended, and amid contractual disputes with Klein, they formed their own record company, Rolling Stones Records
. Sticky Fingers
(UK number 1; US 1), released in March 1971, the band's first album on their own label, featured an elaborate cover design by Andy Warhol
. The album contains one of their best known hits, "Brown Sugar
", and the country
-influenced "Wild Horses". Both were recorded at Alabama
's Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
during the 1969 American tour. The album continued the band's immersion into heavily blues-influenced compositions. The album is noted for its "loose, ramshackle ambience" and marked Mick Taylor's first full release with the band.
Following the release of Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones left England after receiving financial advice. They moved to the South of France, where Richards rented the Villa Nellcôte
and sublet rooms to band members and entourage. Using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio
, they held recording sessions in the basement; they completed the resulting tracks, along with material dating as far back as 1969, at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles. The resulting double album, Exile on Main St.
(UK number 1; US 1), was released in May 1972. Given an A+ grade by critic Robert Christgau and disparaged by Lester Bangs—who reversed his opinion within months – Exile is now accepted as one of the Stones' best albums. The films Cocksucker Blues
(never officially released) and Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones
(released in 1974) document the subsequent highly publicised 1972 North American ("STP") Tour
, with its retinue of jet-set
hangers-on, including writer Terry Southern
.
In November 1972, the band began sessions in Kingston, Jamaica
, for their follow-up to Exile, Goats Head Soup
(UK 1; US 1) (1973). The album spawned the worldwide hit "Angie", but proved the first in a string of commercially successful but tepidly received studio albums. The sessions for Goats Head Soup led to a number of outtakes, most notably an early version of the popular ballad "Waiting on a Friend
", not released until Tattoo You
eight years later.
The making of the record was interrupted by another legal battle over drugs, dating back to their stay in France; a warrant for Richards' arrest had been issued, and the other band members had to return briefly to France for questioning. This, along with Jagger's convictions on drug charges (in 1967 and 1970), complicated the band's plans for their Pacific tour
in early 1973: they were denied permission to play in Japan and almost banned from Australia. This was followed by a European tour
(bypassing France) in September/October 1973 – prior to which Richards had been arrested once more on drug charges, this time in England.
The band went to Musicland studios in Munich
to record their next album, 1974's It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (UK 2; US 1), but Jimmy Miller, who had drug abuse issues, was no longer producer. Instead, Jagger and Richards assumed production duties and were credited as "the Glimmer Twins
". Both the album and the single of the same name were hits.
Near the end of 1974, Taylor began to lose patience. The band's situation made normal functioning complicated, with band members living in different countries and legal barriers restricting where they could tour. In addition, drug use was affecting Richards' creativity and productivity, and Taylor felt some of his own creative contributions were going unrecognised. At the end of 1974, with a recording session already booked in Munich to record another album, Taylor quit the Rolling Stones. Taylor said in 1980, "I was getting a bit fed up. I wanted to broaden my scope as a guitarist and do something else... I wasn't really composing songs or writing at that time. I was just beginning to write, and that influenced my decision... There are some people who can just ride along from crest to crest; they can ride along somebody else's success. And there are some people for whom that's not enough. It really wasn't enough for me."
The Rolling Stones used the recording sessions in Munich to audition replacements for Taylor. Guitarists as stylistically disparate as Humble Pie
lead Peter Frampton
and ex-Yardbirds
virtuoso Jeff Beck
were auditioned (although both Beck and Irish blues rock guitarist Rory Gallagher
later claimed that he had played with the band without realising that they were actually being auditioned, and both agree that they would never have agreed to join). Shuggie Otis
was also dropped by the Munich sessions. American session players Wayne Perkins
and Harvey Mandel
also appeared on much of the next album, Black and Blue
(UK 2; US 1) (1976). Yet Richards and Jagger also wanted the Rolling Stones to remain purely a British band. When Ronnie Wood auditioned, everyone agreed that he was the right choice.
Wood had already recorded and played live with Richards, and had contributed to the recording and writing of the track "It's Only Rock 'n Roll". Though he had earlier declined Jagger's offer to join the Stones, because of his ties to The Faces, Wood committed to the Rolling Stones in 1975 for their upcoming Tour of the Americas. He officially joined the band the following year, as the Faces dissolved. Unlike the other band members, however, Wood was a salaried employee and remained so until Wyman's departure nearly two decades later, when Wood finally became a full member of the Rolling Stones' partnership.
The 1975 Tour of the Americas
kicked off in New York City with the band performing on a flatbed trailer being pulled down Broadway
. The tour featured stage props including a giant phallus
and a rope on which Jagger swung out over the audience. Jagger had booked live recording sessions at the El Mocambo
club in Toronto to balance a long-overdue live album, 1977's Love You Live
(UK 3; US 5), the first Stones live album since 1970's Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
.
Richards' addiction to heroin delayed his arrival in Toronto; the other members had already assembled, awaiting Richards, and sent him a telegram asking him where he was. On 24 February 1977, when Richards and his family flew in from London, they were temporarily detained by Canada Customs after Richards was found in possession of a burnt spoon and hash residue. Three days later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
, armed with an arrest warrant for Pallenberg, discovered "22 grams of heroin" in Richards' room. Richards was charged with importing narcotics into Canada, an offence that carried a minimum seven-year sentence. Later the Crown prosecutor conceded that Richards had procured the drugs after arrival.
Despite the arrest, the band played two shows in Toronto, only to raise more controversy when Margaret Trudeau
, then-wife of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
, was seen partying with the band after one show. The band's two shows were not advertised to the public. Instead, the El Mocambo
had been booked for the entire week by April Wine
for a recording session. 1050 CHUM
, a local radio station, ran a contest for free tickets to see April Wine. Contest winners who selected tickets for Friday or Saturday night were surprised to find the Rolling Stones playing.
On 4 March, Richards' partner Anita Pallenberg
pled guilty to drug possession and incurred a fine in connection with the original airport incident. The drug case against Richards dragged on for over a year. Ultimately, Richards received a suspended sentence
and was ordered to play two free concerts for the CNIB in Oshawa
; both shows featured the Rolling Stones and The New Barbarians
, a group that Wood had put together to promote his latest solo album, and which Richards also joined. This episode strengthened Richards' resolve to stop using heroin. It also contributed to the end of his relationship with Pallenberg, which had become strained since the death of their third child (an infant son named Tara). In addition, Pallenberg was unable to curb her heroin addiction while Keith struggled to get clean. While Richards was settling his legal and personal problems, Jagger continued his jet-set lifestyle. He was a regular at New York's Studio 54
disco club, often in the company of model Jerry Hall
. His marriage to Bianca Jagger
ended in 1977, although they had long been estranged.
Although the Rolling Stones remained popular through the first half of the 1970s, music critics had grown increasingly dismissive of the band's output, and record sales failed to meet expectations. By the late 70s, after punk rock
became influential, many criticised the Rolling Stones as decadent, ageing millionaires and their music as stagnant or irrelevant. This changed in 1978, after the band released Some Girls
(UK #2; US #1), which included the hit single "Miss You", the country ballad "Far Away Eyes
", "Beast of Burden
", and "Shattered
". In part as a response to punk, many songs were fast, basic, guitar-driven rock and roll, and the album's success re-established the Rolling Stones' immense popularity among young people. Following the US Tour 1978
, the band guested on the first show of the fourth season of the TV series "Saturday Night Live". The group did not tour Europe the following year, breaking the routine of touring Europe every three years that the band had followed since 1967.
Following the success of Some Girls, the band released their next album Emotional Rescue
(UK 1; US 1) in mid-1980. The recording of the album was reportedly plagued by turmoil, with Jagger and Richards' relationship reaching a new low. Richards, though still using heroin according to former keyboardist of The Small Faces
Ian Mclagan
, began to assert more control in the studio – more than Jagger had become used to – and a struggle ensued as Richards felt he was fighting for "his half of the Glimmer Twins." Emotional Rescue hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and the title track reached No.3 in the US.
In early 1981, the group reconvened and decided to tour the US that year, leaving little time to write and record a new album, as well as rehearse for the tour. That year's resulting album, Tattoo You
(UK 2; US 1), featured a number of outtakes, including lead single "Start Me Up
", which reached No.2 in the US and ranked No.22 on Billboard's Hot 100 year-end chart. Two songs ("Waiting on a Friend
" (US #13) and "Tops") featured Mick Taylor's guitar playing, while jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins
played on "Slave
" and dubbed a part on "Waiting on a Friend". The Rolling Stones scored one more Top Twenty hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982, the No.20 hit "Hang Fire
". The Stones' American Tour 1981
was their biggest, longest and most colourful production to date, with the band playing from 25 September through 19 December. It was the highest grossing tour of that year. Some shows were recorded, resulting in the 1982 live album Still Life (American Concert 1981)
(UK 4; US 5), and the 1983 Hal Ashby
concert film Let's Spend the Night Together
, which was filmed at Sun Devil Stadium
in Tempe, Arizona
and the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands
, New Jersey.
In mid-1982, to commemorate their 20th anniversary, the Rolling Stones took their American stage show to Europe. The European Tour 1982
was their first European tour in six years. The tour was similar to their 1981 American tour. For the tour, the band were joined by former Allman Brothers Band pianist, Chuck Leavell
, who continues to perform and record with the Rolling Stones to date. By the end of the year, the band had signed a new four-album 28 million dollar recording deal with a new label, CBS Records
.
took over distributing the Stones' Atlantic catalogue.
By this time, the Jagger/Richards split was growing. Much to the consternation of Richards, Jagger had signed a solo deal with CBS Records, and he spent much of 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort. He has also stated that he was feeling stultified within the framework of the Rolling Stones. By 1985, Jagger was spending more time on solo recordings, and much of the material on 1986's Dirty Work (UK #4; US #4) was generated by Keith Richards, with more contributions by Ron Wood than on previous Rolling Stones albums. Rumours surfaced that Jagger and Richards were rarely, if ever, in the studio at the same time, leaving Richards to keep the recording sessions moving forward.
In December 1985, the band's co-founder, pianist, road manager and long-time friend Ian Stewart died of a heart attack. The Rolling Stones played a private tribute concert for him at London's 100 Club
in February 1986, two days before they were presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
.
Dirty Work was released in March 1986 to mixed reviews despite the presence of the US Top Five hit "Harlem Shuffle
"; Jagger refused to tour to promote the album, stating later that several band members were in no condition to tour. Richards was infuriated when Jagger instead undertook his own solo tour which included Rolling Stones songs. He has referred to this period in his relations with Jagger as "World War III". Jagger's solo records, She's The Boss
(UK 6; US 13) (1985) and Primitive Cool
(UK 26; US 41) (1987), met with moderate success, although Richards disparaged both. Many believed the group would disband. In 1988, with the Rolling Stones inactive, Richards released his first solo album, Talk Is Cheap
(UK 37; US 24). It was well received by fans and critics, going gold in the US.
In early 1989, the Rolling Stones, including Mick Taylor, Ronnie Wood and Ian Stewart (posthumously), were inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
. Jagger and Richards set aside animosities and went to work on a new Rolling Stones album that would be called Steel Wheels
(UK 2; US 3). Heralded as a return to form, it included the singles "Mixed Emotions" (US #5), "Rock and a Hard Place
" (US #23) and "Almost Hear You Sigh
". It also included "Continental Drift", which was recorded in Tangier in 1989 with The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar coordinated by Tony King and Cherie Nutting. A BBC film was made entitled "The Rolling Stones in Morocco" produced by Nigil Finch.
The subsequent Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour
s, encompassing North America, Japan and Europe, saw the Rolling Stones touring for the first time in seven years (since Europe 1982), and it was their biggest stage production to date. Opening acts included Living Colour
and Guns N' Roses
; the onstage personnel included a horn section
and backup singers Lisa Fischer
and Bernard Fowler
, both of whom continue to tour regularly with the Rolling Stones. Recordings from the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours produced the 1991 concert album Flashpoint
(UK 6; US 16), which also included two studio tracks recorded in 1991: the single "Highwire
" and "Sex Drive". The tour also produced the IMAX concert film Live at the Max
released in 1991.
These were the last Rolling Stones tours for Bill Wyman, who left the band after years of deliberation, although his retirement was not made official until January 1993. He then published Stone Alone, an autobiography based on scrapbooks and diaries he had been keeping since the band's early days. A few years later he formed Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings
and began recording and touring again.
; Keith Richards released his second solo album in late 1992, Main Offender
(UK 45; US 99), and did a small tour including big concerts in Spain and Argentina. Mick Jagger got good reviews and sales with his third solo album, Wandering Spirit
(UK 12; US 11). The album sold more than two million copies worldwide, going gold in the US.
After Wyman's departure, the Rolling Stones' new distributor/record label, Virgin Records
, remastered and repackaged the band's back catalogue from Sticky Fingers to Steel Wheels, except for the three live albums, and issued another hits compilation in 1993 entitled Jump Back
(UK 16; US 30). By 1993 the Rolling Stones set upon their next studio album. Darryl Jones
, former sideman
of Miles Davis
and Sting, was chosen by Charlie Watts as Wyman's replacement for 1994's Voodoo Lounge
(UK 1; US 2). The album met strong reviews and sales, going double platinum in the US. Reviewers took note of the album's "traditionalist" sounds, which were credited to the Rolling Stones' new producer Don Was
. It would go on to win the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album
.
1994 also brought the accompanying Voodoo Lounge Tour
, which lasted into 1995. Numbers from various concerts and rehearsals (mostly acoustic
) made up Stripped
(UK 9; US 9), which featured a cover of Bob Dylan
's "Like a Rolling Stone
", as well as infrequently played songs like "Shine a Light
", "Sweet Virginia" and "The Spider and the Fly
".
The Rolling Stones were the first major recording artists to broadcast a concert over the Internet; a 20-minute video was broadcast on 18 November 1994 using the Mbone
at 10 frames per second. The broadcast, engineered by Thinking Pictures
and financed by Sun Microsystems
, was one of the first demonstrations of streaming video; while it was not a true webcast
, it introduced many to the technology.
The Rolling Stones ended the 1990s with the album Bridges to Babylon
(UK 6; US 3), released in 1997 to mixed reviews. The video of the single "Anybody Seen My Baby?
" featured Angelina Jolie
as guest and met steady rotation on both MTV and VH1. Sales were reasonably equivalent to those of previous records (about 1.2 million copies sold in the US), and the subsequent Bridges to Babylon Tour
, which crossed Europe, North America and other destinations, proved the band to be a strong live attraction. Once again, a live album was culled from the tour, No Security
(UK 67; US 34), only this time all but two songs ("Live With Me
" and "The Last Time") were previously unreleased on live albums. In 1999, the Rolling Stones staged the No Security Tour
in the US and continued the Bridges to Babylon tour in Europe. The No Security Tour offered a stripped-down production in contrast to the pyrotechnics and mammoth stages of other recent tours.
In late 2001, Mick Jagger released his fourth solo album, Goddess in the Doorway
(UK 44; US 39) which met with mixed reviews. Jagger and Richards took part in "The Concert for New York City
", performing "Salt of the Earth
" and "Miss You" with a backing band.
In 2002, the band released Forty Licks
(UK 2; US 2), a greatest hits double album, to mark their forty years as a band. The collection contained four new songs recorded with the latter-day core band of Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood, Leavell and Jones. The album has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. The same year, Q magazine
named the Rolling Stones as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die", and the 2002–2003 Licks Tour
gave people that chance. The tour included shows in small theatres, arenas and stadiums. The band headlined the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto
concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to help the city – which they have used for rehearsals since the Steel Wheels tour – recover from the 2003 SARS
epidemic. The concert was attended by an estimated 490,000 people.
