The Rolling Stones

This page is about the band. For the magazine, see Rolling Stone.

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band that formed in London in 1962. The band members were: Mick Jagger (rhythm guitar and vocals), Keith Richards (lead and rhythm guitar and vocals), Brian Jones (lead guitar), and Bill Wyman (bass guitar). The band has been influenced by American blues and rock musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. In the beginning they had their first hits with covers versions of songs of those artists. Along with the Beatles and the Kinks, they helped to lead the British Invasion of the early to mid 1960s.

The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones performing at Summerfest in Milwaukee in 2015. Left to right: Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Rock blues
Years active	1962–present
Labels	Decca London Rolling Stones Virgin ABKCOS Interscope Polydor
Associated acts	The New Barbarians Billy Preston Faces The Pretty Things John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings
Website	rollingstones.com
Members	Mick Jagger Keith Richards Ronnie Wood
Past members	Brian Jones Ian Stewart Dick Taylor Bill Wyman Mick Taylor Charlie Watts

The Rolling Stones 1965: Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman

Their fame rose quickly in 1965 with the song "The Last Time." The song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" became a world-wide hit for the band. It was followed up by songs like "19th Nervous Breakdown" and "Paint It Black". In the 1967 they experimented with a psychedelic music style. But in 1968 they went back to a harder rock style with songs like "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women."

In 1969, Brian Jones was fired from the band due to his growing drug addictions. A few weeks later Jones was found dead in his swimming pool. A highly respected young blues guitarist named Mick Taylor was named as his replacement. Taylor played on some of the band's most successful songs of the late 1960s and early 1970s including the hits "Brown Sugar", "Tumbling Dice", and "It's Only Rock n' Roll." Taylor left the band in 1974. Ronnie Wood was hired as Taylor's replacement and he has been with the band ever since. Long time bassist Bill Wyman retired from the band in 1992.

The band remained active as a consistently successful recording and touring act throughout the 1980s and 1990s and into the 2000s. In total they have released 30 studio albums, 33 live albums 121 singles, 29 compilation albums, 32 box sets, 48 video albums and 77 music videos.

In 1989 The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And in 2004 they were ranked number 4 in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time."

In 2013 the group performed on the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival for the first time.

The Rolling Stones member Charlie Watts died in 2021.

Notable LP-albums

• England's Newest Hit Makers (1964)
• 12 X 5 (1964)
• The Rolling Stones, Now! (1965)
• Out of Our Heads (1965)
• December's Children (And Everybody's) (1965)
• Aftermath (1966)
• Between the Buttons (1967)
• Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)
• Beggars Banquet (1968)
• Let It Bleed (1969)
• Sticky Fingers (1971)
• Exile on Main St. (1972)
• Goats Head Soup (1973)
• It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974)
• Black and Blue (1976)
• Some Girls (1978)
• Emotional Rescue (1980)
• Tattoo You (1981)
• Undercover (1983)
• Dirty Work (1986)
• Steel Wheels (1989)
• Voodoo Lounge (1994)
• Bridges to Babylon (1997)
• A Bigger Bang (2005)
• Blue and Lonesome (2016)
• Hackney Diamonds (2023)

The Rolling Stones Media

• The blue plaque commemorating Jagger and Richards meeting on Platform 2 at Dartford railway station in Kent, on 17 October 1961

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  The backroom of the former Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, London, where the Rolling Stones had their first residency, beginning in February 1963

• Aankomst van de Rolling Stones op Schiphol, Bestanddeelnr 916-7420.jpg

  The Rolling Stones arriving at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Netherlands, in 1964. From left to right: Wyman, Richards, Jones, Watts and Jagger

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  Three members of the Rolling Stones, Richards, Wyman and Watts, at Turku Airport in Turku, Finland, on 25 June 1965

• An advertisement for the 1965 Rolling Stones' North American tour

• Kungliga Tennishallen Stones 1966a.jpg

  The band performing in Stockholm, Sweden, April 1966

• Brian 1969.tif

  Brian Jones pictured outside his home, Cotchford Farm in East Sussex, in 1969

• Mick Taylor2.jpg

  Mick Taylor, who replaced Brian Jones in the band

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  Ronnie Wood (left), on his first tour with the Rolling Stones, with Mick Jagger (right) in Chicago in 1975

Other websites

• Hear the Rolling Stones on the Pop Chronicles