David Bailey and the Studio Shoot That Made the Stones Look Like Villains

The photographer behind the iconic US cover of Out of Our Heads (1965) was David Bailey, shot in his London studio. Bailey had already made his name capturing the Swinging Sixties, and for this session he dressed the band in dark suits and wide-brimmed hats, then posed them against a plain grey backdrop.

The result turned the Rolling Stones into a crew of cinematic bad guys—part gangster, part Western outlaw. The setting was deliberately spare so the focus stayed on the sneers and the attitude. It’s one of the most imitated rock covers ever, and it perfectly captured the band’s anti-establishment edge at the peak of their early fame.