On 9 November 2003, the band played their first concert in Hong Kong as part of the Harbour Fest
celebration, also in support of the SARS-affected economy. In November 2003, the band exclusively licensed the right to sell their new four-DVD boxed set, Four Flicks
, recorded on the band's most recent world tour, to the US Best Buy
chain of stores. In response, some Canadian and US music retail chains (including HMV
Canada and Circuit City) pulled Rolling Stones CDs and related merchandise from their shelves and replaced them with signs explaining the situation. In 2004, a double live album of the Licks Tour, Live Licks
(UK 38; US 50), was released, going gold in the US.
(UK 2; US 3), their first album in almost eight years. A Bigger Bang was released on 6 September to strong reviews, including a glowing write-up in Rolling Stone magazine. The single "Streets of Love" reached the Top 15 in UK and Europe.
The album included the political "Sweet Neo Con", a criticism of American Neoconservatism from Jagger. The song was reportedly almost dropped from the album because of objections from Richards. When asked if he was afraid of political backlash such as the Dixie Chicks
had endured for criticism of American involvement in the war in Iraq, Richards responded that the album came first, and that, "I don't want to be sidetracked by some little political 'storm in a teacup'."
The subsequent A Bigger Bang Tour
began in August 2005, and visited North America, South America and East Asia. In February 2006, the group played the half-time show of Super Bowl XL
in Detroit, Michigan. By the end of 2005, the Bigger Bang tour set a record of $162 million in gross receipts, breaking the North American mark also set by the Rolling Stones 1994. On 18 February 2006 the band played a free concert with a claimed 1.5 million attendance at the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.
After performances in Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand in March/April 2006, the Rolling Stones tour took a scheduled break before proceeding to Europe; during this break Keith Richards was hospitalised in New Zealand for cranial surgery after a fall from a tree on Fiji
, where he had been on holiday. The incident led to a six-week delay in launching the European leg of the tour. In June 2006 it was reported that Ronnie Wood was continuing his programme of rehabilitation for alcohol abuse, but this did not affect the rearranged European tour schedule. Two out of the 21 shows scheduled for July–September 2006 were later cancelled due to Mick Jagger's throat problems.
The Rolling Stones returned to North America for concerts in September 2006, and returned to Europe on 5 June 2007. By November 2006, the Bigger Bang tour had been declared the highest-grossing tour of all time, earning $437 million. The North American leg brought in the third-highest receipts ever ($138.5 million), trailing their own 2005 tour ($162 million) and the U2
tour of that same year ($138.9 million).
On 29 October and 1 November 2006, director Martin Scorsese
filmed the Rolling Stones performing at New York City's Beacon Theatre, in front of an audience that included Bill
and Hillary Clinton, released as the 2008 film Shine a Light
; the film also features guest appearances by Buddy Guy
, Jack White
and Christina Aguilera
. An accompanying soundtrack, also titled Shine a Light (UK 2; US 11), was released in April 2008. The album's debut at number 2 in the UK charts was the highest position for a Rolling Stones concert album since Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
in 1970.
On 24 March 2007, the band announced a tour of Europe called the "Bigger Bang 2007" tour. 12 June 2007 saw the release of the band's second four-disc DVD set: The Biggest Bang
, a seven-hour document featuring their shows in Austin
, Rio de Janeiro, Saitama
, Shanghai and Buenos Aires
, along with extras. On 10 June 2007, the band performed their first gig at a festival in 30 years, at the Isle of Wight Festival
, to a crowd of 65,000. On 26 August 2007, they played their last concert of the A Bigger Bang Tour
at the O2 Arena in London, England. At the conclusion of the tour, it was announced the Rolling Stones had made $558 million on the A Bigger Bang Tour to list them in the latest edition of Guinness World Records
.
Mick Jagger released a compilation of his solo work called The Very Best of Mick Jagger
(UK 57; US 77), including three unreleased songs, on 2 October 2007. On 12 November 2007, ABKCO released Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones
, a double-CD remake of the 1975 compilation Rolled Gold; the reissue went to number 26 in the UK charts.
In a 2007 interview with Mick Jagger after nearly two years of touring, Jagger refused to say when the band is going to retire: "I'm sure the Rolling Stones will do more things, more records and more tours, we've got no plans to stop any of that, really. As far as I'm concerned, I'm sure we'll continue." In March 2008 Keith Richards sparked rumours that a new Rolling Stones studio album may be forthcoming, saying during an interview following the premiere of Shine a Light, "I think we might make another album. Once we get over doing promotion on this film". Drummer Charlie Watts remarked that he got ill whenever he stopped working. In July 2008 it was announced that the Rolling Stones were leaving EMI and signing with Vivendi's Universal Music, taking with them their catalogue stretching back to Sticky Fingers. New music released by the band while under this contract will be issued through Universal's Polydor label. Mercury Records
will hold the US rights to the pre-1994 material, while the post-1994 material will be handled by Interscope Records
(once a subsidiary of Atlantic). Coincidentally, Universal Music is also the distributor for ABKCO, owners of the band's pre-Sticky Fingers releases.
During the fall, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Mick Taylor worked with producer Don Was to add new vocals and guitar parts to ten unfinished songs from the Exile on Main St.
sessions.
On 17 April 2010 the band released a limited edition 7-inch vinyl single of the previously unreleased track "Plundered My Soul
" in honour of Record Store Day
. The track, part of the group's 2010 re-issue of Exile on Main St.
, was combined with "All Down the Line
" as its B-side
.
On 23 April, it was announced that the band would be at Cannes Festival, for the premiere of the documentary Stones in Exile
(directed by Stephen Kijak
), about the recording of the album Exile on Main St.
.
On 23 May 2010, the re-issue of Exile on Main St.
stormed at No. 1 in the UK charts, almost 38 years to the week after it first occupied that position. The Rolling Stones are the first act to ever see a classic work return to No. 1 decades after it was first released. In the US, the album sold 76,000 copies during the first week and re-entered the charts at No. 2. A CD containing just the 10 new tracks from the 2CD edition of Exile on Main St.
was released exclusively through Target, – as Exile on Main St. (Rarities Edition) and also charted at No. 27.
On 11 October 2010, the Stones released Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones
to the cinemas and later on to DVD. A digitally remastered version of the film was shown in select cinemas across the United States. This live performance was recorded during 4 shows in Ft. Worth and Houston, Texas in support of their The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
and their album Exile on Main St.. The film was released to cinemas in 1974 but until now it was never available for home release apart from the numerous bootleg copies.
On 4 October 2011, the Stones released The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas '78 to the cinemas and later on to DVD. A digitally remastered version of the film was shown in select cinemas across the United States. This live performance was recorded during one show in Ft. Worth, Texas in support of their US Tour 1978
and their album Some Girls. The film was released in (DVD/Blu-ray Disc
) on 15 November 2011.
, exemplified by their collaboration with the Master Musicians of Jajouka, as well as traditional English styles that use stringed instrumentation like harps. Brian Jones experimented with the use of non-traditional instruments such as the sitar
and slide guitar
in their early days. The group started out covering early rock 'n' roll and blues songs, and have never stopped playing live or recording cover songs.
, Muddy Waters
, and Little Walter
, and their interest influenced Brian Jones, of whom Richards says, "He was more into T-Bone Walker
and jazz blues stuff. We'd turn him onto Chuck Berry and say, 'Look, it's all the same shit, man, and you can do it.'" Charlie Watts, a traditional jazz drummer, was also introduced to the blues through his association with the pair. "Keith and Brian turned me on to Jimmy Reed and people like that. I learned that Earl Phillips was playing on those records like a jazz drummer, playing swing, with a straight four..."
Jagger, recalling when he first heard the likes of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley
, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino
, and other major American R&B artists, said it "seemed the most real thing" he had heard up to that point. Similarly, Keith Richards, describing the first time he listened to Muddy Waters, said it was the "most powerful music [he had] ever heard...the most expressive." He also stated, "when you think of some dopey, spotty seventeen year old from Dartford, who wants to be Muddy Waters-- and there were a lot of us-- in a way, very pathetic, but in another way, very... heartwarming".
", has been described by critic Richie Unterberger
as a "pop rock
ballad... When [Jagger and Richards] began to write songs, they were usually not derived from the blues, but were often surprisingly fey, slow, Mersey
-type pop numbers". "As Tears Go By
", the ballad originally written for Marianne Faithfull
, was one of the first songs written by Jagger and Richards and also one of many written by the duo for other artists. Jagger said of the song, "It's a relatively mature song considering the rest of the output at the time. And we didn't think of [recording] it, because The Rolling Stones were a butch blues group." The Rolling Stones did later record a version which became a top five hit in the US.
On the early experience, Richards said, "The amazing thing is that although Mick and I thought these songs were really puerile and kindergarten-time, every one that got put out made a decent showing in the charts. That gave us extraordinary confidence to carry on, because at the beginning songwriting was something we were going to do in order to say to Andrew [Loog Oldham], 'Well, at least we gave it a try...'" Jagger said, "We were very pop-orientated. We didn't sit around listening to Muddy Waters; we listened to everything. In some ways it's easy to write to order... Keith and I got into the groove of writing those kind of tunes; they were done in ten minutes. I think we thought it was a bit of a laugh, and it turned out to be something of an apprenticeship for us."
The writing of the single "The Last Time", The Rolling Stones' first major single, proved a turning point. Richards called it "a bridge into thinking about writing for the Stones. It gave us a level of confidence; a pathway of how to do it." The song was based on a traditional gospel song popularised by The Staple Singers
, but The Rolling Stones' number features a distinctive guitar riff (played on stage by Brian Jones).
Additional musicians
Former members
Timeline
, over two dozen studio albums, and numerous compilation
and live albums. Ten of their studio albums are among Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
, with their 1972 double album Exile on Main St.
placing seventh.
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band, formed in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in April 1962 by Brian Jones
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
(guitar, harmonica), Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart (musician)
Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a Scottish keyboardist, co-founder of The Rolling Stones and inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
(piano), 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....
(lead vocals, harmonica, guitar), and 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...
(guitar, vocals). Bassist 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...
and drummer 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:...
completed the early line-up. The emergence of the Rolling Stones has been credited for the greater international popularity of the primitive urban blues typified by 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....
' artists such as Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, who wrote "Rollin' Stone
Rollin' Stone
"Rollin' Stone" is a blues song recorded by Muddy Waters in 1950. It is Waters' interpretation of "Catfish Blues", a traditional blues that dates back to 1920s Mississippi...
", the song from which the band drew its name. Though R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
cover songs dominated the Rolling Stones' early material, their repertoire has always included rock and roll. The Rolling Stones' endurance and relevance, critic and musicologist Robert Palmer said, is due to their being "rooted in traditional verities, in rhythm-and-blues and soul music" while "more ephemeral pop fashions have come and gone".
Jones led the band until Jagger and Richards
Jagger/Richards
The songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, known as Jagger/Richards , is a musical collaboration whose output has produced the majority of the catalogue of The Rolling Stones....
assumed leadership after teaming as songwriters. In 1969 Jones' diminishing contributions to the band and his inability to tour, due to poor health and legal complications, caused him to leave the band three weeks before drowning in his swimming pool. Jones' replacement 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...
stayed with the band until leaving voluntarily in 1974, with Ronnie Wood taking his place since then. Wyman retired from the band in 1993; his replacement Darryl Jones
Darryl Jones
Darryl Jones , also known as "The Munch", is an American bass guitarist. Jones began his notable career as a session musician, where he gained the experience and confidence to play with some of the most highly regarded recording artists, in jazz, blues, and rock music...
has not been made a full member. Stewart was taken from the official line-up in 1963 and continued as the band's road manager and occasional pianist until his death in 1985. Since 1982, Chuck Leavell
Chuck Leavell
Chuck Leavell is an American pianist and keyboardist, who was a member of The Allman Brothers Band throughout the height of their popularity, a founding member of the jazz-rock combo Sea Level, a frequently-employed session musician, and later, the keyboardist for Eric Clapton and The Rolling...
has been the band's primary keyboardist.
First popular in Europe, the Rolling Stones quickly became successful in North America during the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
of the mid 1960s. Having released 22 studio albums in the United Kingdom (24 in the United States), nine live albums
Concert (album)
Concert: The Cure Live is the first live album of English rock band The Cure. It was recorded in 1984 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London and in Oxford...
(ten in the US), and numerous compilations, their worldwide sales are estimated at more than 200 million albums. Sticky Fingers
Sticky Fingers
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on "Dead Flowers", electric guitar on "Sway", percussion*Keith Richards – electric guitar, six & twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals...
(1971) began a string of eight consecutive studio albums reaching number one in the United States. Their most recent album of entirely new material, A Bigger Bang
A Bigger Bang
A Bigger Bang is the 22nd British and 24th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released on Virgin Records in September 2005. It is a follow-up to their previous full-length studio album Bridges to Babylon from 1997, that gap of eight years the longest between studio albums of the band's...
, was released in 2005. In 1989, the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
, and in 2004, they ranked number 4 in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked the Rolling Stones at number ten on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists", and as the second most successful group in the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart.
Early history
In the early 1950s, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were childhood friends and classmates at Wentworth Primary School in DartfordDartford
Dartford is the principal town in the borough of Dartford. It is situated in the northwest corner of Kent, England, east south-east of central London....
, Kent until their families moved apart. In 1960, when Richards, on his way to class at Sidcup Art College
Sidcup Art College
Sidcup Art College was an art college in Sidcup, London Borough of Bexley an outer suburb of Greater London, England.One of the college's most famous students was Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones...
, and Jagger, on his way to class at London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, met at Dartford
Dartford
Dartford is the principal town in the borough of Dartford. It is situated in the northwest corner of Kent, England, east south-east of central London....
train station, the 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...
and Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
records Jagger carried revealed a mutual interest, leading to the re-establishment of their friendship and the formation of a band with Dick Taylor
Dick Taylor
Richard Clifford 'Dick' Taylor is an English musician who was an early bass guitarist for The Rolling Stones. He left to become an art student at Sidcup Art College and while there formed The Pretty Things in September 1963...
(later of Pretty Things
Pretty Things
The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London, who originally formed in 1963. They took their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing" and, in their early days, were dubbed by the British press the "uglier cousins of the Rolling Stones". Their most commercially successful...
). Richards, Taylor, and Jagger found Brian Jones
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
as he sat in playing slide guitar with Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
's seminal London R&B band, Blues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated were a British R&B band in the early 1960s, led by Alexis Korner and featuring at various times Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Terry Cox, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Ronnie Jones, Danny Thompson, Graham Bond, Cyril Davies, Malcolm Cecil and Dick Heckstall-Smith.-History:Korner ...
, at the Ealing Jazz Club
Ealing Jazz Club
The Ealing Jazz Club at 42 A The Broadway, Ealing W5, opened in January 1959. Situated in a basement below an Aerated Bread Company tea shop, opposite Ealing Broadway station...
. Blues Incorporated contained two other future members of the Rolling Stones: Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart (musician)
Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a Scottish keyboardist, co-founder of The Rolling Stones and inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
and 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:...
.
Stewart found a practice space and joined with Jones to start an R&B band playing Chicago blues
Chicago blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
. Besides Stewart, Jones, and Jagger, the first rehearsal of the as-yet-unnamed band also included Richards attending at Jagger's behest. Other participants were guitarist Geoff Bradford and vocalist Brian Knight, who objected to the rock 'n roll material Jagger and Richards played and wanted no part of forming a band with them. In June 1962 the line-up was: Jagger, Richards, Stewart, Jones, Taylor, and drummer Tony Chapman
Tony Chapman
Anthony 'Tony' Chapman was a British drummer, especially active during the 1960s. He played with an early line-up of The Rolling Stones before they settled on their permanent band members...
