The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, 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, guitarist Keith Richards, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts, after keyboardist Ian Stewart was sidelined by their manager Andrew Loog Oldham (though Stewart was retained as the band's road manager and session/touring keyboardist until his death in 1985). During their early years, Jones was the primary leader. Oldham encouraged them to write their own songs. The Jagger–Richards partnership soon became the band's primary songwriting and creative force.
Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the Rolling Stones started out playing cover versions and were at the forefront of the British Invasion in 1964, becoming identified with the youthful counterculture of the 1960s. They then found greater success with their own compositions: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Get Off of My Cloud" (both 1965) and "Paint It Black" (1966) became international number-one hits. Aftermath (1966), their first album to be entirely of original material, 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 a few weeks before his death in 1969, and was replaced by guitarist Mick Taylor. That year saw the first time they were introduced on stage as "the greatest rock and roll band in the world". In 1970, the band formed their own record label Rolling Stones Records, for which their famous tongue and lips logo was created. Their first album on the label was Sticky Fingers (1971), which yielded "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" and was their first of eight consecutive number-one studio albums in the US. It was followed by Exile on Main St. (1972), featuring "Tumbling Dice" and "Happy", and Goats Head Soup (1973), featuring "Angie". Taylor left the band at the end of 1974 and was replaced by Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood. The band released Some Girls in 1978, featuring "Miss You" and "Beast of Burden", 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 broken the record for the all-time highest-grossing concert tour three times, and they were the highest-earning live act of 2021. 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. Hackney Diamonds, the band's first new album of original material in 18 years, was released in October 2023, becoming their fourteenth UK number-one album. Their latest album, Foreign Tongues, was released in July 2026.
The Rolling Stones have estimated album sales of more than 250 million. They have won four 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 and Rolling Stone have ranked them as one of the greatest artists of all time.
History Formation
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards became childhood friends in 1950 in Dartford, Kent;White, Charles. (2003), pp. 119–120, The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Authorised Biography, Omnibus Press. the two lost contact in 1954 when the Jagger family moved. In the mid-1950s Jagger formed a garage band with his friend Dick Taylor, mainly playing material by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin' Wolf, and Bo Diddley. Jagger again met Richards on 17 October 1961 at Dartford railway station. Jagger was carrying records by Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, revealing a shared interest to Richards. A musical partnership began shortly afterwards. Richards and Taylor often met Jagger at his house. The meetings moved to Taylor's house in late 1961, where Alan Etherington and Bob Beckwith joined the trio; the quintet called themselves the Blues Boys.
In March 1962, the Blues Boys read about the Ealing Jazz Club in the newspaper Jazz News, which mentioned Alexis Korner's rhythm and blues band, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. The Blues Boys sent a tape of their best recordings to Korner, who was impressed. On 7 April, they visited the Ealing Jazz Club, where they met the members of Blues Incorporated, including slide guitarist Brian Jones, keyboardist Ian Stewart, and drummer Charlie Watts. After a meeting with Korner, Jagger and Richards started jamming with the group.
Having left Blues Incorporated, Jones advertised for bandmates in Jazz News in the week of 2 May 1962. Stewart was among the first to respond to the ad. In June, Jagger, Taylor, and Richards left Blues Incorporated to join Jones and Stewart. The first rehearsal included guitarist Geoff Bradford and vocalist Brian Knight; they both decided not to join the band, objecting to playing the Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley songs preferred by Jagger and Richards. According to Richards, Jones named the band during a phone call to Jazz News. When asked by a journalist for the band's name, Jones saw a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor; one of the tracks was "Rollin' Stone". Jones was the band's "uncontested leader" during its early years and a key to the band's early success.
