On June 1, 1964, the Rolling Stones took off from London for their first tour of the United States. If the “bad boy” image skillfully cultivated by Andrew Oldham had intrigued or seduced the several hundred fans who greeted them at John F. Kennedy Airport, the establishment and certain sections of the entertainment world seemed little disposed to extend a warm welcome to the group. During their appearance on the Hollywood Palace TV show on June 3, for example, Dean Martin treated them to his usual pithy turn of phrase aimed at raising a laugh among the crowds, joking about their hair not being long: “They just have low foreheads and high eyebrows.”27 He then added: “That’s the father of the Rolling Stones. He’s been trying to kill himself ever since,”27 referring to a trampoline artiste who was also a guest on the show.
Organized from London by Eric Easton, the tour that kicked off in San Bernardino, California, on June 5 and ended with two shows at Carnegie Hall in New York on June 20 was a partial success: the band triumphed on the West and East Coasts, but flopped completely in San Antonio, Texas, where the audience reserved their applause for the local groups and loudly booed the five Londoners.
The Rolling Stones would nevertheless return to the United States a few months later for a second tour: thirteen dates and eleven cities including Sacramento, California, and Chicago, Illinois, between October 24 and November 15. According to Charlie Watts, “America was a joke when we arrived, but by the time we left we had an audience and by the time we came back we had made a hit record. It was all uphill, but the audience grew every time.”9
Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, The Rolling Stones No. 2 was released in the United Kingdom on January 15, 1965, in other words three months after 12x5 (October 16, 1964—or October 24 according to some sources) and a month before The Rolling Stones, Now! (February 13, 1965), two LPs that were aimed exclusively at the US market. It marked a distinct development from the Stones’ previous album in that it includes three of the early songs composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who were pushed into writing by Andrew Oldham: “What a Shame,” “Grown Up Wrong,” and “Off the Hook.” Musically, this LP nevertheless sounds like a logical follow-up to the previous one. Like its predecessor, it is another reworking of modern blues and black rock ’n’ roll, and in particular of Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry (Chess Studios having played a not insignificant role in this). At the same time, however, it is possible to detect, on the part of the five Londoners, a desire to explore new musical avenues: soul in “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” “Time Is on My Side,” and “Pain in My Heart,” and swamp blues in “Susie Q.” Furthermore, with this second album, Mick Jagger confirmed that he was capable of adapting to any style, and Brian Jones and Keith Richards, supported by a rhythm section of rare efficiency, revealed themselves to be truly complementary and compatible guitarists, the alchemists of a blues rock of outstanding sensual intensity.
The Rolling Stones No. 2 was an enormous success from day one in the United Kingdom. It was number 1 for ten weeks and remained on the charts for thirty-seven consecutive weeks. The critics were also enthusiastic, even in Liverpool, where the Mersey Beat announced on January 16, 1965: “It’s a very fine LP, with the Stones well into their rootsy, true R&B style, with no concessions made to commercialism or the hit-parade. There’s a fantastic atmosphere to most tracks and this helps the group to sound more live than on any previous record.”1 Half a million copies were sold throughout the world, 400,000 in the United Kingdom alone.
The cover photograph is identical to that used for the US album 12x5, with the only difference that neither the name of the group nor the title of the album (an idea that began with the first LP) appears on it. This photograph takes the form of a close-up of the five members of the group against a blue background that grows progressively darker from left to right. Charlie Watts at the center and Brian Jones on the right are both wearing ties, which comes as something of a surprise. Keith Richards is in the foreground and Bill Wyman is on the left. Mick Jagger, with his collar unbuttoned, is at the back on the left. The photo was taken by David Bailey, a photographer who came to attention through his work in Vogue magazine and made a name for himself immortalizing “swinging London.” He was already a close friend of Mick Jagger by this time and explains that he positioned Mick deliberately because he did not want the others to think he had received special treatment as a personal friend.9 On the back are black-and-white portraits of the five Rolling Stones accompanied by a long and controversial text by Andrew Loog Oldham. Constantly on the lookout for new ways of attracting publicity, the group’s manager encourages potential buyers who are too hard up to buy the record to go and knock a blind man on the head and steal his wallet. In January 1965, a certain Mrs. Gwen Matthews, secretary of the Bournemouth Blind Aid Association, made a complaint. The matter was debated two months later in the House of Lords. Decca, sensing that trouble lay ahead, took preemptive action by removing the incriminating text from subsequent pressings and stickered the copies awaiting sale. Bill Wyman observes that “When you read Oldham’s sleeve notes you certainly realize that he was on another planet.”1
Seven of the twelve tracks on the second album by the Rolling Stones—as well as their first number 1 hit “It’s All Over Now”—were recorded in the United States during their US tours. This was unprecedented for a British group. They completed the record in seven sessions: three at the legendary Chess Studios in Chicago (June 10–11 and November 8), one at the prestigious RCA Studios in Hollywood (November 2), and three at the Regent Sound Studios in London (September 2 and 28–29), which they now knew like the back of their hands. The group’s sound is rich and diverse, and, paradoxically, this varied sound quality enabled them to discover their sonic identity.
