FIFTY YEARS OF THE ROLLING STONES

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the British musical group who are known as "The World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band", The Rolling Stones.

Childhood friends, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards both shared a deep love for the blues and r&b and decided to form a band. On July 12, 1962, they first performed with Jagger providing vocals and Richards, guitar along with guitarist, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart on piano and Tony Chapman on drums, as "The Rollin' Stones" at the Marquee Club in London. The band started off playing mostly blues covers but were encouraged by their management to write their own material with Jagger and Richards teaming up to become the group's main songwriters.

The Rolling Stones had their first U.K.top-ten recording with a cover of Buddy Holly's classic, "Not Fade Away" in February 1964 but reached the U.S. pop charts later that year with the song, "Time Is On My Side", peaking at number six. After the song, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" became the band's first international number one smash in 1965 (also the first big hit written by Jagger and Richards), this began a long string of hit records and world tours for The Rolling Stones.

Bill Wyman joined the group later in 1962 to play bass and Charlie Watts replaced Chapman to become the band's drummer in 1963. Also that year, Ian Stewart was removed from the group as their manager felt he didn't fit properly with their image of a "rock & roller" but he would remain as The Stones' road manager and occasionally play piano on recordings until his death in 1985. After developing a serious drug problem causing his inability to properly contribute to the group, it was decided that Brian Jones should leave The Stones in June 1969 but less than a month later, Jones drowned at home in his swimming pool. Mick Taylor joined The Stones as a guitarist shortly after Jones had been released from the band and stayed with the group until 1974. Ron Wood, who was the guitarist for The Faces, toured and recorded with The Rolling Stones in 1975 but didn't decide to officially join The Stones until the following year when his band broke-up. Bill Wyman retired from the group after "The Steel Wheels" Tour in 1992. He later formed a blues-rock band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings in 1997 and continues to perform with them.

This highly successful band has recorded twenty-nine studio albums to date, seventeen live albums and released over one hundred singles to wind up selling over two hundred million records worldwide. They were inducted in to The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1989.

There are rumors that The Rolling Stones are planning a tour to commemorate their anniversary, possibly to begin later this year or 2013 but no exact details have been revealed yet.

Here are a few of my favorite tunes by The Rolling Stones:

"Get Off Of My Cloud" - The Rolling Stones (1965)

"Gimme Shelter" - The Rolling Stones (1969)

"You Can't Always Get What You Want" - The Rolling Stones (1973)

"Beast Of Burden" - The Rolling Stones (1978)

"Shattered" - The Rolling Stones (1978)

"Start Me Up " - The Rolling Stones (1981)


Here is a live appearance by The Stones on "The TAMI Show" concert performing their first U.S. hit, "Tine Is On My Side":


The Stones perform live another hit song, "Angie":



This great video for "Love Is Strong" from The Rolling Stones' 1994 album, "Voodoo Lounge" was directed by film director, David Fincher: