How George Harrison Was Responsible for the Rolling Stones' First Record Deal
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume the Rolling Stones got their big break because of their musical prowess or charisma, but doing so would erase an integral player in landing the Stones’ first record deal: George Harrison. While he was enjoying the Beatles’ massive upswing in the early 1960s, the “Quiet Beatle” seized an opportunity to speak up about the Stones, effectively dragging his fellow English rockers along for the ride to stardom.
Indeed, without Harrison’s help, there is a chance the Rolling Stones might have never made it out of their dimly lit nightclub circuit.
In the early days of Beatlemania, the Fab Four would split up to cover more ground as they embarked on publicity ventures and guest appearances. One such endeavor led George Harrison to his native Liverpool, where he served as a judge in a “Beat Group” talent show. Local bands competed for a chance to secure a record deal with Decca Records, whose president, Dick Rowe, was also a judge.
After Harrison and Rowe watched a few hopeful competitors, the Beatle began complaining to the record executive that none of the Liverpudlian wannabe rockers held a candle to a band the Fab Four had recently watched at a nightclub in Richmond: the Rolling Stones.
Harrison later recalled the moment he and his three bandmates saw the Stones for the first time. “They were still on the club scene, stomping about, doing R&B tunes,” Harrison described. “The music they were playing was more like we’d been doing before we’d got out of our leather suits to try and get onto record labels and televisions. We’d calmed down by then” (via Far Out Magazine).
Rowe would later recount, “I pushed my chair back, and I basically ran to my car and got myself down to Richmond to make sure I was there for that Rolling Stones gig.” The Decca Records president knew that Harrison knew what he was talking about—namely, because the Beatle had to deal with Rowe’s bad label decisions before.
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