. According to Richards, Jones christened the band during a phone call to Jazz News. When asked for a band name Jones saw a Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
LP lying on the floor of which one of the tracks was "Rollin' Stone
Rollin' Stone
"Rollin' Stone" is a blues song recorded by Muddy Waters in 1950. It is Waters' interpretation of "Catfish Blues", a traditional blues that dates back to 1920s Mississippi...
".
1962–1964
On 12 July 1962 the band played their first gig at the Marquee ClubMarquee Club
The Marquee was a music club first located at 165 Oxford Street, London, England when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts.It was also the location of the first ever live performance by The Rolling Stones on 12 July 1962....
billed as "The Rollin' Stones". The line-up was Jagger, Richards and Jones, along with Stewart on piano, Taylor on bass and Chapman on drums. Jones and Stewart wanted to play Chicago blues, but were agreeable to the Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
numbers of Jagger and Richards. Bassist 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...
joined in December 1962 and drummer Charlie Watts the following January 1963 to form the band's long-standing rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
.
The Rolling Stones' acting manager Giorgio Gomelsky
Giorgio Gomelsky
Giorgio Gomelsky is a filmmaker, impresario, music manager, songwriter and record producer. He owned the Crawdaddy Club where The Rolling Stones were house band, and he was involved with their early management. He hired The Yardbirds as a replacement and managed them. He was also their...
secured a Sunday afternoon residency at The Crawdaddy Club
Crawdaddy Club
The Crawdaddy Club was a 1960s music venue in Richmond, Surrey, England. Several other seminal British blues and rhythm and blues acts also played there....
, which, Gomelsky said, triggered an "international renaissance for the blues". Along with the arrival of 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...
, Gomelsky marked the Crawdaddy shows as a seminal facet of "Swinging London
Swinging London
Swinging London is a catch-all term applied to the fashion and cultural scene that flourished in London, in the 1960s.It was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasised the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution. One catalyst was the recovery of the...
".
Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham is an English producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of The Rolling Stones from 1963, and was noted for his flamboyant style.-Biography:...
, a former publicist of the Beatles, signed the Rolling Stones to a management deal, but Oldham's age of nineteen - younger than any of the band - made him ineligible for an agent's license. Out of necessity Oldham partnered with veteran booking agent Eric Easton in a deal with Oldham's mother signing on her son's behalf. Gomelsky, who had no written agreement with the band, was not consulted.
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....
regret at not signing The Beatles enabled Oldham and Easton to negotiate a recording/production contract with unusually favourable terms. The Rolling Stones got three times the typical royalty rate for a new act, full artistic control of recordings, as well as ownership of the recording masters.
The Decca deal also let Oldham use non-Decca recording studios, with Regent Sound Studios, a mono facility decorated by egg boxes on the ceiling for sound treatment, becoming the preferred facility. Oldham, who with minimal recording experience had made himself the band's producer, said at Regent "The sound leaked, instrument to instrument, the right way" creating a desired "wall of noise". The low cost of using Regent let the band record for extended periods, instead of booking the usual three hour blocks prevalent at the time, a practice the band continued to follow the rest of their career. All tracks on the first Rolling Stones UK album were recorded at Regent.
Oldham presented the Rolling Stones' use of independent studios to position his artists in the music press as more independent than The Beatles, who had used EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's studios. By doing so, The Beatles, Oldham said, seemed to be "mere mortals ... sweating in the studio for the man". Oldham initially dressed the band in identical suits, but the band returned to wearing their own clothes for public appearances. Oldham ended up promoting the Rolling Stones as the nasty opposites of The Beatles by having the band pose unsmiling on the cover of the first UK album, and by planting provocative headlines in the press such as "Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?" According to Wyman: "Our reputation and image as the Bad Boys came later, completely accidentally. Andrew never did engineer it. He simply exploited it exhaustively".
Oldham changed the spelling of the band from "The Rollin' Stones" to "The Rolling Stones" and changed the spelling of Richards last name to Richard because it "looked more pop". Stewart did not fit Oldham's mould, according to Wyman, of "pretty, thin, long-haired boys, and was removed from the line-up in May 1963 to become manager and occasional pianist for the band until his death in 1985.
A cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On
Come On (Chuck Berry song)
"Come On" is a song written and first released by Chuck Berry in 1961. The Rolling Stones released a version as their debut single in 1963.According to the liner notes from the Berry compilation album The Great Twenty-Eight, the performers on the record were as follows:* Chuck Berry: Guitars and...
" was the Rolling Stones' first single, released on 7 June 1963. The Rolling Stones refused to play it at live gigs, and Decca bought only one ad to promote the single. With Oldham's direction fan-club members bought copies at record shops polled by the charts, helping "Come On" rise to No.21 on the UK singles charts. Having a charting single gave the band entree to play outside London, starting with a booking at the Outlook Club in Middlesbrough on 13 July, sharing the billing with The Hollies. Later in the year Oldham and Easton arranged the band's first big UK concert tour as a supporting act for American stars including Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
and The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
. This Autumn 1963 tour became a "training ground" for the young band's stagecraft.
During this tour the Rolling Stones recorded their second single, a Lennon/McCartney
Lennon/McCartney
The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership is one of the best-known and most successful musical collaborations in history...
-penned number entitled "I Wanna Be Your Man
I Wanna Be Your Man
"I Wanna Be Your Man" is a Lennon–McCartney-penned song that was recorded separately by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones' version was released a few weeks earlier...
"; it reached No.12 in the UK charts. Their third single, Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...
's "Not Fade Away
Not Fade Away (song)
"Not Fade Away" is a song credited to Buddy Holly and Norman Petty and first recorded by Holly's band The Crickets in Clovis, New Mexico, on May 27, 1957...
", was released in February 1964 and reached #3.
Oldham saw little future for an act that lost significant songwriting royalties by playing songs of "middle-aged blacks", limited the appeal to teenage audiences. At Oldham's urging, Jagger and Richards co-wrote songs, the first batch of which he described as "soppy and imitative." Because songwriting developed slowly, songs on the band's first album The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones (album)
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals, harmonica, percussion*Keith Richards – guitar, backing vocals*Brian Jones – guitar, harmonica, percussion, backing vocals*Charlie Watts – drums, percussion...
, (issued in the US as England's Newest Hit Makers
England's Newest Hit Makers
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, backing vocals, harmonica, percussion*Keith Richards – guitar, backing vocals*Brian Jones – guitar, harmonica, percussion, backing vocals*Charlie Watts – drums, percussion...
) were primarily covers, with only one Jagger/Richards
Jagger/Richards
The songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, known as Jagger/Richards , is a musical collaboration whose output has produced the majority of the catalogue of The Rolling Stones....
original – "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)
Tell Me (You're Coming Back)
"Tell Me" is a song by English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones, featured on their 1964 self-titled album . It was later released as single A-side in the USA only, becoming the first Jagger/Richards song that the band released as a single A-side, and their first record to enter the US Top 40...
" – and two numbers credited to Nanker Phelge
Nanker Phelge
Nanker Phelge was a collective pseudonym used between 1963 and 1965 for several Rolling Stones group compositions. Stones bassist Bill Wyman explained the origins of the name in his 2002 book, Rolling with the Stones:...
, the pen name for songs written by the entire group.
The Rolling Stones' first US tour, in June 1964, was, in Bill Wyman's words, "a disaster." "When we arrived, we didn't have a hit record [there] or anything going for us." When the band appeared on Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
's TV variety show The Hollywood Palace, Martin mocked both their hair and their performance. During the tour they recorded for two days at Chess Studios
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....
in Chicago, meeting many of their most important influences, including Muddy Waters. These sessions included what would become the Rolling Stones' first number 1 hit in the UK: their cover of Bobby and Shirley Womack
Bobby Womack
Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned more than 40...
's "It's All Over Now
It's All Over Now
"It's All Over Now" was written by Bobby Womack and Shirley Womack. It was first released by The Valentinos featuring Bobby Womack. The Valentinos version entered the Billboard Hot 100 on June 27, 1964, where it stayed on the chart for two weeks, peaking at No. 94...
".
"The Stones" followed James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
in the filmed theatrical release of The TAMI Show, which showcased American acts with British Invasion artists. According to Jagger in 2003, "We weren't actually following James Brown because there were hours in between the filming of each section. Nevertheless, he was still very annoyed about it..." On 25 October the band also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
. Regarding the pandemonium the Rolling Stones caused, Sullivan banned the band from his show, though he later did book them repeatedly. Their second LP – the US-only 12 X 5
12 X 5
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, harmonica, and percussion*Keith Richards – acoustic and electric guitar, and backing vocals*Brian Jones – electric and acoustic guitar, harmonica, tambourine and backing vocals...
– was released during this tour; like their first album, it contained mainly cover tunes, augmented by Jagger/Richards and Nanker Phelge tracks.
The Rolling Stones' fifth UK single – a cover of Willie Dixon's
Willie Dixon
William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...
"Little Red Rooster
Little Red Rooster
"Little Red Rooster" is a song that is a classic of the blues. Howlin' Wolf recorded "The Red Rooster" in 1961, a song credited to blues arranger and songwriter Willie Dixon, although earlier songs have been cited as inspiration...
" backed by "Off the Hook" credited to Nanker Phelge – was released in November 1964 and became their second No.1 hit in the UK – an unprecedented achievement for a blues number. The band's US distributors (London Records
London Records
London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....
) declined to release "Little Red Rooster" as a single there. In December 1964 London Records released the band's first single with Jagger/Richards originals on both sides: "Heart of Stone" backed with "What a Shame"; "Heart of Stone" went to number 19 in the US.
1965–1969
The band's second UK LP – The Rolling Stones No. 2The Rolling Stones No. 2
-Personnel:*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, harmonica, tambourine, percussion*Keith Richards – guitars, backing vocals*Brian Jones – guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals*Charlie Watts – drums, percussion...
, was released in January 1965 charted at number 1 as an album, and the US version, released in February as The Rolling Stones, Now!
The Rolling Stones, Now!
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, harmonica, tambourine, and percussion*Keith Richards – guitar and backing vocals*Brian Jones – guitar and slide guitar, harmonica and backing vocals...
, reached number 5. The album was recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago and RCA Studios
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
in Los Angeles. In January/February 1965 the band played 34 shows for about 100,000 people in Australia and New Zealand.
The first Jagger/Richards composition to reach number 1 on the UK singles charts was "The Last Time
The Last Time (song)
In 1967, after the imprisonment of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, on drugs charges, The Who recorded covers of "The Last Time" and "Under My Thumb" as a single. The intention was to help Jagger and Richards make bail, but by the time the single was made available, they had been released. The...
" (released in February 1965); it went to number 9 in the US. It was also later identified by Richards as "the bridge into thinking about writing for The Stones. It gave us a level of confidence; a pathway of how to do it." Their first international number-1 hit was "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
" Satisfaction" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in 1965. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Richards's throwaway three-note guitar riff — intended to be replaced by horns — opens and drives the song...
", recorded in May 1965 during the band's third North American tour. In recording the guitar riff with the fuzzbox that drives the song, Richards had envisioned it as a scratch track to guide a horn section. Disagreeing, Oldham released "Satisfaction" without the planned horn overdubs. Issued in the US in June 1965, it spent four weeks at the top of the charts there, establishing the Rolling Stones as a worldwide premier act.
The US version of the LP Out of Our Heads
Out of Our Heads
- American release:Initially issued in July 1965 in America - American release:Initially issued in July 1965 in America - American release:Initially issued in July 1965 in America (featuring a shot from the same photo session that graced the cover of 12 X 5 and The Rolling Stones No...
(released in July 1965) also went to number 1; it included seven original songs (three Jagger/Richards numbers and four credited to Nanker Phelge). Their second international number-1 single, "Get Off of My Cloud
Get off of My Cloud
"Get Off of My Cloud" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones. It was written as a follow-up single to the successful " Satisfaction"...
" was released in the autumn of 1965, followed by another US-only LP: December's Children.
Aftermath (UK number 1; US 2), released in the late spring of 1966, was the first Rolling Stones album to be composed entirely of Jagger/Richards songs. On this album Jones' contributions expanded beyond guitar and harmonica. To the Middle Eastern
Middle Eastern music
The music of Western Asia and North Africa spans across a vast region, from Morocco to Afghanistan, and its influences can be felt even further afield. Middle Eastern music influenced the music of India, as well as Central Asia, Spain, Southern Italy, the Caucasus and the Balkans, as in chalga...
-influenced "Paint It Black" he added sitar, to the ballad "Lady Jane
Lady Jane
"Lady Jane" is a Rolling Stones' song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards featured on their 1966 album Aftermath.In America Lady Jane was the B-side to "Mother's Little Helper", but "Lady Jane" reached #24 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart...
" he added dulcimer
Appalachian dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...
, and to "Under My Thumb
Under My Thumb
"Under My Thumb" is a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for The Rolling Stones. Its first appearance was as an album track on 1966's Aftermath...
" he added marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
s. Aftermath was also notable for the almost 12-minute long "Goin' Home", the first extended jam on a top-selling rock & roll album.
The Stones' success on the British and American singles charts peaked during 1966. "19th Nervous Breakdown
19th Nervous Breakdown
"19th Nervous Breakdown" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones.The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards during their 1965 tour of the United States. The song was recorded during the Aftermath sessions between 3 and 8 December 1965 at RCA Recording Studios in Hollywood,...
" (Feb. 1966, UK number 2, US number 2) was followed by their first trans-Atlantic number-1 hit "Paint It Black" (May 1966). "Mother's Little Helper
Mother's Little Helper
"Mother's Little Helper" is a song by the English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones. It first appeared as the opening track to the United Kingdom version of their 1966 album Aftermath....
" (June 1966) was only released as a single in the US, where it reached number 8; it was one of the first pop songs to address the issue of prescription drug abuse. Notably, Jagger sang the lyric in his natural London accent, rather than his usual affected southern-US accent.
The September 1966 single "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
"Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" is a song by the English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones. It first appeared as a single in September 1966 and was included as the opening track on the British version of their 1966 compilation album Big Hits .Written by Mick Jagger...
" (UK number 5, US number 9) was notable in several respects: It was the first Stones recording to feature brass horns, the (now-famous) back-cover photo on the original US picture sleeve depicted the group satirically dressed in drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
, and the song was accompanied by one of the first purpose-made promotional film clips (music videos), directed by Peter Whitehead.
January 1967 saw the release of Between the Buttons
Between the Buttons
- American release:In the US, the album was released by London Records on February 11, 1967 . "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" were slotted onto the album while "Back Street Girl" and "Please Go Home" were removed ...
(UK number 3; US 2); the album was Andrew Oldham's last venture as the Rolling Stones' producer (his role as the band's manager had been taken over by Allen Klein
Allen Klein
Allen Klein was an American businessman, talent agent and record label executive. His clients included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.- The accountant :...
in 1965). The US version included the double A-side single "Let's Spend the Night Together
Let's Spend the Night Together
"Let's Spend the Night Together" is a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and originally released as a single by The Rolling Stones in 1967...
" and "Ruby Tuesday", which went to number 1 in America and number 3 in the UK. When the band went to New York to perform the numbers on The Ed Sullivan Show, they were ordered to change the lyrics of the refrain to "let's spend some time together".
Jagger, Richards and Jones began to be hounded by authorities over their recreational drug use in early 1967, after News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
ran a three-part feature entitled "Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You". The series described alleged LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
parties hosted by The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
and attended by top stars including The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
's Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
and Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
's Ginger Baker
Ginger Baker
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker is an English drummer, best known for his work with Cream and Blind Faith. He is also known for his numerous associations with World music, mainly the use of African influences...
