The Rolling Stones - the legend

The Rolling Stones, formed in London, England circa 1962, are one of the world’s most popular rock music groups, selling over 68 million RIAA certified albums in the US alone. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and have performed in approximately 40 countries.

The group was formed by Brian Jones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met as schoolmates in Dartford, Kent. They took their name from a Muddy Waters song called “Rollin’ Stone Blues”, and made their live debut in July 1962 at London’s Marquee Club (minus Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts). They start playing pubs and clubs around the city and suburbs. Bill Wyman joined later that year (the popular story is that he was asked because he had his own amplifier), replacing Dick Taylor, who started the Pretty Things.

In January 1963, Charlie Watts joined the Stones. The band gigged constantly, with residencies at venues like Ealing Jazz Club, Ken Colyer’s Studio 51, and Eel Pie Island in Twickenham. Their weekly peformances at the Crawdaddy at Richmond’s Station Hotel resulted in ecstatic press reviews, and in April press agent Andrew Loog Oldham saw them there and signed them to his management company the next day. He started the “Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone” press campaign, which set the tone for their career, which has included drug arrests, and many notorious incidents.

In May 1963, the Stones were signed to Decca Records, supposedly by the same man who had turned down the Beatles. A month later “Come On”, the first Rolling Stones single, was released, and reached number two in the U.K. charts.