The band played their first show billed as "the Rollin' Stones" on 12 July 1962, at the Marquee Club in London.Faulk, B.J. (2011). "New Left in Victorian Drag: 'The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus'". Texas Studies In Literature & Language, 53(2), 138–158. At the time, the band consisted of Jagger, Jones, Richards, Stewart, Taylor, and an unconfirmed drummer. The band's name was changed soon after their first gig to the Rolling Stones. Tony Chapman joined as drummer shortly after, while Bill Wyman auditioned for the role of bass guitarist at a pub in Chelsea on 7 December 1962 and was hired as a successor to Taylor. The band were impressed by his instrument and amplifiers (including the Vox AC30). After Chapman departed in January 1963, the band played gigs with temporary drummers including Charlie Watts, who first played with the band on Saturday, 12 January 1963 at the Ealing Jazz Club, and Carlo Little. Watts agreed to join as the band's permanent drummer, and the settled line-up of Jagger, Jones, Richards, Stewart, Wyman, and Watts played their first gig on 2 February 1963, again at the Ealing Jazz Club.
Shortly afterwards, the band began their first tour of the UK, performing Chicago blues, including songs by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. By 1963, they were finding their musical stride as well as popularity.Wyman, Bill. Rolling With the Stones New York: DK Publishing, 2002. 122. Print Their acting manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, secured a Sunday afternoon residency at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, London, in February 1963.
1963–1964: Early success In May 1963, the Rolling Stones signed Andrew Loog Oldham as their manager. He had been directed to them by his previous clients, the Beatles. Oldham, then 19, had not reached the age of majority—he was also younger than anyone in the band— and so could not obtain an agent's licence or sign any contracts without his mother co-signing. By necessity he joined with booking agent Eric Easton to secure record financing and assistance booking venues. Gomelsky, who had no written agreement with the band, was not consulted.
Oldham initially tried applying the strategy used by Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles, and have the Rolling Stones wear suits. He later changed his mind and imagined a band that contrasted with the Beatles, featuring unmatched clothing, long hair, and an unclean appearance. He wanted to make the Stones "a raunchy, gamy, unpredictable bunch of undesirables" and to "establish that the Stones were threatening, uncouth and animalistic". One of Oldham's first acts as manager was to remove Stewart from the official line-up, though he would be retained as the band's road manager and would continue to provide keyboards in the studio and live (initially off-stage, he would eventually play with the band on stage by the mid-1970s). Oldham later said of this decision, "Well, he just doesn't look the part, and six is too many for [fans] to remember the faces in the picture." Oldham also reduced the band members' ages in publicity material to make them appear as teenagers.
Decca Records, which had declined to sign a deal with the Beatles, gave the Rolling Stones a recording contract with favourable terms. The band were to receive a royalty rate three times as high as that typically given to a new act, full artistic control of recordings, and ownership of the recording master tapes. The deal also let the band use non-Decca recording studios. Regent Sound Studios, a mono facility equipped with egg boxes on the ceiling for sound treatment, became their preferred location. Oldham, who had no recording experience but made himself the band's producer, said Regent had a sound that "leaked, instrument-to-instrument, the right way" creating a "wall of noise" that worked well for the band. Because of Regent's low booking rates, the band could record for extended periods rather than the usual three-hour blocks common at other studios. All tracks on the first Rolling Stones album, The Rolling Stones, were recorded there.
Oldham contrasted the Rolling Stones' independence with the Beatles' obligation to record in EMI's studios, saying it made the Beatles appear as "mere mortals ... sweating in the studio for the man". He promoted the Rolling Stones as the nasty counterpoint to the Beatles, by having the band pose unsmiling on the cover of their first album. He also encouraged the press to use provocative headlines such as: "Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?" In contrast, Wyman says: "Our reputation and image as the Bad Boys came later, completely there, accidentally. ... [Oldham] never did engineer it. He simply exploited it exhaustively." In a 1971 interview, Wyman stated, "We were the first pop group to break away from the whole Cliff Richard thing where the bands did little dance steps, wore identical uniforms and had snappy patter."
A cover version of Chuck Berry's "Come On" was the Rolling Stones' first single, released on 7 June 1963. The band refused to play it at live gigs, and Decca bought only one ad to promote the record. At Oldham's direction, fan-club members bought copies at record shops polled by the charts, helping "Come On" rise to No. 21 on the UK Singles Chart. Having a charting single gave the band entrée to play outside London, starting with a booking at the Outlook Club in Middlesbrough on 13 July, sharing the billing with the Hollies. Later in 1963, 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. The tour gave the band the opportunity to hone their stagecraft.