, and alleged admissions of drug use by leading pop musicians. The first article targeted Donovan (who was raided and charged soon after); the second instalment (published on 5 February) targeted the Rolling Stones.
A reporter who contributed to the story spent an evening at the exclusive London club Blaise's, where a member of the Rolling Stones allegedly took several Benzedrine
Benzedrine
Benzedrine is the trade name of the racemic mixture of amphetamine . It was marketed under this brandname in the USA by Smith, Kline & French in the form of inhalers, starting in 1928...
tablets, displayed a piece of hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
and invited his companions back to his flat for a "smoke". The article claimed that this was Mick Jagger, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity—the reporter had in fact been eavesdropping on Brian Jones. On the night the article was published Jagger appeared on the Eamonn Andrews
Eamonn Andrews
Eamonn Andrews, CBE , was an Irish television presenter based in the United Kingdom.-Life and career:...
chat show and announced that he was filing a writ for libel against the paper.
A week later on Sunday 12 February, Sussex police, tipped off by the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
, who in turn were tipped off by Richards' chauffeur, raided a party at Keith Richards' home, Redlands. No arrests were made at the time but Jagger, Richards and their friend Robert Fraser (an art dealer) were subsequently charged with drugs offences. Richards said in 2003, "When we got busted at Redlands, it suddenly made us realise that this was a whole different ball game and that was when the fun stopped. Up until then it had been as though London existed in a beautiful space where you could do anything you wanted." On the treatment of the man responsible for the raid he later added: "As I heard it, he never walked the same again."
In March, while awaiting the consequences of the police raid, Jagger, Richards and Jones took a short trip to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, accompanied by Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
, Jones' girlfriend Anita Pallenberg
Anita Pallenberg
Anita Pallenberg is an Italian-born actress, model, and fashion designer. She was the romantic partner of Rolling Stones multi-instrumentalist and guitarist Brian Jones and later the partner of the guitarist of the same band Keith Richards, from 1967 to 1979, by whom she has two surviving...
and other friends. During this trip the stormy relations between Jones and Pallenberg deteriorated to the point that Pallenberg left Morocco with Richards. Richards said later: "That was the final nail in the coffin with me and Brian. He'd never forgive me for that and I don't blame him, but hell, shit happens." Richards and Pallenberg would remain a couple for twelve years. Despite these complications, the Rolling Stones toured Europe in March and April 1967. The tour included the band's first performances in Poland, Greece and Italy.
On 10 May 1967—the same day Jagger, Richards and Fraser were arraigned in connection with the Redlands charges—Brian Jones' house was raided by police and he was arrested and charged with possession of cannabis
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
. Three out of five Rolling Stones now faced criminal charges. Jagger and Richards were tried at the end of June. On 29 June Jagger was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for possession of four amphetamine
Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
tablets; Richards was found guilty of allowing cannabis to be smoked on his property and sentenced to one year in prison. Both Jagger and Richards were imprisoned at that point, but were released on bail the next day pending appeal. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
ran the famous editorial entitled "Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?
Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?
"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" is a quotation – sometimes misquoted with "on" in place of "upon" – from Alexander Pope's "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" of January 1735...
" in which editor William Rees-Mogg
William Rees-Mogg
William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg is an English journalist and life peer.-Education:Rees-Mogg was educated at Clifton College Preparatory School in Bristol and Charterhouse School in Godalming, followed by Balliol College, Oxford...
was strongly critical of the sentencing, pointing out that Jagger had been treated far more harshly for a minor first offence than "any purely anonymous young man".
While awaiting the appeal hearings, the band recorded a new single, "We Love You", as a thank-you for the loyalty shown by their fans. It began with the sound of prison doors closing, and the accompanying music video included allusions to the trial of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
. On 31 July, the appeals court overturned Richards' conviction, and Jagger's sentence was reduced to a conditional discharge
Conditional discharge
A discharge is a type of sentence where no punishment is imposed. An absolute discharge is unconditional: the defendant is not punished, and the case is over. In some jurisdictions, an absolute discharge means there is no conviction despite a finding that the defendant is guilty...
. Brian Jones' trial took place in November 1967; in December, after appealing the original prison sentence, Jones was fined £1000, put on three years' probation and ordered to seek professional help.
December 1967 also saw the release of Their Satanic Majesties Request
Their Satanic Majesties Request
Their Satanic Majesties Request is the sixth British and eighth American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released on 8 December 1967 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States by London Records...
(UK number 3; US 2), released shortly after The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
. Satanic Majesties had been recorded in difficult circumstances while Jagger, Richards and Jones were dealing with their court cases. The band parted ways with producer Andrew Oldham during the sessions. The split was amicable, at least publicly, but in 2003 Jagger said: "The reason Andrew left was because he thought that we weren't concentrating and that we were being childish. It was not a great moment really – and I would have thought it wasn't a great moment for Andrew either. There were a lot of distractions and you always need someone to focus you at that point, that was Andrew's job."
Satanic Majesties thus became the first album the Rolling Stones produced on their own. It was also the first of their albums released in identical versions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Its psychedelic sound was complemented by the cover art, which featured a 3D photo by Michael Cooper
Michael Cooper (photographer)
Michael Cooper was a British photographer who is remembered for his photographs of leading rock musicians of the 1960s and early 1970s, most notably the many photos he took of The Rolling Stones in the mid-1960s....
, who had also photographed the cover of Sgt. Pepper. Bill Wyman wrote and sang a track on the album: "In Another Land
In Another Land
"In Another Land" is a song by Bill Wyman, and the third track on The Rolling Stones album Their Satanic Majesties Request. It was released as a single a week before the album....
", which was also released as a single, the first on which Jagger did not sing lead vocal.
The band spent the first few months of 1968 working on material for their next album. Those sessions resulted in the song "Jumpin' Jack Flash
Jumpin' Jack Flash
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released as a single in 1968. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by Rolling Stone, the song was perceived by some as the band's return to their blues roots after the psychedelia of their preceding...
", released as a single in May. The song and the subsequent album, Beggars Banquet
Beggars Banquet
- Personnel :The Rolling Stones* Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals, harmonica on "Parachute Woman"* Keith Richards – acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar on "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man", backing vocals, lead vocals on opening of "Salt of the Earth"* Brian...
(UK number 3; US 5), an eclectic mix of country and blues-inspired tunes, marked the band's return to their roots, and the beginning of their collaboration with producer Jimmy Miller
Jimmy Miller (producer)
James "Jimmy" Miller was a Brooklyn, New York-born record producer and musician who produced dozens of albums between the mid-1960s and early 1990s, including landmark recordings for Blind Faith, Traffic, the Plasmatics, Motorhead, The World Bank and Primal Scream...
. Featuring the lead single "Street Fighting Man
Street Fighting Man
"Street Fighting Man" is a song by English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones featured on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet. Called the band's "most political song", Rolling Stone ranked the song #295 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.-Inspiration:Originally titled and recorded...
" (which addressed the political upheavals of May 1968) and the opening track "Sympathy for the Devil
Sympathy for the Devil
"Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by The Rolling Stones which first appeared as the opening track on the band's 1968 album Beggars Banquet. It was written by Mick Jagger credited to Jagger/Richards...
.
Beggars Banquet was well received at the time of release. Richards said, "There is a change between material on Satanic Majesties and Beggars Banquet. I'd grown sick to death of the whole Maharishi guru shit and the beads and bells. Who knows where these things come from, but I guess [the music] was a reaction to what we'd done in our time off and also that severe dose of reality. A spell in prison... will certainly give you room for thought... I was fucking pissed with being busted. So it was, 'Right we'll go and strip this thing down.' There's a lot of anger in the music from that period." Richards started using open tunings for rhythm parts (often in conjunction with a capo
Capo
A capo is a device used on the neck of a stringed instrument to shorten the playable length of the strings, hence raising the pitch. It is frequently used on guitars, mandolins, and banjos. G.B...
), most prominently an open-E or open-D tuning in 1968. Beginning in 1969, he often used 5-string open-G tuning (with the lower 6th string removed), as heard on the 1969 single "Honky Tonk Women
Honky Tonk Women
"Honky Tonk Women" is a 1969 hit song by The Rolling Stones. Released as a single on 4 July 1969 in the UK and a week later in the US, it topped the charts in both nations.-Inspiration and Recording:...
", "Brown Sugar
Brown Sugar (song)
"Brown Sugar" is a song by The Rolling Stones. It is the opening track and lead single from the English rock band's 1971 album Sticky Fingers...
" (Sticky Fingers
Sticky Fingers
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on "Dead Flowers", electric guitar on "Sway", percussion*Keith Richards – electric guitar, six & twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals...
, 1971), "Tumbling Dice
Tumbling Dice
"Tumbling Dice" is a rock song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for The Rolling Stones' 1972 double album Exile on Main St., and was the album's first single. The single peaked at #7 on the US charts and #5 in the UK....
"(capo IV), "Happy
Happy (Rolling Stones song)
"Happy" is the tenth track on The Rolling Stones' 1972 album Exile on Main St. Keith Richards sings lead vocals. Released as the second single from the album in July 1972, it reached #22 in the US....
"(capo IV) (Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St. is the tenth British and 12th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on many genres including rock and roll, blues, soul, R&B, gospel and country. The release of Exile on Main St. met with mixed reviews, but is...
, 1972), and "Start Me Up
Start Me Up
"Start Me Up" is a song by The Rolling Stones featured on the 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album's lead single, it reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 on the UK Singles Chart.-Writing and recording:...
" (Tattoo You
Tattoo You
Tattoo You is the 16th British and 18th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1981. The follow-up to Emotional Rescue, it proved to be a big critical and commercial success...
, 1981).
The end of 1968 saw the filming of The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is a film released in 1996 of an 11 December 1968 event put together by The Rolling Stones. The event comprised two concerts on a circus stage and included such acts as The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and Jethro Tull...
. It featured John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
, The Dirty Mac
The Dirty Mac
The Dirty Mac were a one-time English supergroup consisting of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell that Lennon put together for The Rolling Stones' TV special entitled The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus...
, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...
, Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
and Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
. The footage was shelved for twenty-eight years but was finally released officially in 1996.
By the release of Beggars Banquet, Brian Jones was increasingly troubled and was only sporadically contributing to the band. Jagger said that Jones was "not psychologically suited to this way of life". His drug use had become a hindrance, and he was unable to obtain a US visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
. Richards reported that, in a June meeting with Jagger, Richards, and Watts at Jones' house, Jones admitted that he was unable to "go on the road again". Richards said all agreed to let Jones "...say 'I've left, and if I want to I can come back'". On 3 July 1969, less than a month later, Jones drowned in the swimming pool at his Cotchford Farm home in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
.
The Rolling Stones were scheduled to play at a free concert in London's Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
two days after Brian Jones' death; they decided to proceed with the show as a tribute to Jones. The concert, their first with Mick Taylor, was performed in front of an estimated 250,000 fans. The performance was filmed by a Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
production team, and was shown on British television as Stones in the Park. Jagger read an excerpt from Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
's elegy Adonaïs
Adonais
Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc. , also spelled Adonaies, is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley for John Keats in 1821, and widely regarded as one of Shelley's best and most well-known works...
and released thousands of butterflies in memory of Jones. The show included the concert debut of "Honky Tonk Women
Honky Tonk Women
"Honky Tonk Women" is a 1969 hit song by The Rolling Stones. Released as a single on 4 July 1969 in the UK and a week later in the US, it topped the charts in both nations.-Inspiration and Recording:...
", which the band had just released. Their stage manager Sam Cutler
Sam Cutler
Sam Cutler is best known as former tour manager for the Rolling Stones. In numerous magazine articles and books, Cutler has been casually demonized as an unwitting, yet primary, catalyst of the violence that took place at the 1969 Altamont Free Concert.-Early life and career:Sam Cutler was born...
introduced them as "the greatest rock & roll band in the world" – a description he repeated throughout their 1969 US tour
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969
The Rolling Stones' 1969 Tour of the United States took place in November 1969. Rock critic Robert Christgau called it "history's first mythic rock and roll tour", while rock critic Dave Marsh would write that the tour was "part of rock and roll legend" and one of the "benchmarks of an...
, and which has stuck to this day.
The release of Let It Bleed
Let It Bleed
Let It Bleed is the eighth British and tenth American album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in December 1969 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States...
(UK number 1; US 3) came in December. Their last album of the sixties, Let It Bleed featured "Gimmie Shelter"(which would later be described by journalist Greil Marcus as "the greatest ever rock and roll recording")
The lead female vocals - and legendary solo - on Gimmie Shelter is performed by singer Merry Clayton
Merry Clayton
Merry Clayton is an American soul and gospel singer , and an actress...
who also performs on the album with female vocalist Nanette Workman
Nanette Workman
Nanette Joan Workman is today a singer-songwriter, actress and author who has been based in Quebec, Canada during much of her career. She was raised by musician parents in Jackson, Mississippi where she began her first performances. She mainly performs in French although raised as a native...
).
Other tracks include "You Can't Always Get What You Want
You Can't Always Get What You Want
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a song by The Rolling Stones released on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. Written primarily by Mick Jagger with assistance from Keith Richards, it was named as the 100th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone in its 2004 list of "500 Greatest Songs of All...
" (with choral accompaniment by the London Bach Choir, who asked for their name to be removed from the album's credits after being apparently 'horrified' by the content of some of its other material, but later withdrew this request), "Midnight Rambler
Midnight Rambler
"Midnight Rambler" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, released on their 1969 album Let It Bleed.The lyrics take the point of view of a roaming rapist/murderer; some of the words are reportedly quotes from Albert DeSalvo's confession to the Boston Strangler's crimes. Keith...
" as well as a cover of Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain
Love in Vain
"Love in Vain" is a 1937 blues song written by Robert Johnson.The song is noted for its sad lyrics, tone, and style. In the 1991 documentary film The Search for Robert Johnson, John P. Hammond plays Robert's recording of "Love in Vain" for the elderly Willie Mae Powell, the woman for whom it was...
". Jones and Taylor are featured on two tracks each. Many of these numbers were played during the band's US tour in November 1969, their first in three years.
Just after the tour the band performed at the Altamont Free Concert at the Altamont Speedway, about 60 km east of San Francisco. The biker gang Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
provided security, and a fan, Meredith Hunter
Meredith Hunter
Meredith Curly Hunter was a male spectator at the Altamont Free Concert. During the performance by The Rolling Stones, Hunter pulled out a gun after being punched by a Hells Angel and was then stabbed to death by a Hells Angel serving as a security guard...
, was stabbed and beaten to death by the Angels after they realised that he was armed. Part of the tour and the Altamont concert were documented in Albert and David Maysles
Albert and David Maysles
Albert and David Maysles were a documentary filmmaking team whose cinéma vérité works include Salesman , Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens . Their 1964 film on The Beatles forms the backbone of the DVD, The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit...
' film Gimme Shelter
Gimme Shelter (documentary)
Gimme Shelter is a 1970 documentary film directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, chronicling the last weeks of The Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour, which culminated in the disastrous Altamont Free Concert. The film is named after "Gimme Shelter", the lead track from The Rolling...
. As a response to the growing popularity of bootleg recording
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
s (in particular the still sought-after Live'r Than You'll Ever Be
Live'r Than You'll Ever Be
Live'r Than You'll Ever Be is a bootleg recording of a Rolling Stones concert in Oakland, California from 9 November 1969. It was one of the first live rock music bootlegs, and was made notorious as a document of the The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969 whose popularity forced the Stones' label...
), the album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
`Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!´ The Rolling Stones in Concert is a live album by The Rolling Stones, released 4 September 1970 on Decca Records in the UK and on London Records in the US. It was recorded in New York and Maryland in November 1969, just before the release of Let It Bleed...
