“Perfect for opening doors”: The band Keith Richards said gave The Rolling Stones a career in the US
‘Breaking America’ has been an elusive yet career-defining aim for countless British rock groups over the decades. As the nation that originated the genre through pioneering blues and R&B artists like Fats Domino, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Richard, virtually every British rock outfit views the United States as a mountain to be scaled. Back in the 1960s, The Rolling Stones were among the first rockers to traverse the Atlantic and find an adoring audience waiting for them on the other side.
Ushering in the age of the British Invasion, The Rolling Stones touched down on US soil in June 1964 and performed 11 shows which were largely confined to the East Coast. Despite the fact that the band had very little original material at the time, and their sets were largely made up of cover songs and versions of old blues standards, they found themselves beloved by young music fans across the nation. Their trip to the States was a revelation, both for the band themselves and for the prevalence of British rock music in the US, but they certainly weren’t the only group to make the trip.
In 1964, The Beatles were the biggest band on the face of the Earth. Riding high on the success of their early albums, and with John Lennon and Paul McCartney consistently churning out prolific original songs, the band’s reputation was wholly unparalleled. Even in the United States, the ‘Mop Tops’ already enjoyed an incredibly dedicated audience among the younger generation. This audience grew exponentially when The Beatles visited the US for a few short weeks in February 1964.
That short stay preceded multiple smash-hit releases for the band in America, ushering them to return to the States a few months after The Rolling Stones. The Stones certainly found their fans in the US, but when The Beatles touched down at JFK Airport, their presence drove audiences to pandemonium. Beatlemania was in full effect by the time the band played their first shows at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.
Their August 1964 tour of North America was a defining moment in the history of The Beatles, but their short visit in February had a much larger impact on the British Invasion period. According to guitarist Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones would have never been able to make it to the US were it not for the success of their Liverpudlian cousins a few months prior.
During an interview in 1971, Richards reflected on the momentous occasion of The Beatles’ first steps onto US soil, sharing, “[The Beatles] were perfect for opening doors… When they went to America they made it wide open for us. We could never have gone there without them. They’re so fucking good at what they did.” Not only did The Beatles open doors for their pseudo-rivals The Rolling Stones in America, they blew open the door for countless budding British rock bands to establish themselves in America, too.
“[The Beatles] were perfect for opening doors… When they went to America they made it wide open for us. We could never have gone there without them. They’re so fucking good at what they did.”
Keith RIchards, 1971
Richards also took the opportunity to lament the downfall of The Beatles, which was still fresh in the minds of fans everywhere back in 1971. “If they’d kept it together and realised what they were doing, instead of now doing ‘Power to the People’ and disintegrating like that in such a tatty way. It’s a shame,” he said, denouncing Lennon’s political anthem. The guitarist added, “The Stones seem to have done much better in just handling success.”
While the guitarist might be at risk of being a little harsh to The Beatles in that interview, it is certainly true that The Rolling Stones have managed to maintain their success for a much longer period. Particularly in the United States, the popularity of the blues devotees has rarely wavered in the decades since they first touched down back in 1964, and we have the pioneering efforts of The Beatles to thank for that.
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