The (Misattributed) Influence of Professor Longhair on Early Stones Piano – 'Fortune Teller' and 'Come On'

Here’s a detail that usually gets glossed over: the piano on the Stones’ first single “Come On” and their early recording of “Fortune Teller” wasn’t played by Nicky Hopkins. It was Ian Stewart. Hopkins didn’t start sitting in with the Stones until late 1965, well after those tracks. So when people talk about Professor Longhair’s left-hand syncopation flowing into Hopkins’ work on those songs, they’re following a ghost.

But the connection itself isn’t wrong — it’s just shifted. Ian Stewart was the one who soaked up New Orleans piano, especially the rolling, rumba-boogie patterns of Longhair. You hear it in the skipping eighth-note bass and the offbeat chord jabs all over early Stones rhythm tracks. “Fortune Teller” in particular has Stewart playing those stuttering