(UK 1; US 6) was released in 1970; it was declared by critic Lester Bangs
Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock 'n' roll criticism....
to be the best live album ever.
1970–1974
At the turn of the decade the band appeared on the BBC's highly rated review of the sixties music scene Pop Go The SixtiesPop Go The Sixties
Pop Go The Sixties! was a one-off, seventy five-minute TV special originally broadcast in colour on 31 December 1969, to celebrate the major pop hits of the 1960s. The show was a co-production between the United Kingdom's BBC and Germany's ZDF broadcasters...
, performing Gimme Shelter on the show, which was broadcast live on 1 January 1970. Later in 1970 the band's contracts with both Allen Klein
Allen Klein
Allen Klein was an American businessman, talent agent and record label executive. His clients included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.- The accountant :...
and 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....
ended, and amid contractual disputes with Klein, they formed their own record company, Rolling Stones Records
Rolling Stones Records
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...
. Sticky Fingers
Sticky Fingers
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on "Dead Flowers", electric guitar on "Sway", percussion*Keith Richards – electric guitar, six & twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals...
(UK number 1; US 1), released in March 1971, the band's first album on their own label, featured an elaborate cover design by Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
. The album contains one of their best known hits, "Brown Sugar
Brown Sugar (song)
"Brown Sugar" is a song by The Rolling Stones. It is the opening track and lead single from the English rock band's 1971 album Sticky Fingers...
", and the country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
-influenced "Wild Horses". Both were recorded at Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
's Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was formed in Muscle Shoals, Alabama,in 1969 when musicians Barry Beckett , Roger Hawkins , Jimmy Johnson and David Hood left FAME Studios to create their own studio...
during the 1969 American tour. The album continued the band's immersion into heavily blues-influenced compositions. The album is noted for its "loose, ramshackle ambience" and marked Mick Taylor's first full release with the band.
Following the release of Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones left England after receiving financial advice. They moved to the South of France, where Richards rented the Villa Nellcôte
Nellcote
Nellcôte is a 19th century sixteen-room mansion on the waterfront of Villefranche-sur-Mer in the Côte d'Azur region of southern France...
and sublet rooms to band members and entourage. Using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio
Rolling Stones Mobile Studio
The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio is a mobile recording studio owned by the musical group the Rolling Stones. Numerous bands and artists have recorded music using it, including Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Lou Reed, Bob Marley, Horslips, Fleetwood Mac, Bad Company, Status Quo, Iron Maiden, Mola Mola...
, they held recording sessions in the basement; they completed the resulting tracks, along with material dating as far back as 1969, at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles. The resulting double album, Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St. is the tenth British and 12th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on many genres including rock and roll, blues, soul, R&B, gospel and country. The release of Exile on Main St. met with mixed reviews, but is...
(UK number 1; US 1), was released in May 1972. Given an A+ grade by critic Robert Christgau and disparaged by Lester Bangs—who reversed his opinion within months – Exile is now accepted as one of the Stones' best albums. The films Cocksucker Blues
Cocksucker Blues
Cocksucker Blues is an unreleased documentary film directed by the noted still photographer Robert Frank chronicling The Rolling Stones' North American tour in 1972 in support of their album Exile on Main St..-Production:...
(never officially released) and Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones
Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones
Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones is a concert movie featuring the British rock band The Rolling Stones that was first released in 1974...
(released in 1974) document the subsequent highly publicised 1972 North American ("STP") Tour
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972, often referred to as the S.T.P. Tour , was a much-publicized and much-written-about concert tour of The United States and Canada in June and July 1972 by The Rolling Stones...
, with its retinue of jet-set
Jet set
"Jet set" is a journalistic term that was used to describe an international social group of wealthy people, organizing and participating all around the world in social activities that are unreachable to ordinary people...
hangers-on, including writer Terry Southern
Terry Southern
Terry Southern was an American author, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style...
.
In November 1972, the band began sessions in Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
, for their follow-up to Exile, Goats Head Soup
Goats Head Soup
Goats Head Soup is the 11th British and 13th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1973. It featured the song "Angie", which went to #1 as a single in the US and UK.-Recording:...
(UK 1; US 1) (1973). The album spawned the worldwide hit "Angie", but proved the first in a string of commercially successful but tepidly received studio albums. The sessions for Goats Head Soup led to a number of outtakes, most notably an early version of the popular ballad "Waiting on a Friend
Waiting On A Friend
"Waiting on a Friend" is a song by The Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album's second single, it reached #13 on the US singles chart.-History:...
", not released until Tattoo You
Tattoo You
Tattoo You is the 16th British and 18th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1981. The follow-up to Emotional Rescue, it proved to be a big critical and commercial success...
eight years later.
The making of the record was interrupted by another legal battle over drugs, dating back to their stay in France; a warrant for Richards' arrest had been issued, and the other band members had to return briefly to France for questioning. This, along with Jagger's convictions on drug charges (in 1967 and 1970), complicated the band's plans for their Pacific tour
The Rolling Stones Pacific Tour 1973
The Rolling Stones Pacific Tour 1973 was a concert tour of countries bordering the Pacific Ocean in January and February 1973 by The Rolling Stones. The tour is sometimes referred to as the Winter Tour 1973...
in early 1973: they were denied permission to play in Japan and almost banned from Australia. This was followed by a European tour
The Rolling Stones European Tour 1973
The Rolling Stones 1973 European Tour was a concert tour of Great Britain and Continental Europe in September and October 1973 by The Rolling Stones.-History:The tour followed the release of the group's album Goats Head Soup on 31 August...
(bypassing France) in September/October 1973 – prior to which Richards had been arrested once more on drug charges, this time in England.
The band went to Musicland studios in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
to record their next album, 1974's It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (UK 2; US 1), but Jimmy Miller, who had drug abuse issues, was no longer producer. Instead, Jagger and Richards assumed production duties and were credited as "the Glimmer Twins
Jagger/Richards
The songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, known as Jagger/Richards , is a musical collaboration whose output has produced the majority of the catalogue of The Rolling Stones....
". Both the album and the single of the same name were hits.
Near the end of 1974, Taylor began to lose patience. The band's situation made normal functioning complicated, with band members living in different countries and legal barriers restricting where they could tour. In addition, drug use was affecting Richards' creativity and productivity, and Taylor felt some of his own creative contributions were going unrecognised. At the end of 1974, with a recording session already booked in Munich to record another album, Taylor quit the Rolling Stones. Taylor said in 1980, "I was getting a bit fed up. I wanted to broaden my scope as a guitarist and do something else... I wasn't really composing songs or writing at that time. I was just beginning to write, and that influenced my decision... There are some people who can just ride along from crest to crest; they can ride along somebody else's success. And there are some people for whom that's not enough. It really wasn't enough for me."
1975–1982
Humble Pie (band)
Humble Pie was a rock band from England, finding success both in the UK and the US. They are remembered for songs such as "Black Coffee" "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor", and "Natural Born Bugie"...
lead Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
and ex-Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
virtuoso Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
were auditioned (although both Beck and Irish blues rock guitarist Rory Gallagher
Rory Gallagher
William Rory Gallagher, ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995, was an Irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, and raised in Cork, Gallagher recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste...
later claimed that he had played with the band without realising that they were actually being auditioned, and both agree that they would never have agreed to join). Shuggie Otis
Shuggie Otis
Shuggie Otis is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, and multi-instrumentalist....
was also dropped by the Munich sessions. American session players Wayne Perkins
Wayne Perkins
Wayne Perkins is a rock and R & B guitarist, singer, songwriter and session musician. He was the oldest of six children, a brother and four sisters. Both of his parents sang and played guitar...
and Harvey Mandel
Harvey Mandel
Harvey Mandel is an American guitarist known for his innovative approach to electric guitar playing. A professional at twenty, he played with Charlie Musselwhite, Canned Heat, The Rolling Stones, and John Mayall before starting a solo career...
also appeared on much of the next album, Black and Blue
Black and Blue
Black and Blue is the 13th British and 15th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1976. It was the band's first studio album released with Ronnie Wood as the replacement for Mick Taylor...
(UK 2; US 1) (1976). Yet Richards and Jagger also wanted the Rolling Stones to remain purely a British band. When Ronnie Wood auditioned, everyone agreed that he was the right choice.
Wood had already recorded and played live with Richards, and had contributed to the recording and writing of the track "It's Only Rock 'n Roll". Though he had earlier declined Jagger's offer to join the Stones, because of his ties to The Faces, Wood committed to the Rolling Stones in 1975 for their upcoming Tour of the Americas. He officially joined the band the following year, as the Faces dissolved. Unlike the other band members, however, Wood was a salaried employee and remained so until Wyman's departure nearly two decades later, when Wood finally became a full member of the Rolling Stones' partnership.
The 1975 Tour of the Americas
Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas '75
The Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas '75 was a 1975 concert tour originally intended to reach both North and South America. The plans for concerts in Central and South American never solidifed, however, and the tour covered only the United States and Canada.-History:This was the Stones first...
kicked off in New York City with the band performing on a flatbed trailer being pulled down Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
. The tour featured stage props including a giant phallus
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
and a rope on which Jagger swung out over the audience. Jagger had booked live recording sessions at the El Mocambo
El Mocambo
The El Mocambo Tavern is a live music and entertainment venue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Spadina Avenue, just south of College Street, the bar played an important role in the development of popular music in Toronto since the 19th century...
club in Toronto to balance a long-overdue live album, 1977's Love You Live
Love You Live
Love You Live is a double live album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1977. It is drawn from Tour of the Americas shows in the US in the summer of 1975, Tour of Europe shows in 1976 and performances from the infamous El Mocambo nightclub concert venue in Toronto in 1977...
(UK 3; US 5), the first Stones live album since 1970's Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
`Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!´ The Rolling Stones in Concert is a live album by The Rolling Stones, released 4 September 1970 on Decca Records in the UK and on London Records in the US. It was recorded in New York and Maryland in November 1969, just before the release of Let It Bleed...
.
Richards' addiction to heroin delayed his arrival in Toronto; the other members had already assembled, awaiting Richards, and sent him a telegram asking him where he was. On 24 February 1977, when Richards and his family flew in from London, they were temporarily detained by Canada Customs after Richards was found in possession of a burnt spoon and hash residue. Three days later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
, armed with an arrest warrant for Pallenberg, discovered "22 grams of heroin" in Richards' room. Richards was charged with importing narcotics into Canada, an offence that carried a minimum seven-year sentence. Later the Crown prosecutor conceded that Richards had procured the drugs after arrival.
Margaret Trudeau
Margaret Joan Sinclair Trudeau Kemper is the former wife of the late Pierre Trudeau, the 15th Prime Minister of Canada.-Early years and marriage:...
, then-wife of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
, was seen partying with the band after one show. The band's two shows were not advertised to the public. Instead, the El Mocambo
El Mocambo
The El Mocambo Tavern is a live music and entertainment venue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Spadina Avenue, just south of College Street, the bar played an important role in the development of popular music in Toronto since the 19th century...
had been booked for the entire week by April Wine
April Wine
April Wine is a Canadian rock band formed in 1969. According to the band, they chose the name 'April Wine' simply because members thought the two words sounded good together...
for a recording session. 1050 CHUM
CHUM (AM)
CHUM, branded as TSN Radio 1050, broadcasting at 1050 kHz in the AM band, is a Canadian radio station licensed to Toronto, Ontario. The station is owned and operated by Bell Media....
, a local radio station, ran a contest for free tickets to see April Wine. Contest winners who selected tickets for Friday or Saturday night were surprised to find the Rolling Stones playing.
On 4 March, Richards' partner Anita Pallenberg
Anita Pallenberg
Anita Pallenberg is an Italian-born actress, model, and fashion designer. She was the romantic partner of Rolling Stones multi-instrumentalist and guitarist Brian Jones and later the partner of the guitarist of the same band Keith Richards, from 1967 to 1979, by whom she has two surviving...
pled guilty to drug possession and incurred a fine in connection with the original airport incident. The drug case against Richards dragged on for over a year. Ultimately, Richards received a suspended sentence
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
and was ordered to play two free concerts for the CNIB in Oshawa
Oshawa
Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...
; both shows featured the Rolling Stones and The New Barbarians
The New Barbarians (band)
The New Barbarians were a rock band that played two concerts in Canada and eighteen shows across the United States in April and May 1979; in August 1979, the band also supported Led Zeppelin at the Knebworth Festival 1979....
, a group that Wood had put together to promote his latest solo album, and which Richards also joined. This episode strengthened Richards' resolve to stop using heroin. It also contributed to the end of his relationship with Pallenberg, which had become strained since the death of their third child (an infant son named Tara). In addition, Pallenberg was unable to curb her heroin addiction while Keith struggled to get clean. While Richards was settling his legal and personal problems, Jagger continued his jet-set lifestyle. He was a regular at New York's Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
disco club, often in the company of model Jerry Hall
Jerry Hall
Jerry Faye Hall is an American model and actress, also known for her long-term relationship with Mick Jagger, with whom she had four children.-Early life:...
. His marriage to Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger is a Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress and model...
ended in 1977, although they had long been estranged.
Although the Rolling Stones remained popular through the first half of the 1970s, music critics had grown increasingly dismissive of the band's output, and record sales failed to meet expectations. By the late 70s, after punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
became influential, many criticised the Rolling Stones as decadent, ageing millionaires and their music as stagnant or irrelevant. This changed in 1978, after the band released Some Girls
Some Girls
Some Girls is the 14th British and 16th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1978 on Rolling Stones Records, catalogue COC 39108...
(UK #2; US #1), which included the hit single "Miss You", the country ballad "Far Away Eyes
Far Away Eyes
"Far Away Eyes" is the sixth track from rock and roll band The Rolling Stones's 1978 album Some Girls.Mick Jagger and Keith Richards collaborated extensively on writing the song, which was recorded in late 1977. A bootleg version with Richards singing exists. The Stones, longtime country music...
", "Beast of Burden
Beast of Burden (song)
"Beast of Burden" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones, featured on the 1978 album Some Girls. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song #435 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and #433 on the 500 Greatest Rock and Roll Songs of all time.-Inspiration and...
", and "Shattered
Shattered (song)
"Shattered" is a song by The Rolling Stones from their 1978 album Some Girls. The song is seen as a reflection of American lifestyles and life in 1970s-era New York City, but also influences from the English punk rock movement can be heard. It also foreshadowed the upcoming rap movement as Mick...
". In part as a response to punk, many songs were fast, basic, guitar-driven rock and roll, and the album's success re-established the Rolling Stones' immense popularity among young people. Following the US Tour 1978
Rolling Stones US Tour 1978
The Rolling Stones' US Tour 1978 was a concert tour of the United States that took place during June and July 1978, immediately following the release of the group's 1978 album Some Girls. Like the 1972 and 1975 U.S. tours, Bill Graham was the tour promoter...
, the band guested on the first show of the fourth season of the TV series "Saturday Night Live". The group did not tour Europe the following year, breaking the routine of touring Europe every three years that the band had followed since 1967.
Following the success of Some Girls, the band released their next album Emotional Rescue
Emotional Rescue
Emotional Rescue is the 15th British and 17th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1980. Upon release, the album topped the charts in both the US and UK.-History:...
(UK 1; US 1) in mid-1980. The recording of the album was reportedly plagued by turmoil, with Jagger and Richards' relationship reaching a new low. Richards, though still using heroin according to former keyboardist of The Small Faces
The Small Faces
The Small Faces were an English rock and roll band from East London, heavily influenced by American rhythm and blues. The group was founded in 1965 by members Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston, although by 1966 Winston was replaced by Ian McLagan as the band's...
