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Today in Rolling Stones history: May 23

*Click for DAILY ROLLING STONES CHRONOLOGY 1962-present

May 23 in Rolling Stones history captures the strange way rock mythology gets built: not always through massive headlines, but through side projects, final performances, and songs that nearly disappeared. Before joining The Rolling Stones, Mick Taylor closed his era with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in Hamburg, already evolving beyond traditional blues into something far more fluid and sophisticated. Elsewhere, overlooked releases like I Don’t Know Why and Try a Little Harder revealed a band quietly expanding its songwriting ambitions long before critics caught up. Add the eventual resolution of The Verve sampling a song by The Andrew Oldham Orchestra for Bitter Sweet Symphony, and May 23 starts looking less like a random date and more like a hidden crossroads in rock history.

May 23, 1964: ‘The Hop To End All Hops’ (event), University, Leicester, England

May 23, 1969: On this day Mick Taylor played his final show as a member of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers at the Musikhalle in Hamburg, West Germany, closing one of the most important chapters in British blues history. Still only 20 years old, Taylor had spent nearly two years transforming the Bluesbreakers with his fluid, melodic guitar style, helping push the band beyond strict Chicago blues into jazzier and more adventurous territory on albums like Crusade, Bare Wires and Blues From Laurel Canyon. By 1969, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers had already become famous as a finishing school for elite British guitarists, previously launching the careers of Eric Clapton and Peter Green before Taylor stepped into the role. His final Hamburg appearance effectively marked the end of the classic Bluesbreakers era and the beginning of something much bigger. Within weeks Taylor would join the Stones after recommendations from both John Mayall and Ian Stewart. Fans and historians often view Taylor’s Bluesbreakers years as the period where he evolved from a gifted teenage blues player into one of rock’s most sophisticated lead guitarists.

May 23, 1971: Release of B.B. Blunder‘s LP Workers’ Playtime, with Mick Taylor as guest on one song: New Day
On this album B.B. Blunder, featuring guitarist Brian Godding alongside Brian Belshaw and Kevin Westlake, created an ambitious mix of progressive rock, blues, and jazz. Workers’ Playtime combines melodic experimentation with heavier textures and is further elevated by guest appearances from Taylor, and also from Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger.

May 23, 1975: Release of the I Don’t Know Why / Try A Little Harder 7″ single (Decca F 13584)
Originally recorded by Stevie Wonder in 1968, the track later appeared on Metamorphosis, highlighting Stones’ growing sophistication and evolution beyond their early club-era sound.
Read: ‘I Don’t Know Why’: The Rolling Stones Cover Stevie Wonder

As for Try a Little Harder, unlike most early Jagger-Richard demos later collected on Metamorphosis, it also remained unreleased until 1975. Neither the Stones nor other artists recorded it earlier, suggesting the song was viewed as too slight compared to other mid-1960s compositions that eventually found release elsewhere.
Read: The Rolling Stones: Inside ‘Try a Little Harder’ (1964)

May 23, 1976: Earl’s Court, London, England (Tour of Europe ’76)
Honky Tonk Women/If You Can’t Rock Me-Get Off Of My Cloud/Hand Of Fate/Hey Negrita/Ain’t Too Proud To Beg/Fool To Cry/ Hot Stuff/Star Star/You Gotta Move/You Can’t Always Get What You Want/Band introduction/Happy/Tumbling Dice/Nothing From Nothing/Outa Space/ Midnight Rambler/It’s Only Rock’n Roll/Brown Sugar/Jumpin’ Jack Flash/ Street Fighting Man/ Sympathy For The Devil

May 23, 1990: Niedersachsenstadion, Hannover, West Germany (Urban Jungle Tour)
Start Me Up/Bitch/Sad Sad Sad/Tumbling Dice/Miss You/Almost Hear You Sigh/Ruby Tuesday/Rock And A Hard Place/Mixed Emotions/Honky Tonk Women/Midnight Rambler/You Can’t Always Get What You Want/Can’t Be Seen/Happy/Paint It Black/ 2000 Light Years From Home/Sympathy For The Devil/Street Fighting Man/Gimme Shelter/Band introduction/It’s Only Rock’n Roll/Brown Sugar/Satisfaction/Jumpin’ Jack Flash

May 23, 1993: Ronnie Wood joins rock ’n’ roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis for a fiery appearance on the British TV show Aspel & Company in London. They tear through Great Balls of Fire and Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, bringing plenty of raw energy and old-school rock spirit to the televised performance.

May 23, 1997: Release of Ligabue‘s CD Viva!, with Mick Taylor as guest on one song: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Album by Italian singer-songwriter, film director and author Luciano Ligabue, widely known as Ligabue, or simply Liga.

May 23, 2000: Release of Charlie Watts Jim Keltner‘s CD Charlie Watts Jim Keltner Project
1. Shelly Manne/ 2. Art Blakey/ 3. Kenny Clarke/ 4. Tony Williams */ 5. Roy Haynes/ 6. Max Roach/ 7. Airto/ 8. Billy Higgins/ 9. The Elvin Suite
*With guest Mick Jagger on keyboards

If you know Stones beyond the hits you probably already know that Charlie had a serious love for jazz. So when he released an album dedicated to legendary drummers like Max Roach and Art Blakey, it could’ve sounded like a flashy drum showcase. But that’s not Charlie at all. Instead, with help from Jim Keltner, he created musical portraits inspired by each drummer’s spirit and style. The result is a surprisingly fun, creative, and genuinely unique project that mixes jazz, tribal rhythms, world music, and even a few electronic touches.

Charlie, on the album: “It started with Jim and myself, just the two of us playing around, really. Jim had some sampled sequences that he wanted me to play along with, and so I did… I didn’t approach it like I would normally do in a band, where I’d just hire five guys to play the music with me… The overtones of the rhythm make a melody in themselves. So I wanted to keep the drums as sparse and as simple as possible. At the same time, we did it very electronically. And that was kind of the interest because I’m normally not very into that”

May 23, 2003: Release of Hans Van Lier‘s CD Hans van Lier, with Mick Taylor as guest on two tracks: 1. Hard Times/ 2. Mr. Goodtime On The Run

Hans van Lier is a self-taught Dutch guitarist known for melodic solos, powerful rock energy, and blending styles ever since discovering the blues scale as a teenager.

May 23, 2006: Release of Marsha Hansen‘s (Keith’s sister-in-law) book with accompanying CD My Soul Is A Witness: The Message of the Spirituals in Word and Song, with Keith as guest.

My Soul Is A Witness: The Message of the Spirituals in Word and Song explores the emotional power and hidden meanings behind African-American spirituals. Mixing history, biblical reflections, and music, the book highlights how these songs carried messages of faith, suffering, hope, and even coded paths to freedom through deeply rooted oral traditions.

May 23, 2019: Richard Ashcroft of The Verve finally reveals that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had returned the publishing rights for Bitter Sweet Symphony to him. The dispute dated back to the late 1990s, when former manager Allen Klein gained control of the royalties after the song sampled an orchestral version of The Last Time by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra without authorization.

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