The Early Rolling Stones (1962-1964)

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm Bill Price, and in this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback, I will cover the early history of Rock’s most enduring band, The Rolling Stones. This super group has been recording and performing for more than 60 years. Like many Rock bands, the Stones went through some personnel changes, and evolution from their early musical style.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Transcript

In this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback, I will cover the early history of Rock’s most enduring band, The Rolling Stones. This super group has been recording and performing for more than 60 years. Like many Rock bands, the Stones went through some personnel changes, and evolution from their early musical style.

The story of the Rolling Stones begins on October 17th, 1961 in the UK, on the number two platform of the Dartford railway station. It was here that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met. However, that was not the first encounter. In 1950, Keith and Mick were classmates in Dartford, Kent. In 1954 the Jaggers then relocated to Wilmington, Kent. By the mid 1950s, Mick formed a band with Dick Taylor, playing primarily music by black US artists that included Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin’ Wolf and Bo Diddley. On the railway platform, Keith noticed that Mick was carrying Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records that revealed a common interest in the same type of music. 

As a result of this chance encounter, they formed a quintet called The Blues Boys, comprised of Mick, Keith, Dick Taylor, Alan Etherington and Bob Beckwith. In March 1962, The Blues Boys sent a demo tape of their best recordings to Alexis Korner, after reading about Alexis’ R & B and Blues Incorporated bands and the Ealing Jazz Club. The tape impressed Korner and on April 7th, they went to the Ealing Jazz Club, where they were introduced to members of Blues Incorporated that included Brian Jones, Ian Stewart and Charlie Watts. After meeting with Korner, Mick and Keith began jamming with the group.

When Brian Jones left Blues Incorporated, he placed an ad in Jazz Weekly in May 1962, looking for new band members. Ian Stewart was the first to respond, and in June Mick, Keith, and Dick left Blues Incorporated to join Brian and Stewart. Later in the month Tony Chapman joined the band. At the time the band apparently did not have a name. 

The story of how the band got its name goes as follows. When Brian was on the phone with Jazz News, the journalist asked for the band’s name. Brian saw a Muddy Waters LP record on the floor and the track “Rollin’ Stone”, with Rollin’ spelled with out the g.

The band’s first performance as “The Rollin’ Stones” was on July 12th, 1962 at the
Marquee Club in London. Then on December 7th, 1962 Bill Wyman replaced Dick
Taylor. The new lineup that now included Charlie Watts performed at the Ealing Jazz Club on February 1963. The band then began their first UK tour performing Chicago Blues as well as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley songs. As the year progressed, their popularity increased. The band’s name was then changed to The Rolling Stones, with Rolling now spelled with a g. Their acting manager then arranged a Sunday afternoon residency at the Crawdaddy Club.

In May, Andrew Loog Oldham became The Rolling Stones’ manager. Initially Andrew copied the approach used by Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, of having the band wear suits. However he later abandoned that strategy in favor of portraying the band as a “raunchy, gamy, unpredictable bunch of undesirables”. Decca Records then signed the Stones to a recording contract. Decca earlier had rejected The Beatles, and apparently did not want to repeat the same mistake. The band chose to record at Regent Sound Studios, which at the time was a monophonic facility. Even though Oldham had no experience in recording, he became the band’s producer. Since the rates at Regent Sound Studios were not too expensive, the band recorded all of the tracks for their first album titled “The Rolling Stones”. Oldham also portrayed the band as being the opposite of The Beatles. On the album’s cover, the band was photographed with no one smiling. He provided attention-grabbing headlines for the press such as, “Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone ? ”. This only added to the evolving band’s reputation and image as the “Bad Boys”.

The first single released on June 7th, 1963, was a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On”. Interestingly for some reason, the band would not perform the song during live appearances. Also Decca did not promote the single aggressively since only a single ad was used. Oldham then directed the Stones’ fan club members to purchase copies of the record, in order to bolster the single’s performance on the charts. This tactic helped “Come On” reach the number 21 position on the UK Singles Chart. With the Stones now having a charting single, this enabled the band to perform outside of London. On July 13th, they appeared along with the Hollies at the Outlook Club in Middlesbrough. Later in 1963 the Rolling Stones first UK tour began with the band supporting US artists, which included Bo Diddley, Little Richard and the Everly Brothers.

Here is the Stones’ first single release, the 1963 cover of “Come On”.

Interestingly during the first tour, they recorded their second single; a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney titled “I Wanna Be Your Man”. The single climbed to number 12 on the UK charts. On new years day 1964, The Rolling Stones were the first band to perform on the BBC’s Top of the Pops, playing “I Wanna Be Your Man”. Also in January an extended play record titled “The Rolling Stones” was released, which became the band’s first number one record in the UK. The next release was a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”, which reached the number three position. In spite of the success, Oldham did not see much of a future for a band that only played material that others had written. As a result Mick and Keith began the slow task of developing their song writing skills. The first US issued LP titled “The Rolling Stones – England’s Newest Hit Makers” contained only one Jagger and Richards composition titled “Tell Me”. The album no doubt rekindled the interest in music, which ironically had originated in the US. Some of the songs on the album included covers of “Route 66”, “I’m A King Bee”, “Carol”. “Walking The Dog”, “I Just Want To Make Love To You “, “Not Fade Away” and “ Honest I Do”.

In June 1964 the band embarked on their first US tour, first appearing on The Hollywood Palace television program with host Dean Martin, who mocked their performance and hair. On June 5th 1964, The Rolling Stone’s first US concert took place in San Bernardino, California, 60 miles east of Los Angeles. The performance took place at the Swing Auditorium with an estimated audience of five thousand teenagers. I was among those who attended the concert. Unlike myself who had a ticket, a future rock star snuck in to see The Rolling Stones. His name? Sammy Hagar. When The Stones played “Route 66”, the crowd went wild, since San Bernardino is mentioned in the song’s lyrics.

Here is the Rolling Stones cover of “Route 66”.

A few days after the Swing Auditorium concert, the band traveled to Chicago’s Chess Studios, to record for two days. There they met several of the artists that had initially influenced them, including Muddy Waters. The recording session produced The Rolling Stones’ first number one hit in the UK, a cover of Bobby and Shirley Womack’s “It’s All Over Now”. In September a cover version of “Time Is on My side” appeared on “The Rolling Stones No. 2” album in the UK and on the US album “12 x 5”. In August the second extended play record was released in the UK. In October the US LP “12x5” was released and on the 25th, they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. The fifth UK single, a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Little Red Rooster” was released in November, and became their second number one UK hit. The Stones ended 1964 with the band’s first single that contained an original composition by Jagger and Richards, titled “Heart of Stone” and the B side “ What a Shame”. The single reached the number 19 position in the US. 

From then on it was full steam ahead, releasing numerous hits over the next several decades. The Rolling Stones would go on to establish themselves as a major Rock band as well as a significant part of the British Invasion.

Here is The Rolling Stones’ first Jagger and Richards composition, “Tell Me’.

This has been a look back at the story behind the formation of the Rolling Stones on Rock and Roll Flashback. Until next time, I’m your host Bill Price.