Ian Mclagan
Ian McLagan
Ian McLagan is an English keyboard instrumentalist, best known as a member of the English rock bands Small Faces and Faces.-Small Faces and Faces:...
, began to assert more control in the studio – more than Jagger had become used to – and a struggle ensued as Richards felt he was fighting for "his half of the Glimmer Twins." Emotional Rescue hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and the title track reached No.3 in the US.
In early 1981, the group reconvened and decided to tour the US that year, leaving little time to write and record a new album, as well as rehearse for the tour. That year's resulting album, Tattoo You
Tattoo You
Tattoo You is the 16th British and 18th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1981. The follow-up to Emotional Rescue, it proved to be a big critical and commercial success...
(UK 2; US 1), featured a number of outtakes, including lead single "Start Me Up
Start Me Up
"Start Me Up" is a song by The Rolling Stones featured on the 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album's lead single, it reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 on the UK Singles Chart.-Writing and recording:...
", which reached No.2 in the US and ranked No.22 on Billboard's Hot 100 year-end chart. Two songs ("Waiting on a Friend
Waiting On A Friend
"Waiting on a Friend" is a song by The Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album's second single, it reached #13 on the US singles chart.-History:...
" (US #13) and "Tops") featured Mick Taylor's guitar playing, while jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
played on "Slave
Slave (song)
"Slave" is a song by The Rolling Stones on their 1981 album Tattoo You.Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Slave" was originally written and recorded for 1975's Black and Blue. Initial recordings took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio...
" and dubbed a part on "Waiting on a Friend". The Rolling Stones scored one more Top Twenty hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982, the No.20 hit "Hang Fire
Hang Fire
"Hang Fire" is a song by rock and roll band The Rolling Stones off their 1981 album Tattoo You.Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Hang Fire" is a fast-paced, up-tempo surfer style rock and roll track, which betrays the happy beat with sharp, satirical lyrics directed squarely at England's...
". The Stones' American Tour 1981
Rolling Stones American Tour 1981
The Rolling Stones' American Tour 1981 was a concert tour of stadiums and arenas in the United States to promote the album Tattoo You. It was the largest grossing tour of 1981 with $50 million in ticket sales...
was their biggest, longest and most colourful production to date, with the band playing from 25 September through 19 December. It was the highest grossing tour of that year. Some shows were recorded, resulting in the 1982 live album Still Life (American Concert 1981)
Still Life (American Concert 1981)
"Still Life" is a live album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1982. Recorded during the band's American Tour 1981 in the latter portion of that year, it was released in time for their European Tour 1982 continuation the following summer.The album was preceded by their cover of The Miracles'...
(UK 4; US 5), and the 1983 Hal Ashby
Hal Ashby
Hal Ashby was an American film director and film editor.-Birth and early years:Born William Hal Ashby in Ogden, Utah, Ashby grew up in a Mormon household and had a tumultuous childhood as part of a dysfunctional family which included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide and his...
concert film Let's Spend the Night Together
Let's Spend the Night Together (film)
Let's Spend the Night Together is a live concert film, documenting The Rolling Stones' 1981 North American Tour. It was directed by Hal Ashby, and released to cinemas in 1983, then subsequently released on VHS...
, which was filmed at Sun Devil Stadium
Sun Devil Stadium
Sun Devil Stadium is an outdoor football stadium, located on the campus of Arizona State University, in Tempe, Arizona, United States. The stadium's current seating capacity is 71,706 and the playing surface is natural grass...
in Tempe, Arizona
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale...
and the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands
Meadowlands Sports Complex
The MetLife Sports Complex is a sports and entertainment facility located in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, owned and operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority...
, New Jersey.
In mid-1982, to commemorate their 20th anniversary, the Rolling Stones took their American stage show to Europe. The European Tour 1982
Rolling Stones European Tour 1982
The Rolling Stones' European Tour 1982 was a concert tour of Europe to promote the album Tattoo You. It was in effect the European continuation of their long and successful 1981 US tour, and promoted by Bill Graham...
was their first European tour in six years. The tour was similar to their 1981 American tour. For the tour, the band were joined by former Allman Brothers Band pianist, Chuck Leavell
Chuck Leavell
Chuck Leavell is an American pianist and keyboardist, who was a member of The Allman Brothers Band throughout the height of their popularity, a founding member of the jazz-rock combo Sea Level, a frequently-employed session musician, and later, the keyboardist for Eric Clapton and The Rolling...
, who continues to perform and record with the Rolling Stones to date. By the end of the year, the band had signed a new four-album 28 million dollar recording deal with a new label, CBS 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...
.
1983–1991
Before leaving Atlantic, the Rolling Stones released Undercover (UK 3; US 4) in late 1983. Despite good reviews and the Top Ten peak position of the title track, the record sold below expectations and there was no tour to support it. Subsequently the Stones' new marketer/distributor CBS RecordsCBS 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...
took over distributing the Stones' Atlantic catalogue.
By this time, the Jagger/Richards split was growing. Much to the consternation of Richards, Jagger had signed a solo deal with CBS Records, and he spent much of 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort. He has also stated that he was feeling stultified within the framework of the Rolling Stones. By 1985, Jagger was spending more time on solo recordings, and much of the material on 1986's Dirty Work (UK #4; US #4) was generated by Keith Richards, with more contributions by Ron Wood than on previous Rolling Stones albums. Rumours surfaced that Jagger and Richards were rarely, if ever, in the studio at the same time, leaving Richards to keep the recording sessions moving forward.
In December 1985, the band's co-founder, pianist, road manager and long-time friend Ian Stewart died of a heart attack. The Rolling Stones played a private tribute concert for him at London's 100 Club
100 Club
The 100 Club is a music venue in London situated at 100 Oxford Street, W1, originally called The Feldman Swing Club.The 100 Club attained legendary status in modern British music, having played host to live music since 24 October 1942....
in February 1986, two days before they were presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
.
Dirty Work was released in March 1986 to mixed reviews despite the presence of the US Top Five hit "Harlem Shuffle
Harlem Shuffle
Harlem Shuffle can refer to:* "Harlem Shuffle" * Harlem Shuffle...
"; Jagger refused to tour to promote the album, stating later that several band members were in no condition to tour. Richards was infuriated when Jagger instead undertook his own solo tour which included Rolling Stones songs. He has referred to this period in his relations with Jagger as "World War III". Jagger's solo records, She's The Boss
She'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...
(UK 6; US 13) (1985) 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...
(UK 26; US 41) (1987), met with moderate success, although Richards disparaged both. Many believed the group would disband. In 1988, with the Rolling Stones inactive, Richards released his first solo album, Talk Is Cheap
Talk Is Cheap
Talk Is Cheap is the solo album debut by Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, released in 1988. Recorded and released following a brief creative and personal fallout with Mick Jagger, Talk Is Cheap received glowing reviews upon its release....
(UK 37; US 24). It was well received by fans and critics, going gold in the US.
In early 1989, the Rolling Stones, including Mick Taylor, Ronnie Wood and Ian Stewart (posthumously), were inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
. Jagger and Richards set aside animosities and went to work on a new Rolling Stones album that would be called Steel Wheels
Steel Wheels
Steel Wheels is the 19th British and 21st American studio album by The Rolling Stones and was released in 1989. Heralded as a major comeback upon its release, the project is notable for the patching up of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' relationship, a reversion to a more classic style of music and...
(UK 2; US 3). Heralded as a return to form, it included the singles "Mixed Emotions" (US #5), "Rock and a Hard Place
Rock and a Hard Place (song)
"Rock and a Hard Place" is a song by The Rolling Stones from their 1989 album Steel Wheels. It is the second single from the album, and remains to this day the most recent Billboard top 40 hit by the band.-Recording:...
" (US #23) and "Almost Hear You Sigh
Almost Hear You Sigh
"Almost Hear You Sigh" is a Grammy-nominated song by The Rolling Stones from their 1989 album Steel Wheels.- Composition and recording :Written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Steve Jordan, the song was first written and recorded for possible inclusion on Keith Richards' first solo album Talk is...
". It also included "Continental Drift", which was recorded in Tangier in 1989 with The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar coordinated by Tony King and Cherie Nutting. A BBC film was made entitled "The Rolling Stones in Morocco" produced by Nigil Finch.
The subsequent Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour
Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour
The Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels Tour was a concert tour which was launched in North America in August 1989 to promote the band's album Steel Wheels; it continued to Japan in February 1990, with ten shows at the Tokyo Dome. The European leg of the tour, which featured a different stage and logo,...
s, encompassing North America, Japan and Europe, saw the Rolling Stones touring for the first time in seven years (since Europe 1982), and it was their biggest stage production to date. Opening acts included Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. Stylistically, the band's music is a creative fusion influenced by free jazz, funk, neo-psychedelia, hard rock, and heavy metal...
and Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
; the onstage personnel included a horn section
Horn section
In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
and backup singers Lisa Fischer
Lisa Fischer
Lisa Fischer is an American R&B singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in 1991 with her debut album So Intense, which produced the Grammy Award winning hit single "How Can I Ease the Pain". Known for her high notes, which extends into the whistle register, Fischer has been recognized as one of...
and Bernard Fowler
Bernard Fowler
Bernard Fowler is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and actor. He has provided backing vocals with The Rolling Stones for over 20 years on recordings and tours, and has been a featured guest vocalist on the majority of solo albums released by the members of that band. He has also been a...
, both of whom continue to tour regularly with the Rolling Stones. Recordings from the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours produced the 1991 concert album 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...
(UK 6; US 16), which also included two studio tracks recorded in 1991: the single "Highwire
Highwire (song)
"Highwire" is a song by The Rolling Stones featured on their 1991 live album Flashpoint.Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Highwire" is one of the rare examples of the Stones taking on political issues - in this case, the fall-out from Persian Gulf War. On the song, Jagger said at the time...
" and "Sex Drive". The tour also produced the IMAX concert film Live at the Max
Stones at the Max
Stones at the Max is a live concert film by The Rolling Stones released in 1991. It was specially filmed in IMAX during the Urban Jungle Tour in Europe in 1990....
released in 1991.
These were the last Rolling Stones tours for Bill Wyman, who left the band after years of deliberation, although his retirement was not made official until January 1993. He then published Stone Alone, an autobiography based on scrapbooks and diaries he had been keeping since the band's early days. A few years later he formed Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings are a blues-rock band founded and led by former Rolling Stones bass guitarist Bill Wyman. Together with his lifelong musical partner Terry Taylor, The "Dirty Boys" duo produce, arrange and compose original material for the award winning band.The Rhythm Kings are known for...
and began recording and touring again.
1992–2004
After the successes of the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours, the band took a break. Charlie Watts released two jazz albums; Ronnie Wood made his fifth solo album, the first in 11 years, called Slide On ThisSlide on This
Slide on This is the title of Ronnie Wood's fifth solo album. It failed to chart in US, but went to sell 58,000 copies there according to Soundscan...
; Keith Richards released his second solo album in late 1992, Main Offender
Main Offender
Main Offender is the second studio album by Keith Richards and the last to date. Released in 1992 in between The Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge projects, Main Offender remains to date Richards' most recent offering as a solo artist.Regrouping with his group of musician friends known...
(UK 45; US 99), and did a small tour including big concerts in Spain and Argentina. Mick Jagger got good reviews and sales with his third solo album, Wandering Spirit
Wandering Spirit (album)
Wandering Spirit is the third solo album by Mick Jagger. Released in 1993, it was his only solo album release of the 1990s.Following the The Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels , Jagger began writing new material for what would become Wandering Spirit...
(UK 12; US 11). The album sold more than two million copies worldwide, going gold in the US.
After Wyman's departure, the Rolling Stones' new distributor/record label, 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...
, remastered and repackaged the band's back catalogue from Sticky Fingers to Steel Wheels, except for the three live albums, and issued another hits compilation in 1993 entitled Jump Back
Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones
Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones is the sixth official compilation album by The Rolling Stones and was initially released worldwide, except in North America, in 1993...
(UK 16; US 30). By 1993 the Rolling Stones set upon their next studio album. Darryl Jones
Darryl Jones
Darryl Jones , also known as "The Munch", is an American bass guitarist. Jones began his notable career as a session musician, where he gained the experience and confidence to play with some of the most highly regarded recording artists, in jazz, blues, and rock music...
, former sideman
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...
of Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
and Sting, was chosen by Charlie Watts as Wyman's replacement for 1994's Voodoo Lounge
Voodoo Lounge
Voodoo Lounge is the 20th British and 22nd American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in July 1994. As their first new release under their new alliance with Virgin Records, it ended a five-year gap since their last studio album, Steel Wheels in 1989...
(UK 1; US 2). The album met strong reviews and sales, going double platinum in the US. Reviewers took note of the album's "traditionalist" sounds, which were credited to the Rolling Stones' new producer Don Was
Don Was
Don Was is an American musician, bassist and record producer.-Life and career:Was was born in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Oak Park High School in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park, then attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor but dropped out after the first year...
. It would go on to win the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album
Grammy Award for Best Rock Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre...
.
1994 also brought the accompanying Voodoo Lounge Tour
Voodoo Lounge Tour
The Voodoo Lounge Tour was a worldwide concert tour by The Rolling Stones to promote their 1994 album Voodoo Lounge. This was their first tour without bassist Bill Wyman; he was replaced by Darryl Jones. The tour grossed $320 million, becoming the highest grossing tour of any artist at that time...
, which lasted into 1995. Numbers from various concerts and rehearsals (mostly acoustic
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
) made up Stripped
Stripped (Rolling Stones album)
Stripped is The Rolling Stones album released in 1995 during the Voodoo Lounge Tour. The album was a mixture of live recordings from smaller venues and studio recordings - made with no overdubs - of songs mostly from their previous catalogue...
(UK 9; US 9), which featured a cover of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Like a Rolling Stone
Like a Rolling Stone
"Like a Rolling Stone" is a 1965 song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Its confrontational lyrics originate in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted from a grueling tour of England...
", as well as infrequently played songs like "Shine a Light
Shine a Light (song)
"Shine a Light" is a song featured on British rock and roll band the Rolling Stones' 1972 album Exile on Main St.Although credited to usual Stones writers Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Shine a Light" was largely a Jagger composition. He began writing the song in early 1968 when the Stones still...
", "Sweet Virginia" and "The Spider and the Fly
The Spider and the Fly (song)
"The Spider and the Fly" is a song by British rock and roll band The Rolling Stones first released on the US version of their 1965 album Out of Our Heads. In the UK it was released as the B side to " Satisfaction"....
".
The Rolling Stones were the first major recording artists to broadcast a concert over the Internet; a 20-minute video was broadcast on 18 November 1994 using the Mbone
Mbone
Mbone was an experimental backbone for IP multicast traffic across the Internet developed in the early 1990s. It required specialized hardware and software...
at 10 frames per second. The broadcast, engineered by Thinking Pictures
Thinking Pictures
Thinking Pictures is an American multinational corporation specializing in software, media, and consulting. It was founded in 1993 by Stephan Fitch and Olivier Pfeiffer...
and financed by Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, was one of the first demonstrations of streaming video; while it was not a true webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
, it introduced many to the technology.
Bridges to Babylon
Bridges to Babylon is a studio album by British rock band The Rolling Stones, released by Virgin Records on 29 September 1997. It would prove to be the band's final studio album of the 1990s and their last full-length release of new songs until 2005's A Bigger Bang...
(UK 6; US 3), released in 1997 to mixed reviews. The video of the single "Anybody Seen My Baby?
Anybody Seen My Baby?
"Anybody Seen My Baby?" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones featured on their 1997 album Bridges to Babylon.Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the song also carries writing credits for k.d. lang and Ben Mink. The song is known for its chorus, which sounds strikingly...
