{"id":28214,"date":"2024-09-28T05:30:16","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T09:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28214"},"modified":"2024-09-18T10:55:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T14:55:53","slug":"take-five-great-early-covers-by-the-rolling-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/28\/take-five-great-early-covers-by-the-rolling-stones\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Great Early Covers by the Rolling Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the biggest bands in all of rock history, the Rolling Stones have had a remarkably long and successful career. The band is still touring to rave reviews in 2024, nearly sixty years after they scored with their first major hit, 1965\u2019s \u201c(I Can\u2019t Get No) Satisfaction.\u201d But in the group\u2019s early days, the Stones were chiefly interpreters of songs by other artists; the Jagger\/Richards songwriting partnership didn\u2019t truly take off until 1965\u2019s <em>Out of Our Heads<\/em>. Yet those early releases are filled with gems that demonstrate just what great interpreters the Stones were in those days. Here are five standout covers from the pre-megstardom era Rolling Stones.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI\u2019m a King Bee\u201d from <em>England&#8217;s Newest Hit Makers<\/em> (1964)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Stones kicked off Side Two of their 1964 debut LP with a reading of Slim Harpo\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m a King Bee.\u201d Dripping with sexual innuendo, the song is an exemplar of the blues foundation upon which the Rolling Stones were built. Bill Wyman\u2019s distinctive glissando accents on his bass guitar are only part of the appeal of this early classic. The Stones were at the front of the pack with their version, but by no means were they the only group to cut the song in the \u201860s. Even Pink Floyd \u2013 then led by founder Syd Barrett, another blues fanatic \u2013 recorded the song, though it wouldn\u2019t receive official release until that group\u2019s massive <em>The Early Years<\/em> boxed set in 2016.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X3IUPW2Yoj0?si=zOo0nHlnxzUyll9N\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWalking the Dog\u201d from <em>England&#8217;s Newest Hit Makers<\/em> (1964)<\/strong><br \/>\nRufus Thomas was an important if sometimes overlooked figure in the early days of rock and roll. Often pigeonholed as an r&amp;b artist, Thomas was a truly all-around entertainer. Father of fellow Stax artist Carla Thomas, Rufus was one of the earliest artists to record for the legendary Sun Records, with \u201cBear Cat,\u201d an answer song to \u201cHound Dog.\u201d Jokingly billed as the World\u2019s Oldest Teenager, he was a star at the Wattstax Festival in the early \u201870s. The Stones cover of his tune leaves out Rufus\u2019 wedding march introduction and instead gets right down to business. This classic has been covered by a wide array of artists from Rick Derringer to Pacific Northwest punk progenitors The Sonics.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fEoowY9hXuM?si=CRd6gnmoa6x0bemA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSusie Q\u201d from <em>12 x 5<\/em> (1964)<\/strong><br \/>\nDale Hawkins wrote \u201cSusie Q\u201d and included it on his 1958 debut album; in the process he arguably created a new subgenre, swamp rock. Today the most well-known reading of the song is the 1968 recording by Creedence Clearwater Revival, who built their musical foundation upon a sultry, slowed-down arrangement of the song. But in 1964, the Rolling Stones cut their own inimitable take on Hawkins\u2019 classic, with a brighter, peppier arrangement full of hand clap percussion. It\u2019s another example that supports the old adage: a great song is a great song, even if you do it differently.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lCnM1w-q-k8?si=6nYTit_ai0mlTqys\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s All Over Now\u201d from <em>12 x 5<\/em> (1964)<\/strong><br \/>\nAmerican guitarist and songwriter Bobby Womack composed \u201cIt\u2019s All Over Now,\u201d recording and releasing it in 1964 with his band The Valentinos. That original version didn\u2019t do much on the charts, stalling out at #94. But the Rolling Stones heard it, recognized it as a classic, and recorded their version the first chance they got. The song would be a hit for them, reaching the top spot on the British charts. It became quite popular across Europe as well, eventually hitting the Top 40 in the U.S. during the band\u2019s first tour in the States. Today the song is so closely associated with the Rolling Stones that many people assume it\u2019s a band original.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kb1Z7UOkzOI?si=g9Ej97svOqmWdBwh\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cLittle Red Rooster\u201d from <em>The Rolling Stones, Now!<\/em> (1965)<\/strong><br \/>\nOriginally released as a late 1964 single in the UK, \u201cLittle Red Rooster\u201d was included on the compilation <em>The Rolling Stones, Now!<\/em> the following year. Credited to songwriter and blues legend Willie Dixon, the song is a standard that has appeared in myriad styles by artists as varied as Howlin\u2019 Wolf, Sam Cooke, the Jesus and Mary Chain and countless others. The Rolling Stones version is one of the prime examples of the influence which the band\u2019s founder (and original leader) Brian Jones had upon the group and its sound.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Lr0q0zlrZXM?si=Z_Y8Npyow3ZJE42d\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the biggest bands in all of rock history, the Rolling Stones have had a remarkably long and successful career. The band is still touring to rave reviews in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1879],"class_list":["post-28214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-rolling-stones","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28215,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28214\/revisions\/28215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}