In 1969, band manager Sam Cutler introduced the Rolling Stones as "the greatest rock and roll band in the world" -- a nickname that has stuck, regardless of one's belief in the veracity of the statement.
Today I'm going to tell you the story of a song, and of the band that made it famous. Specifically, this song and this band:
That's a recording of the Rolling Stones on the
Ed Sullivan Show in October 1964, five years before their manager made his somewhat lofty introduction. Note that Ed Sullivan fumbles a bit in his own introduction, trying to remember the name of both the song and the band, his eyes searching off-stage for a cue card, his arms raised in distracted vexation. This is because the Rolling Stones were, at that time, a brand-new band.
They'd released their first album in the U.K. the year earlier -- full of covers, with only a few original tunes -- and it had done modestly well, well enough that they got to start playing outside of London, even securing their first U.S. tour in the summer of 1964. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards hadn't yet become the songwriting legends that would carry the band through more than 20 albums; that first performance on Ed Sullivan, they were only 21 years
old, and probably thrilled to be playing on TV at all. As Ed Sullivan's disinterest suggests, they were no more than a moderately successful British rock & roll, blues band.
But perhaps Ed Sullivan is actually just flustered by the screaming girls, who seem to be warming up for what will become a constant drone of girl-sighs and screeches of ecstasy throughout the performance. This was a sign of good things to come, but at the time the Rolling Stones must have been relieved to hear it. The group's hopes for U.S. success hinged on their ability to translate the enthusiasm for British rock spurred by the Beatles in the months prior to their arrival in the U.S.
The Beatles had landed in the U.S. with a huge splash in February 1964, officially setting off the far-reaching 1960's British Invasion of the American music industry. The girls in America already had their voices primed to scream, and the Beatles were asked about it immediately
when they landed in New York:
Q: Are you a little embarrassed by the lunacy you cause?
John Lennon: No, it's great.
Paul McCartney: No.
Ringo Starr: Marvelous.
George Harrison: We love it.
John: We like lunatics.
Q: You're in favor of lunacy?
The Beatles: Yeah.
John: It's healthy.
The Stones arrived right on their heels a few months later, hoping to cash in on the lunacy. Taking cues from their predecessors, they arranged in the standard Beatles format with Mick, Keith, bassist Bill Wyman, and guitarist Bob Jones lined up in front, with drummer Charlie Watts chilling on a pedestal in back.
The Rolling Stones...
...and the Beatles. Look familiar?
When the Beatles first appeared on
Ed Sullivan in that February, they were watched by more than 70 million people -- 40% of the U.S. population. More than 50,000 requests were made for the 700 seats in Ed Sullivan Theater. In comparison, despite their attempt to copy the look and layout of the Beatles' live performances, the Rolling Stones' U.S. reception was bleak. In
his book reflecting on his years with the band, bassist Bill Wyman wrote that that first U.S. tour was "disastrous" because "[w]hen we arrived, we didn't have a hit record [in the U.S.] or anything going for us." Their reason for concern can be seen in their first U.S. TV appearance, before
Ed Sullivan, on Dean Martin's
Hollywood Palace. Mr. Martin's introduction was even less enthusiastic than Ed Sullivan's: "And now, something for the youngsters, five singing boys from England who sold a lot of albiums--albums--called the Rolling Stones. I've been rolled when I was stoned myself. I don't know what they're singing about, but here they are at." No, really, that's what he said, look:
After the Stones finished their one-minute diddy, Dean Martin dug in again, comparing them unfavorably to the Beatles and begging the television audience to return after the commercial break because "You wouldn't leave me here alone with the Rolling Stones, would you?" Harsh.
