From Muddy Waters to Chuck Berry: How the Rolling Stones' early setlists evolved

Before they ever stepped into a studio, the Rolling Stones were a live band built on blues records. Their early setlists at the Crawdaddy Club and Ealing Club were almost entirely covers—Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Slim Harpo—played with a raw, amp-rattling energy that separated them from the clean-cut pop groups of 1962. A typical night would include Harpo’s “I’m a King Bee” (which they later recorded) and Reed’s “Honest I Do,” alongside Chuck Berry’s “Carol” and “Bye Bye Johnny,” which gave the set a harder rockabilly kick.

By early 1963, they were mixing in R&B and soul numbers like “Can I Get a Witness” (Marvin Gaye) and “You Can Make It If You Try” (Gene Allison), reflecting the growing influence of stax and motown imports. Originals crept in slowly—Keith Richards and Mick Jagger wrote “Tell Me” and the harder “I Wanna Be Your Man” (given to them by Lennon and McCartney) for their debut single, but even that first A-side, “Come On,” was a Chuck Berry cover. The evolution from dedicated blues purists to a band that could flip from Harpo to Holland-Dozier-Holland in the same set happened in under a year, and it laid the groundwork for every