The two Beatles that Keith Richards thought would have no problem “fitting into the Stones”
There was no future for British bands in America before The Beatles. They’re not my words, they’re the words of Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham.
“There was no real future for a British band before The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964,” he said when discussing the British invasion. “That was the turning point, after which there was an avalanche. It totally transformed the possibilities, and as usual, The Beatles were the frontrunners. In music, there is The Beatles, and then there is everybody else.”
If there’s anyone who can attest to this ideology, it’s Oldham himself. When he first came across The Rolling Stones, they were performing covers of R&B songs in near-empty bars in London, and while their musical talent was clear, they needed more of a profile and to embrace the larger-than-life persona they would eventually become known for.
One artist who saw the Rolling Stones before fame struck was Rod Stewart, recalling, “It was a little ballroom in Twickenham, and there were 12 people there. There was literally no one there; they were all sitting on stools playing […] Then, within six months to a year, bash, that was it, they took off.”
They certainly did, and the reason why we like The Rolling Stones is their exceptional musicianship; however, it would be ignorant to suggest that their stage presence and exciting image didn’t also play a part in their rise to fame. This came about because Oldham saw the rise to the top that The Beatles were experiencing and decided to try and replicate it by taking everything they had and exaggerating it.
If people talked about the length of the Beatles’ hair, The Rolling Stones’ hair would be longer; if the Fabs wore suits, the Stones would wear more flamboyant clothes; if The Beatles were a clean living kind of band, the Rolling Stones would embody the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. The whole thing worked a treat, and before you knew it, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles were two of the biggest bands in the world.
Oldham himself admitted that this was the aim, as he wanted to present the band as “a raunchy, gamy, unpredictable bunch of undesirables,” adding that he wanted to “establish that the Stones were threatening, uncouth and animalistic.”
Of course, while the two bands were somewhat different to one another, there was no denying that they were connected by a love of the same music. The Rolling Stones probably wore their R&B influence a bit heavier on their sleeve, but it was there to be heard by both bands, and as a result, the two groups went on to collaborate and work together on multiple projects over the decades. It begs the question, is there a world where this collaboration goes even deeper? The Rolling Stones and The Beatles were both such undeniable musical forces at that point that the idea of changing anything seemed blasphemous.
However, Keith Richards himself has said that there were some members of The Beatles who could have quite easily cut it in his band. “I don’t think John Lennon would have had much problem fitting into the Stones, or George, if you can imagine that sort of thing happening,” he said, “We were the same generation, and we all loved the same music. When we first heard The Beatles, we were relieved that there was some other band in England on the same track that we were on. And within a few months, that track was the main track.”
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