Brian Jones’s Jazz News Ad That Assembled the Rolling Stones

In May 1962, Brian Jones placed a small ad in Jazz News — a London weekly for modern jazz fans — that read: “R & B vocalist/guitarist wants to form a group. Brian Jones, 54a Broadwalk Court, London W8.” It was the single most important classified ad of the British Invasion.

Jones, then 20, was the driving force. He already had a reputation as a gifted multi-instrumentalist and a deep knowledge of Chicago blues. The ad brought responses from singer Mick Jagger (who brought along his childhood friend Keith Richards), pianist Ian Stewart, and eventually drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman. Jones screened everyone personally, insisting on a pure rhythm and blues sound — no pop.

The ad gave the band its original nucleus. Jones was the founder, the name-giver (after Muddy Waters’s “Rollin’ Stone”), and the early musical director. Without that single listing in a jazz paper, the Stones likely never happen.