The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in Dartford in 1962. The earliest settled line-up consisted of Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica), Ian Stewart (keyboards, piano), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Bill Wyman (bass) and Charlie Watts (drums). Since Wyman's retirement in 1993, the band's full members have been Jagger, Richards, Watts and guitarist Ronnie Wood. Darryl Jones (bassist) and Chuck Leavell (keyboardist) are regular contributors but not full band members. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Rolling Stones in 1989, noting that "critical acclaim and popular consensus has accorded them the title of the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.” Rolling Stone magazine ranked them 4th on their "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list, and their album sales are estimated to have been more than 200 million worldwide.
The Rolling Stones were popular in Europe and then became successful in North America during the mid-1960s British Invasion. They have released twenty-two studio albums in the United Kingdom (24 in the United States), eleven live albums (twelve in the US), and numerous compilations. Their album Sticky Fingers (1971) began a string of eight consecutive studio albums reaching number one in the United States. Their most recent album of new material, A Bigger Bang, was released in 2005. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked the Rolling Stones at number ten on "The Billboard Top All-Time Artists", and as the second most successful group in the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The Rolling Stones emergence brought greater international recognition to the urban blues typified by Chess Records' artists such as Muddy Waters, writer of "Rollin' Stone", the song for which the band is named. Critic and musicologist Robert Palmer said their endurance and relevance stems from being "rooted in traditional verities, in rhythm-and-blues and soul music" while "more ephemeral pop fashions have come and gone".
Read more about The Rolling Stones: Musical Development, Band Members, Discography, Official Videography
Famous quotes containing the words rolling stones, rolling and/or stones:
“... in the cities there are thousands of rolling stones like me. We are all alike; we have no ties, we know nobody, we own nothing. When one of us dies, they scarcely know where to bury him.... We have no house, no place, no people of our own. We live in the streets, in the parks, in the theatres. We sit in restaurants and concert halls and look about at the hundreds of our own kind and shudder.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“But dread
was in her, a bloodbeat, it was against the rolling dark
oncoming river she raised bulwarks....”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”
—Jules Henri Poincare (1854–1912)