The first sessions were held in Chicago on June 10 and 11, 1964. Chess Studios enjoyed a mythical status among blues lovers, and Keith Richards recalls: “There in the perfect sound studio, in the room where everything we’d listened to was made, perhaps out of relief or just the fact that people like Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry and Willie Dixon were wandering in and out, we recorded fourteen tracks in two days.”2 These fourteen numbers included the single “It’s All Over Now” (released in the UK on June 26 and in the US on July 25), and two songs that were included on The Rolling Stones No. 2: “I Can’t Be Satisfied” and “Down the Road Apiece.” The London quintet returned to Chess during their second US tour of 1964, on November 8, and recorded another seven numbers including, it has been claimed, a version of “Little Red Rooster” in the presence of Willie Dixon himself (although this story has never been confirmed), “Time Is on My Side,” and “What a Shame.” Chess is also a particular sound, one of whose architects was Ron Malo, the extraordinary sound engineer who would work with numerous artists during his career including Buddy Rich, Ahmad Jamal, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry. Ron Malo provided the Rolling Stones with the opportunity to sound like their idols. Malo would later maintain that he had no difficulty getting things right: “I didn’t have to work to get a sound. It was simple to set up, very simple microphoning.”28 And he was the de facto producer of the record in collaboration with the group. Mick Jagger confirmed this in 1968: “[Andrew] didn’t know anything about blues. The cat who really got it together was Ron Malo.”29 All the more so as Oldham, according to Ian Stewart, was reluctant to record at Chess. “It was done very much against Andrew’s wishes,”1 he would later claim.
A few days earlier, on November 2, the Stones had cut six numbers in the enormous Studio A at the RCA Studios in Hollywood. Of these, “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” “Down Home Girl,” and “Pain in My Heart” were also selected for the second album. It was through Phil Spector’s favorite arranger, Jack Nitzsche, that the British band came to work with David Hassinger, one of RCA’s best sound engineers. Hassinger went on to record numerous artists during the course of his career, notably Jefferson Airplane, Sam Cooke, and the Byrds. In 1969 he bought the studios of a small label called Moonglow Records. Renamed the Sound Factory, these studios eventually became one of the most renowned recording venues in the United States. For his part, Jack Nitzsche, who had taken a liking to the Stones at the TAMI Show in October 1964 (he was directing the house band), contributed piano parts to the album recordings made during the RCA sessions. He was the very first musician from outside the band to do this, although there would be many more over the coming years.
As for the other five tracks on the album, they were all recorded at Regent Sound Studios in London with the faithful Bill Farley at the controls: “Off the Hook” and “Under the Boardwalk” on September 2, and “Grown Up Wrong,” “You Can’t Catch Me,” and “Susie Q” on September 28–29.
Due to the rarity of studio photographs and eyewitness accounts, the equipment used to record the Rolling Stones in 1964 is relatively difficult to identify. What is known is that Bill Farley used an AKD C12 microphone to capture Mick Jagger’s voice and Neumann U67s for the guitar amps. Ron Malo is thought to have used a Universal Audio 610 console at Chess while also benefiting from an amazing echo chamber made by Putnam & Co. (one of the jewels in the Chess Studios crown), while David Hassinger used a Neve console and Neumann M49, RCA 77-DX, RCA 44-BX, and Shure mics.
The Rolling Stones invested in some new musical instruments in order to make this second album. Richards abandoned his Harmony Meteor H70 in favor of an Epiphone Casino, a Gibson Les Paul dating from 1959, a white Fender Telecaster (that only Brian would use while recording), and a Framus Jumbo 5/97 6-string acoustic. Brian Jones retained his Gretsch G6118 Anniversary, but at the beginning of July acquired a superb Vox MKIII, a model that was immediately nicknamed the “Teardrop.” The guitarists plugged into Fender Showman and Fender Concert amps. Bill Wyman continued to play his Framus Star bass, occasionally using a Fender 6-string bass at the RCA Studios. He used Vox Foundation and Fender Bassman amps and occasionally plugged directly into the console. Charlie Watts used a house Ludwig drum kit at Chess, while remaining faithful to his own Ludwig “Oyster Blue Pearl” for the other sessions. Mick Jagger and Brian Jones used Hohner Echo Super Vamper harmonicas. As for Ian Stewart, the Stones’ keyboardist played a Hammond B-3 organ and a Steinway piano. Finally, numerous percussion instruments including tambourine, güiro, castanets, and triangle were also used on the recordings.