Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were performing with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated when they met and bonded with guitarist Brian Jones, who was starting up a group of his own. The trio started rehearsing together, but Jagger was loath to give up his weekly singing gig with Alexis Korner’s at London’s Marquee Club. One summer evening Alexis Korner’s went to record a session for the BBC, but Jagger as a second vocalist was not needed. Instead, Jagger, Richards, Jones and his band filled in at the Marquee club.

On this day, July 12, in 1962, a shirtless Mick Jagger took the microphone, on stage at the Marquee Club, to power through eighteen songs in the Rolling Stones’ first ever performance.

The name for the group came from Brian Jones’ earliest interviews. He was on the phone with a venue owner, who asked Jones the name of his group. Jones had not picked one and in desperation scanned around the room for help, his eyes coming to rest on the The Best of Muddy Waters album laying on the floor. One of the tracks was “Rollin’ Stone Blues.”