The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active across seven decades, they are one of the most popular 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. During their early years, Jones was the primary leader of the band. After Andrew Loog Oldham became the group's manager in 1963, he encouraged them to write their own songs. The Jagger–Richards partnership became the band's primary songwriting and creative force.
Sir Michael Philip Jagger is an English singer. He is the front man and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. Jagger has written most of the band's songs alongside lead guitarist Keith Richards; their songwriting partnership is one of the most successful in history, and they continue to collaborate musically. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has been widely described as one of the most popular and influential front men in the history of rock music. His distinctive voice and energetic live performances, along with Richards' guitar style, have been the Rolling Stones' trademark throughout the band's career. Jagger gained notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and has often been portrayed as a countercultural figure.
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was an English musician and founder of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, he went on to sing backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones recordings and in concerts.
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership with the band's lead vocalist Mick Jagger is one of the most successful in history. His career spans over six decades, and his guitar playing style has been a trademark of the Rolling Stones throughout the band's career. Richards gained press notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and he was often portrayed as a countercultural figure. First professionally known as Keith Richard, by the early 1970s he had fully asserted his family name.
Exile on Main St. is the 10th studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 12 May 1972 by Rolling Stones Records. The 10th released in the UK and 12th in the US, it is viewed as a culmination of a string of the band's most critically successful albums, following Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969) and Sticky Fingers (1971). Exile on Main St. is known for its murky, inconsistent sound due to more disjointed musicianship and production, along with a party-like atmosphere heard in several tracks.
"Street Fighting Man" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, written by the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Considered one of the band's most popular and most controversial songs, it features Indian instrumentation contributed by Brian Jones, which has led to it being characterized as a raga rock song. It also features controversial and ambiguous lyrics about armed revolution. In the United States, it was released as a single in August 1968, while it was not released in the United Kingdom until four months later on the Beggars Banquet album, where it opened side two. The B-side of the American single featured "No Expectations", considered one of the final Stones tracks in which founding member Jones played a significant role in its construction.
Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a British keyboardist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones. He was removed from the lineup in May 1963 at the request of manager Andrew Loog Oldham who felt he did not fit the band's image. He remained as road manager and pianist for over two decades until his death, and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the band in 1989.
"Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones. The song was written by Mick Jagger and credited to the Jagger–Richards partnership. It is the opening track on the band's 1968 album Beggars Banquet. The song has received critical acclaim and features on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list, being ranked number 106 in the 2021 edition.
It's Only Rock 'n Roll is the 12th studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 18 October 1974 by Rolling Stones Records. It was the last album to feature guitarist Mick Taylor; the songwriting and recording of the album's title track had a connection to Taylor's eventual replacement, Ronnie Wood. It's Only Rock 'n Roll combines the core blues and rock 'n' roll–oriented sound with elements of funk and reggae. It's Only Rock 'n Roll reached number one in the United States and number two in the UK.
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was named as the 100th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in its 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" before dropping a place the following year.
"We Love You" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones that was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Their first new release of the summer of 1967, it was first released as a single on 18 August in the United Kingdom, with "Dandelion" as the B-side. The song peaked at number eight in Britain and number 50 in the United States, where "Dandelion" was promoted as the A-side and peaked at number 14.
"Midnight Rambler" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. The song is a loose biography of Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to being the Boston Strangler.
"Waiting on a Friend" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and released as the album's second single, it reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US.
"Respectable" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1978 album Some Girls. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. In the liner notes to the 1993 compilation album Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones, Jagger said, "It's important to be somewhat influenced by what's going on around you and on the Some Girls album, I think we definitely became more aggressive because of the punk thing..."
"It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" is the lead single from English rock band the Rolling Stones' 1974 album It's Only Rock 'n Roll. Writing is credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and the single reached the top ten in the UK charts and top 20 in the United States.
Jagger–Richards is the songwriting partnership between English musicians Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, founder members of rock band the Rolling Stones. They are one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in history. In addition to Jagger and Richards's songwriting partnership, they have also produced or co-produced numerous Rolling Stones albums under the pseudonym the Glimmer Twins.
"Don't Stop" is a single by rock band the Rolling Stones featured on their 2002 compilation album Forty Licks.
"Tell Me (You're Coming Back)" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, featured on their 1964 self-titled album (subtitled and often called England's Newest Hit Makers in the US). It became the first A-side single written by Jagger/Richards to be released, although not in the United Kingdom. The single reached number 24 in the United States (becoming their first top 40 hit there) and the top 40 in several other countries.
The Stones in the Park was a free outdoor festival held in Hyde Park on 5 July 1969, headlined by the Rolling Stones and featuring Third Ear Band, King Crimson, Screw, Alexis Korner's New Church, Family and the Battered Ornaments, in front of an estimated audience between 250,000 and 500,000 spectators.
In February 1967, two members of the Rolling Stones, the lead singer Mick Jagger and the guitarist Keith Richards, were arrested at Richards' home, Redlands, West Wittering, Sussex for drug possession. The raid had been preceded by a major campaign by the tabloid newspaper the News of the World, which Jagger was suing for libel at the time, and which carried lurid stories regarding Jagger and his girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull. Although convicted—and having spent a night in prison—a publicity campaign by their colleagues in the music industry encouraged popular support and criticism of the decision to prosecute them. Most notably, the traditionally-conservative newspaper The Times published an op-ed by William Rees-Mogg asking Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?, in which he criticised the prosecutions as unfounded and unnecessary.
