Rolling Stones Records

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Cover of first RSR release, Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka

Rolling Stones Records is the record label formed by The Rolling Stones in 1970, after their recording contract with Decca Records expired. They were first distributed in the United States by Atlantic Records daughter Atco Records. Beginning in 1973 they were distributed by Atlantic Records itself. In 1986 they signed a distribution deal with Columbia Records. Currently they are distributed by Virgin Records. In the UK, they were distributed by EMI. The label was initially headed by Marshall Chess, the son of Chess Records founder Leonard Chess.

Unlike Swan Song Records or Apple Records, the vanity labels of Led Zeppelin and The Beatles respectively, Rolling Stones Records never made much of an effort to sign outside artists. Throughout the early 1970s, American singer-songwriter & Keith Richards cohort Gram Parsons lobbied to record a hypothetical album to be produced by Richards; he travelled with the group during their 1971 English tour and eventually moved in with Richards (Nellcôte in Villefrance-sur-mer) during the recording of Exile on Main Street. Parsons' physical state deteriorated rapidly during the sessions and he was asked to leave by Anita Pallenberg; he would eventually sign with Warner Brothers.

Richards and Phillips at MediaSound, New York City, 1977, working for Rolling Stones Records

Nevertheless, in 1973, Mick Jagger listened to songs John Phillips, formerly of the Mamas and Papas, had written before an English cricket match they were attending on holiday. That evening he signed Phillips to a contract on Rolling Stones Records and booked studio time in London's Olympic Sound. Jagger and Keith Richards were producers for the ill-fated album, eventually released in 2001 under a Virgin/EMI imprint Eagle Records as Pay Pack & Follow. The initial sessions began a six year recording odyssey, which ultimately was a failed attempt, both musically, financially and personally for Phillips and Rolling Stones Records. Ahmet Ertegun, then head of Atlantic Records, and Jagger grew increasingly dissatisfied with the Richards and Phillips partnership that during the decade included heavy drug use. Ultimately the record was shelved and shut down after money was cut off for further recording and mixing in 1979. Ertegun in particular thought it lacked marketability and had no first single to release. As reported in Phillips biography, Papa John, hundreds and thousands of dollars had been spent recording in both London and New York.

Peter Tosh's solo record.

In 1978 Rolling Stones Records signed Peter Tosh, a former member of Bob Marley's band The Wailers to a contract. His first album for the label, Bush Doctor, was moderately successful, mostly due to the appearance of both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on the single from the album, "Don't Look Back". Despite further moderate success, Tosh would later exit the label in 1981, citing lack of promotion and a personal feud with the Stones.

In its original concept, the label was thought of as a way for members of the Stones to release solo albums. The first album to be released was Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka in 1971, and is widely credited with being the first World Music LP. Bill Wyman took advantage of the opportunity, releasing the albums Monkey Grip in 1974, and Stone Alone in 1976. Wyman found out that he couldn't get proper attention from the promotion and sales people, as the Stones had albums due out shortly after both releases, and the label concentrated on the band's albums. Wyman ended up going to A&M Records for further solo efforts. The label also released a solo single by Keith Richards in December 1978: a rendition of Chuck Berry's "Run, Rudolph, Run" backed by a version of Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come".

In 1985 and 1987, respectively, Jagger released his first solo albums, She's the Boss, and Primitive Cool through a newly conceived partnership between Rolling Stones Records and CBS Records (now Sony Music). Thus the trademark Stones logo was affixed to each record, as well as on the label "Rolling Stones Records" was printed on each new release, angering fellow Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richards. In fact, through the 1980s and early 1990s, 'Rolling Stones Records' continued to be printed on the labels of all new releases up through Flashpoint (1991). However, as the back catalogue has been shifted to Virgin/EMI, these markers are the last vapour trails of Rolling Stones Records.