YEAR
1989
INDUCTED BY
Pete Townshend (The Who)
CATEGORY
Performers
During their 50-plus year career, the Rolling Stones have married their love of blues and American R&B with a vast array of styles and genres: disco, garage, psychedelic rock and even punk.
The constant through line, however, has been the band’s swagger—thanks first and foremost to the Glimmer Twins, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Michael Hill
May 1965: In a Florida hotel room, Keith Richards wakes up hearing a riff in his head that he has to play for Mick Jagger immediately.
The pair begin to work on a song that initially has a folkish feel but takes on a more hard-edged shape a few days later at Chicago’s Chess Studio. Within a week, it’s completed at the RCA Studios in Hollywood. The song is “Satisfaction,” and it’s destined for inclusion in their new album, Out of Our Heads.
It’s also destined, with a deft leap to the top of the American charts, to be the band’s first Number One, to define, decisively and dramatically, the sound and attitude of the Rolling Stones.