50 years ago today (April 16, 1964) The Rolling Stones released their first studio album, "The Rolling Stones". To celebrate this landmark in music history we have a brief history of the band and a timeline of every studio album ever released.

How The Rolling Stones began.

In 1960, Keith Richards (a childhood friend and classmate of Mick Jagger) joined the garage band Jagger had formed with Dick Taylor. The three would meet regularly at Jagger’s house until 1961 when the meetings switched to Taylor’s house and 2 new members joined the band (Alan Etherington and Bob Beckwith). The five adopted the moniker the Blue Boys. In 1962 Jagger and Richards started jamming with Blues Incorporated, a band which included future stones members, Brian Jones, Ian Taylor and Charlie Watts. By the end of 1962 a new band had been formed consisting of: Jagger, Jones, Richards, Stewart, Taylor and Tony Chapman. The band was named after the Muddy Waters song “Rollin Stone” The start of success The Rolling Stones released their first album in 1964. The album was released as “The Rolling Stones” in the UK and “England’s Newest Hit Makers” in the US. The Album reached No1 in the UK. The Band’s first number 1 single was in the UK for their cover version of Bobby Womack’s “It’s All Over Now”.  The single was released in 1964 and its first album appearance was “12x15”. The first Jagger/Richards composition to reach No1, again in the UK, was “The Last Time” (released in February 1965) Their first international number 1 also came in 1965 with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” It was also the band’s first number 1 in the USA. They had 8 number 1 singles in the UK and 8 in the USA, though not the same singles.

The Legacy

The Rolling Stones are one of the most successful bands in history, selling over 250 million albums. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them fourth on the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” list. The ban are still recording and touring today, they sell out on every tour and they appear 4 times on Wikipedia’s list of the 15 highest grossing concert tours. To learn more about the Stones and their work, why not start with our discography timeline that shows every studio album the band released.

The Rolling Stones - Studio Albums

Sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rolling_Stones, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours

• Discography