" featured Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
as guest and met steady rotation on both MTV and VH1. Sales were reasonably equivalent to those of previous records (about 1.2 million copies sold in the US), and the subsequent Bridges to Babylon Tour
Bridges to Babylon Tour
The Bridges to Babylon Tour was a worldwide concert tour by The Rolling Stones in support of their then-latest album Bridges to Babylon, followed by 1999's No Security Tour.-History:...
, which crossed Europe, North America and other destinations, proved the band to be a strong live attraction. Once again, a live album was culled from the tour, No Security
No Security
No Security is a live album by The Rolling Stones and was released in 1998. Recorded over the course of the lengthy 1997–1998 worldwide Bridges to Babylon Tour, it is the band's sixth official full-length live release....
(UK 67; US 34), only this time all but two songs ("Live With Me
Live With Me
"Live with Me" is a song by the Rolling Stones from their classic album Let It Bleed, released in November 1969. The song is unique in a number of respects: It was one of the first recorded contributions by guitarist Mick Taylor, who joined the band in June, 1969...
" and "The Last Time") were previously unreleased on live albums. In 1999, the Rolling Stones staged the No Security Tour
No Security Tour
The No Security Tour was a Rolling Stones concert tour encompassing 25 cities in North America in 1999. It was in support of their concert album No Security and recent studio album Bridges to Babylon.-History:...
in the US and continued the Bridges to Babylon tour in Europe. The No Security Tour offered a stripped-down production in contrast to the pyrotechnics and mammoth stages of other recent tours.
In late 2001, Mick Jagger released his fourth solo album, Goddess in the Doorway
Goddess in the Doorway
Goddess in the Doorway is the fourth solo album by Mick Jagger, released in 2001. The most recent offering from Jagger as a solo artist, it marked his first release with Virgin Records, whom he has been contracted with as a member of The Rolling Stones since 1991.Following 1993's Wandering Spirit...
(UK 44; US 39) which met with mixed reviews. Jagger and Richards took part in "The Concert for New York City
The Concert for New York City
The Concert for New York City was a benefit concert, featuring many famous musicians, that took place on October 20, 2001 at Madison Square Garden in New York City in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks...
", performing "Salt of the Earth
Salt of the Earth (song)
"Salt of the Earth" is a song from the 1968 Rolling Stones album Beggars Banquet.Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the song is most notable for its opening lead vocal by Richards. While not his first as lead vocalist , it was his most prominent to date...
" and "Miss You" with a backing band.
In 2002, the band released Forty Licks
Forty Licks
Forty Licks is a double compilation album by The Rolling Stones. A 40-year career-spanning retrospective, Forty Licks is notable for being the first retrospective to combine the band's formative Decca/London era of the 1960s, now licensed by ABKCO Records , with their self-owned post-1970 material,...
(UK 2; US 2), a greatest hits double album, to mark their forty years as a band. The collection contained four new songs recorded with the latter-day core band of Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood, Leavell and Jones. The album has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. The same year, Q magazine
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
named the Rolling Stones as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die", and the 2002–2003 Licks Tour
Licks Tour
The Licks Tour was a lengthy, worldwide concert tour held during 2002 and 2003 by The Rolling Stones. Its start was somewhat concurrent with the compilation album Forty Licks, which was released on October 1, 2002....
gave people that chance. The tour included shows in small theatres, arenas and stadiums. The band headlined the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto
Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto
Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto was a benefit rock concert that was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 30, 2003. It was also known as "Toronto Rocks", "Stars 4 SARS", "SARSStock", "SARSfest", "SARS-a-palooza", the "SARS concert", or, more descriptively, "The Rolling Stones SARS Benefit...
concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to help the city – which they have used for rehearsals since the Steel Wheels tour – recover from the 2003 SARS
Severe acute respiratory syndrome
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is a respiratory disease in humans which is caused by the SARS coronavirus . Between November 2002 and July 2003 an outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong nearly became a pandemic, with 8,422 cases and 916 deaths worldwide according to the WHO...
epidemic. The concert was attended by an estimated 490,000 people.
On 9 November 2003, the band played their first concert in Hong Kong as part of the Harbour Fest
Harbour Fest
The Hong Kong Harbour Fest , held from 17 October to 11 November 2003, was part of a HK$1 billion program to revive the economy of Hong Kong SAR after the SARS. It was a government underwritten event organised by InvestHK, under the auspices of the Economic Relaunch Working Group, in collaboration...
celebration, also in support of the SARS-affected economy. In November 2003, the band exclusively licensed the right to sell their new four-DVD boxed set, Four Flicks
Four Flicks
Four Flicks is a 4 disc DVD released by The Rolling Stones. The collection documents several of the Stones' shows from their 2002-2003 Licks World Tour. The DVD debuted at # "1 on Billboard's music video chart selling 53,000 copies during the first week...
, recorded on the band's most recent world tour, to the US Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
chain of stores. In response, some Canadian and US music retail chains (including HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
Canada and Circuit City) pulled Rolling Stones CDs and related merchandise from their shelves and replaced them with signs explaining the situation. In 2004, a double live album of the Licks Tour, Live Licks
Live Licks
Live Licks is a double live album by The Rolling Stones and was released in 2004. Coming six years after No Security, this seventh official Rolling Stones full-length live release captures performances from the band's year-long 2002–2003 Licks Tour in support of their career-spanning retrospective...
(UK 38; US 50), was released, going gold in the US.
2005–present
On 26 July 2005, Jagger's birthday, the band announced the name of their new album, A Bigger BangA Bigger Bang
A Bigger Bang is the 22nd British and 24th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released on Virgin Records in September 2005. It is a follow-up to their previous full-length studio album Bridges to Babylon from 1997, that gap of eight years the longest between studio albums of the band's...
(UK 2; US 3), their first album in almost eight years. A Bigger Bang was released on 6 September to strong reviews, including a glowing write-up in Rolling Stone magazine. The single "Streets of Love" reached the Top 15 in UK and Europe.
The album included the political "Sweet Neo Con", a criticism of American Neoconservatism from Jagger. The song was reportedly almost dropped from the album because of objections from Richards. When asked if he was afraid of political backlash such as the Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
had endured for criticism of American involvement in the war in Iraq, Richards responded that the album came first, and that, "I don't want to be sidetracked by some little political 'storm in a teacup'."
The subsequent A Bigger Bang Tour
A Bigger Bang Tour
A Bigger Bang Tour was a worldwide concert tour by The Rolling Stones which took place between August 2005 and August 2007, in support of their album A Bigger Bang...
began in August 2005, and visited North America, South America and East Asia. In February 2006, the group played the half-time show of Super Bowl XL
Super Bowl XL
Super Bowl XL was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Seattle Seahawks to decide the National Football League champion for the 2005 season...
in Detroit, Michigan. By the end of 2005, the Bigger Bang tour set a record of $162 million in gross receipts, breaking the North American mark also set by the Rolling Stones 1994. On 18 February 2006 the band played a free concert with a claimed 1.5 million attendance at the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.
After performances in Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand in March/April 2006, the Rolling Stones tour took a scheduled break before proceeding to Europe; during this break Keith Richards was hospitalised in New Zealand for cranial surgery after a fall from a tree on Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, where he had been on holiday. The incident led to a six-week delay in launching the European leg of the tour. In June 2006 it was reported that Ronnie Wood was continuing his programme of rehabilitation for alcohol abuse, but this did not affect the rearranged European tour schedule. Two out of the 21 shows scheduled for July–September 2006 were later cancelled due to Mick Jagger's throat problems.
The Rolling Stones returned to North America for concerts in September 2006, and returned to Europe on 5 June 2007. By November 2006, the Bigger Bang tour had been declared the highest-grossing tour of all time, earning $437 million. The North American leg brought in the third-highest receipts ever ($138.5 million), trailing their own 2005 tour ($162 million) and the U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
tour of that same year ($138.9 million).
On 29 October and 1 November 2006, director Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
filmed the Rolling Stones performing at New York City's Beacon Theatre, in front of an audience that included Bill
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and Hillary Clinton, released as the 2008 film Shine a Light
Shine a Light (film)
Shine a Light is a 2008 documentary film directed by Martin Scorsese documenting The Rolling Stones' 2006 Beacon Theatre performance on their A Bigger Bang Tour. The Scorsese film also includes archive footage from the band's career and marked the first utilisation by Scorsese of digital...
; the film also features guest appearances by Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
, Jack White
Jack White (musician)
Jack White , often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and occasional actor...
and Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
. An accompanying soundtrack, also titled Shine a Light (UK 2; US 11), was released in April 2008. The album's debut at number 2 in the UK charts was the highest position for a Rolling Stones concert album since Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
`Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!´ The Rolling Stones in Concert is a live album by The Rolling Stones, released 4 September 1970 on Decca Records in the UK and on London Records in the US. It was recorded in New York and Maryland in November 1969, just before the release of Let It Bleed...
in 1970.
On 24 March 2007, the band announced a tour of Europe called the "Bigger Bang 2007" tour. 12 June 2007 saw the release of the band's second four-disc DVD set: The Biggest Bang
The Biggest Bang
The Biggest Bang is a four-disc concert DVD/BD collection released by the Rolling Stones. The collection documents several shows from the band's 2005-2006 legs of the A Bigger Bang Tour. The DVD debuted at #1 on Billboard's music video chart selling 20,422 copies during the first week and has...
, a seven-hour document featuring their shows in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Rio de Janeiro, Saitama
Saitama, Saitama
' is the capital and the most populous city of Saitama Prefecture in Japan, situated in the south-east of the prefecture. Its area incorporates the former cities of Urawa, Ōmiya, Yono and Iwatsuki. It is a city designated by government ordinance...
, Shanghai and Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, along with extras. On 10 June 2007, the band performed their first gig at a festival in 30 years, at the Isle of Wight Festival
Isle of Wight Festival
The Isle of Wight Festival is a music festival which takes place every year on the Isle of Wight in England. It was originally held from 1968 to 1970. These original events were promoted and organised by the Foulk brothers under the banner of their company Fiery Creations Limited...
, to a crowd of 65,000. On 26 August 2007, they played their last concert of the A Bigger Bang Tour
A Bigger Bang Tour
A Bigger Bang Tour was a worldwide concert tour by The Rolling Stones which took place between August 2005 and August 2007, in support of their album A Bigger Bang...
at the O2 Arena in London, England. At the conclusion of the tour, it was announced the Rolling Stones had made $558 million on the A Bigger Bang Tour to list them in the latest edition of Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
.
The Very Best of Mick Jagger
The Very Best of Mick Jagger is a compilation album that was released worldwide on 1 October 2007 and the following day in the United States on WEA/Rhino Records...
(UK 57; US 77), including three unreleased songs, on 2 October 2007. On 12 November 2007, ABKCO released Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones
Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones
Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones is a compilation album by The Rolling Stones released without the band's authorisation by its former label Decca Records in 1975...
, a double-CD remake of the 1975 compilation Rolled Gold; the reissue went to number 26 in the UK charts.
In a 2007 interview with Mick Jagger after nearly two years of touring, Jagger refused to say when the band is going to retire: "I'm sure the Rolling Stones will do more things, more records and more tours, we've got no plans to stop any of that, really. As far as I'm concerned, I'm sure we'll continue." In March 2008 Keith Richards sparked rumours that a new Rolling Stones studio album may be forthcoming, saying during an interview following the premiere of Shine a Light, "I think we might make another album. Once we get over doing promotion on this film". Drummer Charlie Watts remarked that he got ill whenever he stopped working. In July 2008 it was announced that the Rolling Stones were leaving EMI and signing with Vivendi's Universal Music, taking with them their catalogue stretching back to Sticky Fingers. New music released by the band while under this contract will be issued through Universal's Polydor label. Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
will hold the US rights to the pre-1994 material, while the post-1994 material will be handled by 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:...
(once a subsidiary of Atlantic). Coincidentally, Universal Music is also the distributor for ABKCO, owners of the band's pre-Sticky Fingers releases.
During the fall, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Mick Taylor worked with producer Don Was to add new vocals and guitar parts to ten unfinished songs from the Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St. is the tenth British and 12th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on many genres including rock and roll, blues, soul, R&B, gospel and country. The release of Exile on Main St. met with mixed reviews, but is...
sessions.
On 17 April 2010 the band released a limited edition 7-inch vinyl single of the previously unreleased track "Plundered My Soul
Plundered My Soul
"Plundered My Soul" is a song by The Rolling Stones featured as a bonus track on the 2010 re-release of their 1972 album Exile on Main St.. It was the first song released by the band from the new recordings, limited-edition copies of the single shelved in independent stores on 17 April 2010, in...
" in honour of Record Store Day
Record Store Day
Record Store Day is an internationally celebrated day observed the third Saturday of April each year. Its purpose, as conceived by independent record store employee Chris Brown, is to celebrate the art of music...
. The track, part of the group's 2010 re-issue of Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St. is the tenth British and 12th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on many genres including rock and roll, blues, soul, R&B, gospel and country. The release of Exile on Main St. met with mixed reviews, but is...
, was combined with "All Down the Line
All Down the Line
"All Down the Line" is a song by rock band The Rolling Stones featured on their 1972 album Exile on Main St..-Background:Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "All Down the Line" is a straight ahead electric rock song which opens side four of Exile on Main St....
" as its B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
.
On 23 April, it was announced that the band would be at Cannes Festival, for the premiere of the documentary Stones in Exile
Stones in Exile
Stones in Exile is a 2010 documentary film about the recording of the 1972 The Rolling Stones album Exile on Main St. Directed by Stephen Kijak, it premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. It had its worldwide premiere on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon...
(directed by Stephen Kijak
Stephen Kijak
-Career:Kijak studied with renowned film scholar and John Cassavetes expert Ray Carney as well as the late Mel Howard at Boston University’s College of Communication. He wrote, directed and produced the feature film Never Met Picasso which starred Margot Kidder, Alexis Arquette and Don McKellar...
), about the recording of the album Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St. is the tenth British and 12th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on many genres including rock and roll, blues, soul, R&B, gospel and country. The release of Exile on Main St. met with mixed reviews, but is...
.
On 23 May 2010, the re-issue of Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St. is the tenth British and 12th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on many genres including rock and roll, blues, soul, R&B, gospel and country. The release of Exile on Main St. met with mixed reviews, but is...
stormed at No. 1 in the UK charts, almost 38 years to the week after it first occupied that position. The Rolling Stones are the first act to ever see a classic work return to No. 1 decades after it was first released. In the US, the album sold 76,000 copies during the first week and re-entered the charts at No. 2. A CD containing just the 10 new tracks from the 2CD edition of Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St. is the tenth British and 12th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on many genres including rock and roll, blues, soul, R&B, gospel and country. The release of Exile on Main St. met with mixed reviews, but is...
was released exclusively through Target, – as Exile on Main St. (Rarities Edition) and also charted at No. 27.
On 11 October 2010, the Stones released Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones
Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones
Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones is a concert movie featuring the British rock band The Rolling Stones that was first released in 1974...
to the cinemas and later on to DVD. A digitally remastered version of the film was shown in select cinemas across the United States. This live performance was recorded during 4 shows in Ft. Worth and Houston, Texas in support of their The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972, often referred to as the S.T.P. Tour , was a much-publicized and much-written-about concert tour of The United States and Canada in June and July 1972 by The Rolling Stones...
and their album Exile on Main St.. The film was released to cinemas in 1974 but until now it was never available for home release apart from the numerous bootleg copies.
On 4 October 2011, the Stones released The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas '78 to the cinemas and later on to DVD. A digitally remastered version of the film was shown in select cinemas across the United States. This live performance was recorded during one show in Ft. Worth, Texas in support of their US Tour 1978
Rolling Stones US Tour 1978
The Rolling Stones' US Tour 1978 was a concert tour of the United States that took place during June and July 1978, immediately following the release of the group's 1978 album Some Girls. Like the 1972 and 1975 U.S. tours, Bill Graham was the tour promoter...
and their album Some Girls. The film was released in (DVD/Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
) on 15 November 2011.