Fast foward to that October, to their seemingly successful appearance on Ed Sullivan -- did you hear those girls screaming? But Ed wasn't amused by the "pandemonium," Wyman says in his book, and he banned the Stones from performing on the show again. The girls would just not stop screaming. But despite Ed's threat, they appeared on the show several more times throughout the years, enough to support a montage:
During one appearance in 1967, the show forced the band to change some song lyrics ("Let's Spend the Night Together" became "Let's Spend Some Time Together"). Jagger agreed but was annoyed when the producers kept reminding him of the lyric change during rehearsal. During the performance, you can see him rolling his eyes over the new chorus. You can also see how the band has changed in just a few short years, with Jagger stepping out front and gesticulating wildly with both his arms and his legs while the rest of the band stays chastely in back.
Legend has that in protest of the lyric change, the Stones left the stage after the song, changed into Nazi uniforms with swastikas, and retook the stage, enraging Sullivan and leading him to again ban the band from the show. That threat didn't stick either; they appeared twice more, the last time in 1969. So what's the lesson here? What Ed Sullivan says doesn't necessarily go, I guess. It also underscores the strategy of Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldham, who was only 20 years old in 1964 but had already worked on publicity for the Beatles' U.S. tour. He decided early on that the Rolling Stones would need to take a different tact than the Beatles to find success in the U.S., so they were packaged as
the bad boys of rock and roll, teasing screaming hoards of girls with marketing slogans like, "Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?" posted over photos of an unsmiling band.
The Stones' first album cover. Sultry.
It worked. The following year, in 1965, the Rolling Stones released their second LP, which charted at number 1 in the U.K. and number 5 in the U.S. The rest, you might say,
is history.
Remember how most of the Rolling Stones' early music was covers? That goes for this song too. "Time is On My Side" was written in 1963 by a guy named Jerry Ragovoy (pseudonym: Norman Meade). It was written for jazz trombonist Kai Winding and His Orchestra, and their version was released in October 1963, a year before the Stones performed it on
Ed Sullivan. The original track featured much more limited lyrics (Meade couldn't think of anything more to write than the trademark "Time is on my side" and "You'll come running back.") To fill out the track around the jazz trombone melody, back-up singers were brought in, including 23-year-old Dionne Warwick, who was a month from releasing her fourth single, "
Anyone Who Had a Heart," which would become her first top-10 pop hit. While she was waiting for the world to notice her, though, she must have had some extra time hanging around the studio, so she and her sister Dee Dee and another singer named Cissy Houston (who would later bear a child named Whitney) lent background vocals to Kai Winding's original release of "Time is On My Side." Hear it here:
The ladies lace a hearty gospel backing vocal with Winding's brassy trombone blues. It's a great track, but it was just a few months before someone else decided they could do better.
Enter singer Irma Thomas, who in early 1964 recorded a cover of the song as the B-side to her single "
Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)." (It seems that in their early singles, both Dionne and Irma were willing to address anyone who would listen.) I couldn't find a video with Irma's original recording, but here's Irma with Bonnie Raitt in 1992:
Note that Bonnie introduced Irma by reclaiming some of her lost
glory: "[She is] one of the real national treasures of rhythm and blues, and we
asked her to join us to sing this song she recorded back in 1965 --
before the Rolling Stones did it, I might add!" While Bonnie is correct
that Irma's version hit airwaves a few months before the Stones', she's a year off. It was actually 1964. Still, the Rolling Stones and their hoards of screaming girls stole the thunder from all who came before, and most people remember this song as a Stones classic.
The band performed the song consistently throughout their long (and still unfinished) career, and they played it on tour often, including at the Hampton Coliseum in 1981, in a video that gives some idea of how much the performance philosophy of the band changed over the years -- and of how weird Mick Jagger has grown. (To be fair, he was probably always weird, and those early performances were his attempt to fit into a music scene that rewarded guys in suits with skinny ties.)
This year marks the band's 50th anniversary, and as such there is of course
speculation and rumors of a reunion, a new tour in 2012. Whether or not you agree with Sam Cutler in 1969 that the Stones are the world's "greatest" rock band, there doesn't seem to be much doubt that time has pretty much always been on their side.
Life is good.
