The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones (guitars, harmonica), Ian Stewart (piano), Mick Jagger (vocals, harmonica) and Keith Richards (guitars). Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up. The Rolling Stones raised the international regard for the primitive blues typified by Chess Records' artists such as Muddy Waters, who wrote the song Rollin' Stone after which the band is named.[1] R&B and blues cover songs dominated the Rolling Stones' early material, but their repertoire has always included rock and roll. According to critic and musicologist Robert Palmer, the Rolling Stones have endured and stayed relevant by remaining "rooted in traditional verities, in rhythm-and-blues and soul music", while "more ephemeral pop fashions have come and gone".[2]

Jones initially led the band, but after teaming as songwriters, Jagger and Richards assumed leadership. By 1969 Jones' diminishing contributions to the band and his inability to tour the United States for legal and health reasons led to him leaving the band. Three weeks after his departure, Jones drowned. His immediate replacement Mick Taylor stayed with the band until 1974, and was replaced by Ronnie Wood. Wyman retired from the band in 1993, and his replacement Darryl Jones is not a full member. Stewart was taken from the official line-up in 1963 to continue as the band's road manager and occasional keyboardist 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 concert albums (ten in the US) and numerous compilations; their worldwide sales are estimated at more than 200 million albums.[3] 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.[4] 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.

The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts
Background information
Also known as	The Stones
Origin	London, England, UK
Genres	Rock, rock and roll, blues rock, rhythm and blues, blues
Years active	1962–present
Labels	Decca, London, Rolling Stones, Virgin, ABKCO, Interscope, Polydor
Associated acts	John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Faces, The Jeff Beck Group, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, Super Heavy
Website	www.rollingstones.com
Members
Mick Jagger Keith Richards Charlie Watts Ronnie Wood
Past members
Brian Jones Ian Stewart Dick Taylor Tony Chapman Bill Wyman Mick Taylor

Early history :

In the early 1950s Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were boyhood friends and classmates at Wentworth Primary School in Dartford, Kent until their families moved apart.[6] 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).[7][8] 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. Blues Incorporated contained two other future members of the Rolling Stones: Ian Stewart and Charlie Watts.[9] Stewart found a practice space and joined with Jones to start a 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.[10] 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".[11][12][13]
[edit] 1962–1964

On 12 July 1962 the band played their first gig at the Marquee Club billed as "The Rollin' Stones".[14] 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.[15] Bassist Bill Wyman joined in December 1962 and drummer Charlie Watts the following January 1963 to form the band's long-standing rhythm section.[7][16]

The Rolling Stones' acting manager Giorgio Gomelsky got the band a Sunday afternoon residency at The Crawdaddy Club, which Gomelsky tied to an international renaissance of the blues, and, along with the ascension of the Beatles, a formative musical event for "Swinging London."[17]

After observing the Rolling Stones and their fashionable Crawdaddy audience, former Beatles publicist, Andrew Loog Oldham, signed the band to a management deal.[18] Because Oldham was nineteen—younger than any of the band, and was too young to hold an agent's license, he joined with show biz veteran Eric Easton after Oldham's mother signed for her son.[19][20][21] Gomelsky—who lacked a written agreement with the band—was not consulted.[22]

The recording contract the Oldham and Easton negotiated with Decca Records contained unusually favourable terms due to Decca's regret at passing on the Beatles. The Rolling Stones got three times the typical royalty rate of a new acts, artistic control over recordings, and ownership of the recording masters.[23][24]

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 preferred by him.[25][26][27] At Regent, Oldham said, "The sound leaked, instrument to instrument, the right way" creating a "wall of noise" well-suited to the band.[28] Regent's economical rates resulted in the band recording for extended intervals instead three hours slots prevalent at the time. At Regent all tracks were recorded for the first Rolling Stones album.[29][30] With minimal recording experience, Oldham had made himself the band's producer.[24]

Oldham presented the Rolling Stones' use of independent studios to make his artists seem superior to the Beatles, who used EMI's studios, and, Oldham said, as a result appeared as "mere mortals ... sweating in the studio for the man".[31] Oldham initially dressed the band in identical suits, but the band returned to wearing their own clothes for public appearances.[32] 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"?[33] 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".[34][35] 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.[36][37][38]

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,[39] 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,[40] helping "Come On" rise to No.21 on the UK singles charts.[41] 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.[42] 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.[24][43][44]

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 song writing 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."[45] 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.[46]

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."[47] When the band appeared on Dean Martin's TV variety show The Hollywood Palace, Martin mocked both their hair and their performance.[48] During the tour they recorded for two days at Chess Studios in Chicago, meeting many of their most important influences, including Muddy Waters.[49][50] 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".[51]

"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..."[52] 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,[53] though he later did book them repeatedly.[9] Their second LP – the US-only 12 X 5 – was released during this tour;[54] 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