Musical development
The Rolling Stones are notable in modern popular music for assimilating various musical genres into their own collective sound. Throughout the band's career, their musical contributions have been marked by a continual reference and reliance on musical styles including blues, rhythm and blues, country, folk, reggae, dance, and world musicWorld 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"...
, exemplified by their collaboration with the Master Musicians of Jajouka, as well as traditional English styles that use stringed instrumentation like harps. Brian Jones experimented with the use of non-traditional instruments such as the sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
and slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
in their early days. The group started out covering early rock 'n' roll and blues songs, and have never stopped playing live or recording cover songs.
Infusion of American blues
Jagger and Richards shared an admiration of Jimmy ReedJimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
, Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, and Little Walter
Little Walter
Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...
, and their interest influenced Brian Jones, of whom Richards says, "He was more into T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...
and jazz blues stuff. We'd turn him onto Chuck Berry and say, 'Look, it's all the same shit, man, and you can do it.'" Charlie Watts, a traditional jazz drummer, was also introduced to the blues through his association with the pair. "Keith and Brian turned me on to Jimmy Reed and people like that. I learned that Earl Phillips was playing on those records like a jazz drummer, playing swing, with a straight four..."
Jagger, recalling when he first heard the likes of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
, and other major American R&B artists, said it "seemed the most real thing" he had heard up to that point. Similarly, Keith Richards, describing the first time he listened to Muddy Waters, said it was the "most powerful music [he had] ever heard...the most expressive." He also stated, "when you think of some dopey, spotty seventeen year old from Dartford, who wants to be Muddy Waters-- and there were a lot of us-- in a way, very pathetic, but in another way, very... heartwarming".
Early songwriting
Despite The Rolling Stones' predilection for blues and R&B numbers on their early live setlists, the first original compositions by the band reflected a more wide-ranging interest. The first Jagger/Richards single, "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)Tell Me (You're Coming Back)
"Tell Me" is a song by English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones, featured on their 1964 self-titled album . It was later released as single A-side in the USA only, becoming the first Jagger/Richards song that the band released as a single A-side, and their first record to enter the US Top 40...
", has been described by critic Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger is a US author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.-Life and writing:Having worked as a DJ at WXPN in Philadelphia, he started reviewing records for Op magazine in 1983...
as a "pop rock
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...
ballad... When [Jagger and Richards] began to write songs, they were usually not derived from the blues, but were often surprisingly fey, slow, Mersey
Beat music
Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll, doo wop, skiffle, R&B and soul...
-type pop numbers". "As Tears Go By
As Tears Go By (song)
"As Tears Go By" is a song written by The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, and their manager Andrew Loog Oldham, and was a popular hit for both British singer Marianne Faithfull in 1964 and The Rolling Stones in 1965.-History:...
", the ballad originally written for Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
, was one of the first songs written by Jagger and Richards and also one of many written by the duo for other artists. Jagger said of the song, "It's a relatively mature song considering the rest of the output at the time. And we didn't think of [recording] it, because The Rolling Stones were a butch blues group." The Rolling Stones did later record a version which became a top five hit in the US.
On the early experience, Richards said, "The amazing thing is that although Mick and I thought these songs were really puerile and kindergarten-time, every one that got put out made a decent showing in the charts. That gave us extraordinary confidence to carry on, because at the beginning songwriting was something we were going to do in order to say to Andrew [Loog Oldham], 'Well, at least we gave it a try...'" Jagger said, "We were very pop-orientated. We didn't sit around listening to Muddy Waters; we listened to everything. In some ways it's easy to write to order... Keith and I got into the groove of writing those kind of tunes; they were done in ten minutes. I think we thought it was a bit of a laugh, and it turned out to be something of an apprenticeship for us."
The writing of the single "The Last Time", The Rolling Stones' first major single, proved a turning point. Richards called it "a bridge into thinking about writing for the Stones. It gave us a level of confidence; a pathway of how to do it." The song was based on a traditional gospel song popularised by The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples , the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha , Pervis , Yvonne , and Mavis...
, but The Rolling Stones' number features a distinctive guitar riff (played on stage by Brian Jones).
Band members
Current members- Mick JaggerMick JaggerSir 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....
– lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, piano, harmonica (April 1962 – present) - Keith RichardsKeith RichardsKeith 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...
– electric and acoustic guitar, lead and backing vocals (April 1962 – present) - Charlie WattsCharlie WattsCharles 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:...
– drums (January 1963 – present) - Ronnie Wood – slide, lap and pedal steel guitars, electric guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals (March 1975 – present)
Additional musicians
- Darryl JonesDarryl JonesDarryl Jones , also known as "The Munch", is an American bass guitarist. Jones began his notable career as a session musician, where he gained the experience and confidence to play with some of the most highly regarded recording artists, in jazz, blues, and rock music...
– bass guitar (January 1993 – present)
Former members
- Brian JonesBrian JonesLewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
– guitars, sitar, keyboards, accordion, marimba, harmonica, dulcimer, autoharp, percussion, recorder, cello, mandolin, saxophone, backing vocals (April 1962 – June 1969) - Ian StewartIan Stewart (musician)Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a Scottish keyboardist, co-founder of The Rolling Stones and inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
– piano, keyboards (April 1962 – May 1963; additional musician: January 1964 – December 1966, November 1968 – August 1985) - Tony ChapmanTony ChapmanAnthony 'Tony' Chapman was a British drummer, especially active during the 1960s. He played with an early line-up of The Rolling Stones before they settled on their permanent band members...
– drums (April 1962 – January 1963) - Dick TaylorDick TaylorRichard Clifford 'Dick' Taylor is an English musician who was an early bass guitarist for The Rolling Stones. He left to become an art student at Sidcup Art College and while there formed The Pretty Things in September 1963...
– bass guitar (April–December 1962) - Bill WymanBill WymanBill 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...
– bass guitar, backing vocals (December 1962 – January 1993) - Mick TaylorMick TaylorMichael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
– electric, acoustic, and slide guitars, backing vocals (June 1969 – December 1974)
Timeline
Discography
In a career that has spanned nearly half a century, the band have released over 100 singlesSingle (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, over two dozen studio albums, and numerous compilation
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
and live albums. Ten of their studio albums are among Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
, with their 1972 double album Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St.
Exile on Main St. is the tenth British and 12th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on many genres including rock and roll, blues, soul, R&B, gospel and country. The release of Exile on Main St. met with mixed reviews, but is...
placing seventh.
Official videography
Officially released films featuring are listed with their original release dates. (The formats mentioned are the most recent versions officially available, not necessarily the original release formats.)- 1966: Charlie Is My Darling, directed by Peter Whitehead (released on DVD in 2009 without the Rolling Stones' music)
- 1968: Sympathy for the DevilSympathy for the Devil (film)Sympathy for the Devil is a 1968 film shot mostly in color by director Jean-Luc Godard.- Plot summary :...
, directed by Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
(DVD) - 1969: Stones in the Park (DVD)
- 1970: Gimme Shelter, directed by Albert and David MayslesAlbert and David MayslesAlbert and David Maysles were a documentary filmmaking team whose cinéma vérité works include Salesman , Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens . Their 1964 film on The Beatles forms the backbone of the DVD, The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit...
(DVD/Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
) - 1974: Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling StonesLadies and Gentlemen: The Rolling StonesLadies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones is a concert movie featuring the British rock band The Rolling Stones that was first released in 1974...
, directed by Rolin Binzer - 1982: Rocks Off and Let's Spend the Night TogetherLet's Spend the Night Together (film)Let's Spend the Night Together is a live concert film, documenting The Rolling Stones' 1981 North American Tour. It was directed by Hal Ashby, and released to cinemas in 1983, then subsequently released on VHS...
, both directed by Hal AshbyHal AshbyHal Ashby was an American film director and film editor.-Birth and early years:Born William Hal Ashby in Ogden, Utah, Ashby grew up in a Mormon household and had a tumultuous childhood as part of a dysfunctional family which included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide and his...
(DVD) - 1984: Video RewindVideo RewindVideo Rewind by The Rolling Stones is a compilation of video clips recorded between 1972–1984. Instead of just presenting unrelated clips and videos just strung together, it uses a framing 'story', featuring Mick Jagger and Bill Wyman, directed by Julien Temple and includes some video directed by...
(VHS) - 1989: 25x5 – The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones (VHS)
- 1992: Stones at the MaxStones at the MaxStones at the Max is a live concert film by The Rolling Stones released in 1991. It was specially filmed in IMAX during the Urban Jungle Tour in Europe in 1990....
, directed by Julien TempleJulien TempleJulien Temple is an English film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including The Great Rock And Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and a documentary film about Glastonbury.-Temple...
(DVD) - 1995: The Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge LiveThe Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge LiveVoodoo Lounge Live by The Rolling Stones is a concert DVD/Video, filmed at the Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida on 25 November 1994 during the Voodoo Lounge Tour.This concert was broadcast as a pay-per-view special...
(DVD) - 1996: The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll CircusThe Rolling Stones Rock and Roll CircusThe Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is a film released in 1996 of an 11 December 1968 event put together by The Rolling Stones. The event comprised two concerts on a circus stage and included such acts as The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and Jethro Tull...
, directed by Michael Lindsay-HoggMichael Lindsay-HoggSir Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 5th Baronet is a British television and stage director and an occasional writer and actor.-Background and early work:...
(filmed in 1968) (DVD) - 1998: Bridges to Babylon Tour '97–98 (DVD)
- 2003: Four FlicksFour FlicksFour Flicks is a 4 disc DVD released by The Rolling Stones. The collection documents several of the Stones' shows from their 2002-2003 Licks World Tour. The DVD debuted at # "1 on Billboard's music video chart selling 53,000 copies during the first week...
(DVD) - 2004: Toronto RocksMolson Canadian Rocks for TorontoMolson Canadian Rocks for Toronto was a benefit rock concert that was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 30, 2003. It was also known as "Toronto Rocks", "Stars 4 SARS", "SARSStock", "SARSfest", "SARS-a-palooza", the "SARS concert", or, more descriptively, "The Rolling Stones SARS Benefit...
(DVD) - 2007: The Biggest BangThe Biggest BangThe Biggest Bang is a four-disc concert DVD/BD collection released by the Rolling Stones. The collection documents several shows from the band's 2005-2006 legs of the A Bigger Bang Tour. The DVD debuted at #1 on Billboard's music video chart selling 20,422 copies during the first week and has...
(DVD/Blu-ray Disc) - 2008: Shine a LightShine a Light (film)Shine a Light is a 2008 documentary film directed by Martin Scorsese documenting The Rolling Stones' 2006 Beacon Theatre performance on their A Bigger Bang Tour. The Scorsese film also includes archive footage from the band's career and marked the first utilisation by Scorsese of digital...
, directed by Martin ScorseseMartin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, released to theatres in standard and IMAXIMAXIMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
presentations (DVD/Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
) - 2009: Stones at the MaxStones at the MaxStones at the Max is a live concert film by The Rolling Stones released in 1991. It was specially filmed in IMAX during the Urban Jungle Tour in Europe in 1990....
Remastered twentieth anniversary edition, directed by Julien TempleJulien TempleJulien Temple is an English film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including The Great Rock And Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and a documentary film about Glastonbury.-Temple...
(DVD/Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
) - 2010: Stones in ExileStones in ExileStones in Exile is a 2010 documentary film about the recording of the 1972 The Rolling Stones album Exile on Main St. Directed by Stephen Kijak, it premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. It had its worldwide premiere on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon...
, directed by Stephen KijakStephen Kijak-Career:Kijak studied with renowned film scholar and John Cassavetes expert Ray Carney as well as the late Mel Howard at Boston University’s College of Communication. He wrote, directed and produced the feature film Never Met Picasso which starred Margot Kidder, Alexis Arquette and Don McKellar... - 2010: Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling StonesLadies and Gentlemen: The Rolling StonesLadies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones is a concert movie featuring the British rock band The Rolling Stones that was first released in 1974...
, Remastered presentations for the very first time (DVD/Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
) directed by Rolin Binzer - 2011: The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas '78 (DVD/Blu-ray Disc)
See also
- Life (book)Life (book)Life is a memoir by The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, written with the assistance of journalist James Fox. Published in October 2010, in hardback, audio and e-book formats, the book chronicles Richards' love of music, charting influences from his mother and maternal grandfather, through...
, memoir by Keith Richards.
Further reading
- Gered Mankowitz: The Rolling Stones – Out of Their Heads. Photographs 1965–67 and 1982, ISBN 3-89602-664-X
- Booth, StanleyStanley BoothStanley Booth is an American music journalist. Booth has written extensively about important music figures, including Keith Richards, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, James Brown, Elvis Presley, Gram Parsons, B.B. King, and Al Green...
, The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones, Chicago Review Press (2000), ISBN 1-55652-400-5 (also published as Dance with the Devil: The Rolling Stones and Their Times, Random House (1984), ISBN 0-394-53488-3) - Stanley Booth, Keith: Standing in the Shadows, St. Martin's Press (1995), ISBN 0-312-11841-4
- Wyman, BillBill WymanBill 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...
, Rolling with the Stones, DK Publishing (2002), ISBN 0-7894-9998-3 - Carr, RoyRoy CarrRoy Carr is an English music journalist. He joined the New Musical Express in the late 1960s and has edited NME, VOX and Melody Maker magazines...
, The Rolling Stones: An Illustrated Record, Harmony Books (1976), ISBN 0-517-52641-7 - Robert Greenfield, S.T.P.: A Journey Through America with the Rolling Stones (1974), Reissued Da Capo Press, 2002. ISBN 0-306-81199-5
- James Phelge, Nankering with the Stones 2000. ISBN 1-55652-373-4
- The Rolling Stones, According to the Rolling Stones, Chronicle Books (2003), ISBN 0-8118-4060-3
- Oldham, Andrew LoogAndrew Loog OldhamAndrew Loog Oldham is an English producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of The Rolling Stones from 1963, and was noted for his flamboyant style.-Biography:...
, Stoned, St. Martin's Griffin (2000), ISBN 0-312-27094-1 - Chet Flippo, On the Road With the Rolling Stones, Doubleday/Dolphin (1985), ISBN 0-385-19374-2
- Marcus, GreilGreil MarcusGreil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
, "Myth and Misquotation", The Dustbin Of History, Harvard University Press (1997), ISBN 0-674-21858-2 - "The Ecstasy and the Irony: The Evolution of a Rhythm & Blues Band" Ian McPherson (2000)
- Lazar, ZacharyZachary LazarZachary Lazar is an American novelist. Lazar was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He earned an A.B. degree in Comparative Literature from Brown University and M.F.A from the University of Iowa Iowa Writer's Workshop ....
, Sway, Little, Brown (2008), ISBN 0-316-11309-3 - Marc SpitzMarc spitzMarc Spitz is a music journalist, author and playwright. Spitz's writings on rock n' roll and popular culture have appeared in Spin as well as The New York Times, Maxim, Blender, Harp, Nylon and the New York Post...
, Jagger: Rebel, Rock Star, Rambler, RogueJagger: Rebel, Rock Star, Rambler, RogueJagger: Rebel, Rock Star, Rambler, Rogue is a biography and cultural examination of The Rolling Stones' frontman Mick Jagger's spectacular life and the cultural revolution he led. The book was written by Marc Spitz and originally released on September 8, 2011 by Gotham Books.-Synopsis:As the...
, Gotham Books (2011), ISBN 978-1592406555