The Rolling Stones

From Wikipedia:

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active across seven decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pioneered the gritty, rhythmically driven sound that came to define hard rock. Their first stable line-up consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, guitarist Keith Richards, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. During their early years, Jones was the primary leader of the band. After Andrew Loog Oldham became the group’s manager in 1963, he encouraged them to write their own songs. Jagger and Richards became the band’s songwriters and primary creative forces, alienating Jones who developed a drug addiction that, by 1968, interfered with his ability to contribute meaningfully.

Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the Rolling Stones started out playing covers and were at the forefront of the British Invasion in 1964, becoming identified with the youthful and rebellious counterculture of the 1960s. They then found greater success with their own material, as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (1965), “Get Off of My Cloud” (1965), and “Paint It Black” (1966) became international number-one hits. Aftermath (1966) – their first entirely original album – is often considered to be the most important of their early albums. In 1967, they had the double-sided hit “Ruby Tuesday”/”Let’s Spend the Night Together” and experimented with psychedelic rock on Their Satanic Majesties Request. By the end of the 1960s, they had returned to their rhythm and blues-based rock sound, with hit singles “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (1968) and “Honky Tonk Women” (1969), and albums Beggars Banquet (1968), featuring “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Street Fighting Man”, and Let It Bleed (1969), featuring “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Gimme Shelter”.

Jones left the band shortly before his death in 1969, having been replaced by guitarist Mick Taylor. That year they were first introduced on stage as “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World”. Sticky Fingers (1971), which yielded “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses” and included the first usage of their tongue and lips logo, was their first of eight consecutive number-one studio albums in the US. Exile on Main St. (1972), featuring “Tumbling Dice”, and Goats Head Soup (1973), featuring “Angie”, were also best sellers. Taylor left the band at the end of 1974, and was replaced by Ronnie Wood. The band released Some Girls in 1978, featuring “Miss You”, and Tattoo You in 1981, featuring “Start Me Up”. Steel Wheels (1989) was widely considered a comeback album and was followed by Voodoo Lounge (1994). Both releases were promoted by large stadium and arena tours, as the Stones continued to be a huge concert attraction; by 2007 they had recorded the all-time highest-grossing concert tour three times, and as recently as 2021 they were the highest-earning live act of the year. Following Wyman’s departure in 1993, the band continued as a four-piece core, with Darryl Jones becoming their regular bassist, and then as a three-piece core following Watts’ death in 2021, with Steve Jordan becoming their regular drummer. Their 2016 album, Blue & Lonesome, became their twelfth UK number-one album. Hackney Diamonds, the band’s first new album of original material in eighteen years, was released in October 2023.

The Rolling Stones’ estimated record sales of 200 million make them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The band has won three Grammy Awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. Billboard magazine and Rolling Stone have ranked the band as one of the greatest of all time.

In 1963, The Rolling Stones recorded a Lennon–McCartney song, “I Wanna Be Your Man”, as their second single. The Beatles’ 1963 album, “With the Beatles”, includes their version of the song.

In 1967, John Lennon and Paul McCartney joined on “We Love You / Dandelion”.

In 2023, The Rolling Stones released a new album “Hackney Diamonds”. Paul McCartney plays bass on the track “Bit My Head Off”.

We’d be hanging out with the Stones, working on their sessions; it was a very friendly scene. There must have been a bit of competition because that’s only natural, but it was always friendly. We used to say, ‘Have you got one coming out?’ and if they had we’d say, ‘Well, hold it for a couple of weeks, because we’ve got one.’ It made sense, really, to avoid each other’s releases. John and I sang on the Stones’ song ‘We Love You’ – Mick had been stuck for an idea and he asked us to come along. So we went down to Olympic Studios and made it up.

We and the Stones were part of the same crowd. We used to go to a flat in Earl’s Court, the late-night hangout. Actually there were a few of these – there was Robert Fraser’s place, my place, Mick and Keith’s place or maybe Brian’s. I remember Mick bringing in ‘Ruby Tuesday’ as a demo; they’d just done it and it was great. We’d get everything hot off the press. They said, ‘What do you think of this one?’ and we said, ‘Yeah, great, “Ruby Tuesday” — lovely.’

When we asked Brian Jones to one of our sessions, to our surprise he brought along a sax. He turned up in a big Afghan coat at Abbey Road. He played sax on a crazy record, ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’. It’s a funny sax solo – it isn’t amazingly well played but it happened to be exactly what we wanted: a ropey, shaky sax. Brian was very good like that.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

In truth, the Stones and the Beatles were mutual admirers. I remember going with Paul one night to see the Stones at the Scene club in London, and he expressed great admiration. His only complaint was that he was jealous that the Stones were allowed to wear whatever they wanted onstage—they had not been nagged by their manager (as the Beatles had) into wearing matching suits!

Peter Asher – From “The Beatles from A to Zed: An Alphabetical Mystery Tour“, 2019

We finished the recording [of Thingumybob] on Sunday [June 30, 1968] and then it was back to London. […] We were cruising along in the back of the big limo when the Stones’ new single, “Jumping Jack Flash,” came on the car radio. We couldn’t believe it, and I leaned forward to turn the radio up loud. […] We were just pulling into a gas station when it ended and Paul turned to me. Reverting to type he said, “Bloody ’ell! That’s a bit tasty. ’Ere, Tone, do you think you could go and call up Alan Freeman and get him to play that again?” […]

I called “Fluff” Freeman as directed, and almost immediately, to our surprise, he announced on air, “Tony Bramwell of Apple Records has just called in from some gas station in the middle of nowhere. He’s with Paul McCartney and they’ve made a request to play ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ again.” And he turned to his producer, Dennis Jones and asked, “Can we do that?” Dennis said, “Why not?” So they did. We just sat there in the Daimler in this gas station listening. It was still fantastic.

Tony Bramwell – From “Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles“, 2005

Albums, EPs & singles by The Rolling Stones

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