January

The Rolling Stones No. 2; Australian Tour Begins

In the same month that they flew to Australia to meet a crowd of 3,000 rioting girls, The Rolling Stones No. 2 was released in the UK (three months previously, 12x5 came out in the US, with a different tracklisting). With another brooding sleeve that made them look like they’d rather fight than hold your hand (the liner notes suggested mugging somebody for money to buy the album), it was another reflection of the hard R&B covers the Stones were playing live, with three originals and a soul influence with Solomon Burke’s ‘Everybody Needs Somebody To Love’. It stayed at No. 1 for 10 weeks in the UK.

February/March

‘The Last Time’

‘“The Last Time” was the first song we actually managed to write with a beat,’ said Keith Richards of their ninth single; and being a perfect marriage of the Jones/Richards double-guitar attack, it made their third UK No. 1 (US No. 9) one of the most sophisticated Stones originals yet. Recorded in an all-night January session in LA, shortly before flying to Australia, it was also one of the first of many mid-1960s songs that Mick would write notoriously misogynistic lyrics for.

March

The Rolling Stones, Now!

Containing many of the tracks from The Rolling Stones No. 2 that 12x5 didn’t feature (and some from their next UK album, Out Of Our Heads), The Rolling Stones, Now! was their third US LP. With more stark cover images, it reached No. 5 in the charts, and was a mix of UK singles, soul covers and Chess sessions tracks. More of a quick collection than an album proper, it helped keep US fans eager for their next fully original LP release.

March/April

European And US Tours

A two-week March package tour with The Hollies in Britain saw the violent female fan reaction step up a notch when one girl was launched over the balcony in Manchester, landing on more girls below and losing some teeth. The following month in the US, the fever continued as the Stones were truly spearheading a British invasion, with many shows needing extra dates to accommodate ticket demand.

May

‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’

‘Satisfaction’’s now-legendary fuzz-guitar riff was written by Richards when he woke up in the middle of the night with the idea in his head, and recorded it on a tape recorder for the morning. Soundtracking the older male’s dissatisfaction in the mid-1960s, the single was initially hated by Mick and Keith (who thought it needed a horn section which, ironically, it received when Otis Redding covered it). It also troubled Brian, who panicked that the group was moving away from their R&B sound. But Decca loved it, and it made the Stones on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching No. 1 (though it was held off until August in the UK, for fear of competing with the Got Live If You Want It! EP).

June

European

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