What Was the Rolling Stones' First American Hit Single, and in What Year Did It Chart?

Their first Top 10 hit in America came in 1964 with “Time Is on My Side,” which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. But technically, their first charting single in the U.S. was the cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” earlier that same year—it only reached No. 48.

The real breakthrough didn’t happen until “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” hit No. 1 in 1965. That’s the song most people remember as their first massive American smash, but the Stones had been slowly building a foothold with R&B covers and a deliberately scruffy image that radio stations weren’t sure what to do with at first.