The Rolling Stones can claim many superlatives. But above all, they are the oldest rock group on the planet - in 2022, the British cult band will celebrate its 60th anniversary. The best proof of their success: anyone who sees the iconic tongue, the Tongue-and-Lips logo, knows immediately who it belongs to. Without a doubt, the "Stones" are one of the greatest, most important and most successful rock bands of all time. Over decades, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, delivered numerous timeless rock classics such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Sympathy for the Devil", "Honky Tonk Women", "Brown Sugar" and "Paint It Black". More recent songs like "Living in a Ghost Town", which reached #1 in the German charts in 2020, show that they haven't forgotten a thing over the decades. The 2016 album "Blue & Lonesome" was also a real chart breaker - just like "A Bigger Bang" a good eleven years earlier.
For more than half a century, the legendary Rolling Stones have embodied the spirit of rock 'n' roll like no other music group. Even though several other musicians have played in the band over the years, the core of the band still consists of frontman Mick Jagger (born in 1943), Keith Richards (also born in 1943) and Ronnie Wood (born in 1947). Charlie Watts was behind the drum kit almost from the beginning, before the drummer died in 2021 at the age of 80. That the remaining members will carry on despite this bitter loss is as certain as the amen in church - "the rolling stones" can't be stopped by anything.
The Rolling Stones take off
According to legend, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards got to know each other on a railway platform in their home town of Dartford in 1961. The two schoolboys shared a fondness for blues and rock 'n' roll. Bassist Dick Taylor, who was studying with Richards at the time and playing in a band with Jagger, played a certain part in the fact that they soon began making music together. Add guitarist Brian Jones, drummer Mick Avory and pianist Ian Stewart and you have the very first line-up of the Rolling Stones. Taylor threw in the towel and was replaced by Bill Wyman, who remained with the band until 1963. After a brief episode with Avory's successor Tony Chapman, Charlie Watts took his place on drums. Ron Wood only joins in 1975 to replace Mick Taylor on second guitar. "Black and Blue" is the first record with Ronnie Wood, who has been an integral part of the Rolling Stones ever since.
The immense success of the British band did not come about gradually in the sixties. Their debut album "The Rolling Stones (England's Newest Hit Makers)" stormed to the top of the charts in the home country of the then newcomers, while it reached a sensational number 2 in Germany and number 11 in the USA. It soon turned out that the album title was not an empty promise. With their albums of the sixties and seventies, including "Aftermath", "Their Satanic Majesties Request", "Beggars Banquet", "Sticky Fingers" and "Goats Head Soup" (with the hit "Angie"), The Rolling Stones became permanent guests in the Top 5 of the charts - internationally, of course. In the following decades, too, the Brits wrote rock history. Albums such as "Tattoo You" (1981), "Steel Wheels" (1989), "Voodoo Lounge" (1994) and "Bridges to Babylon" (1997) have been awarded multiple gold and platinum awards.
The Rolling Stones live - pure satisfaction!
Fans love The Rolling Stones not only for their groundbreaking studio albums and hits of the "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" variety. Their live shows are also legendary. The band still tours regularly, as evidenced by the "No Filter Tour" that started in Hamburg in 2017. Given the age of the band members, that is anything but a matter of course. Anyone who now thinks that Messrs Jagger, Richards and Wood are taking things a little slower in the meantime is very much mistaken. The Rolling Stones have lost none of their live power and continue to thrill the masses as much as ever. A Rolling Stones concert is an experience that will be remembered forever.
