The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are a British rock band founded in 1962 that rivaled The Beatles in popularity for many years. “The Rolling Stones are considered one of the most influential and successful rock bands in history.

“The Rolling Stones have recorded 23 studio and 8 live albums in the United Kingdom; 21 singles were in the top 10 of the “UK Singles Chart”, 8 of them topped the charts. The band’s corresponding numbers on the Billboard Hot 100 are 28 and 8.

The aggregate circulation of “The Rolling Stones” albums exceeds 250 million copies. In 2004 the musicians were on the 4th place in the ranking of “The 50 greatest artists of all time according to Rolling Stone magazine”.

The Rolling Stones history
The story of the emergence of The Rolling Stones began when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met at school in Dartford. For several years, the young men did not communicate until they met by chance at a train station.

A long conversation ensued between the young men, during which it became clear that they were united by their common musical preferences. Both guys were into unpopular blues, although in that era young people mostly listened to rock and roll.

Soon it turned out that they had a mutual friend named Dick Taylor. After getting together, the musicians decided to form a band, calling it Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. At the same time Mick and Keith visited the Ealing club, where they saw Brian Jones, who would later become the founder and guitarist of the Rolling Stones, perform.

Brian’s goal was to form a rock band, so he began looking for suitable musicians through advertisements. The first member of the newly formed band was keyboardist Ian Stewart, with whom Jones began to rehearse.

One day their rehearsal was visited by Jagger and Richards, who wanted to join the band. In July 1962, the musicians had a lucky chance to perform on stage at the Marquee Club. It was then that the guys took the stage for the first time under the name “The Rolling Stones”.

After that, Dick Taylor left the band, and Bill Wyman took his place. Also joining the musicians was Tony Chapman, who was later replaced by Charlie Watts.

Music
By the beginning of 1963 the Rolling Stones had already formed, so the band started to play at the Crawdaddy Club. Soon Andrew Luga Oldham paid attention to the guys. He took a procession over the musicians, giving them a “dirty and impudent” image – as opposed to the “neat and intelligent” The Beatles.

Oldham insisted that Ian Stewart leave the band. Still, the keyboardist continued to work with the musicians, gaining the position of chief tour manager. He also went on stage with them periodically, until his death in 1985 from a heart attack.

Starting their collaboration with Decca Records, The Rolling Stones released their debut single “Come On”, which ended up at number 21 in the British chart. After that, the guys presented such hits as “I Wanna Be Your Man” and “Not Fade Away.”

At this time the group had already received the scandalous fame that the producer craved. The musicians behaved provocatively both in life and on stage. In the spring of 1964, the band released their first album “The Rolling Stones” and toured the US states.

At the Rolling Stones concerts, fans drove themselves to hysteria, which sometimes led to disastrous consequences. A case is known, when during one of the performances at the Winter Gardens Blackpool, the audience started smashing decorations, musical instruments and lighting.

After the scuffle, the hall looked more like a battlefield than a concert stage. It is worth to mention that more than 50 fans had to be treated in a local hospital as a result of the brawl. However, in spite of such consequences, the Brits’ popularity grew exponentially every year.

Around that time The Rolling Stones refused to sing other people’s hits, deciding to perform and record only their own compositions. This began the cycle of hits created by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

At the same time, the artists began to distance themselves from the trends of the blues, experimenting with different musical directions and resorting to new technical methods. Later, Mick, Keith and Brian were caught using drugs, which led to their arrest.

After a trial, the rockers were given suspended sentences. In 1968, the members of the Rolling Stones ended their collaboration with Oldham, who was replaced by Allen Klein. At that time their music corresponded to all the “canons” of classic rock’n’roll.

At the end of that year the album “Beggars Banquet” was released, and critics called it a “masterpiece”. By that time, Brian Jones had become seriously “addicted” to drugs, for which reason he did not actually take part in the creative development of the band. Brian was found dead on July 3, 1969, in his own swimming pool.