What was the first song The Rolling Stones recorded?
By now, The Rolling Stones are the ultimate rock and roll band. Still touring and making music decades into their career, they’re fan base is an evergrowing mass of people still deserate to hear their countless hits. But back in the 1960s, they were just like any other young band trying to get things started as they played shows on the London live music circuit and eventually, when they were ready, went into the studio for the first time.
Things were different then. Now, any budding artist would make a semi-decent debut track on their laptop if they had the know-how. The need for a studio is slimming as the technology necessary to create a song can now exist in anyone’s hands or be rented out to anyone as long as they’ve got the cash.
But in the 1960s, when The Rolling Stones were starting up, a studio session was a big deal. There was no option to mess up or mess around, as time and money were precious. Even some of the most influential albums of all time were recorded fast and cheap, like The Beatles’ debut, Please Please Me which was recorded in only one day. Studios were an expensive luxury; bands had to be certain they were definitely ready for the next step and worth the pretty penny before they took the leap to book time in or before they were spotted by an A&R who would open up the door for them.
In 1963, the Stones thought they were ready. After forming in 1962, the band’s earliest lineup had spent a year playing as many gigs as possible. Staying busy in London’s bustling jazz and early rock and roll scenes, they were regularly found on stage at Soho’s Marquee or Ealing Jazz Club. By June 1963, they had their live act nailed, and it had brought them a lot of attention from fans now eager for something more. It had also caught the attention of Andrew Loog Oldham, the band’s manager, who finally declared that it was time to put a track on tape.
So, what was the first song The Rolling Stones recorded?
The one thing missing is that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were not yet songwriters. While they’d go on to become one of the more successful duos in musical history, it took them some time to warm up and finally get to work on their craft. So, the first song the band recorded wasn’t written by the members.
Their first ever record track was ‘Come On’, a cover of Chuck Berry’s 1961 song. So, while it’s not a Jagger and Richards original, the choice of the song does feel immediately reflective of the group, their influences and the sound they’d go on to nail, combining blues with pure rock and roll.
That first recording also became the band’s first single, launching them into the world of music and elevating them from a good live band to a new start in the making.
And what was the first original song by The Rolling Stones recorded?
The Rolling Stones didn’t even record the first proper Stones song. Marianne Faithfull was the first artist to record a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as they gifted her their song ‘As Tears Go By’ before their own band had released original music.
For Keith Richards, this was an odd state to be in as the success of ‘As Tears Go By’ was simultaneously boosting but also conflicting. “We had a number one hit with Marianne Faithfull,” he said, ”So suddenly, ‘Oh, we’re songwriters’, with the most anti-Stones sort of song you could think of at the time, while we’re trying to make a good version of [Muddy Waters] ‘Still A Fool’.”
But it wasn’t long after that the band finally figured out their own sound and released ‘Tell Me’, their first self-written single which established the Stones not just as a good band when it came to other people’s songs, but a force to be reckoned with in the songwriting game too.
