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Rolling Stones songs: Come On
THE ROLLING STONES’ FIRST STEP INTO ROCK HISTORY Back in June 1963, The Rolling Stones dropped their very first single, a Chuck Berry cover called Come On. The band weren’t exactly thrilled with it—Jagger sang with swagger, Brian Jones blew sharp harmonica lines, and Bill Wyman added backing vocals, but even the Stones thought it sounded a bit too tame. Still, this was their debut shot, the rough start that kicked open the door to a career that would rewrite rock ’n’ roll forever.
Every time the phone rings it sounds like thunder/ Some stupid guy tryin’ to reach another number…
On June 7, 1963, a small moment in music history quietly unfolded: the release of The Rolling Stones’ very first single, Chuck Berry’s Come On. For the band, it was both a beginning and a frustration. Brian Jones’s harmonica added a sharp edge, while Mick Jagger double-tracked his vocals with surprising confidence, a preview of the voice that would soon become iconic. Bill Wyman and Brian joined in on background vocals, but not everyone was on board—Ian Stewart flatly refused to play, dismissing the track as unworthy. Even the Stones themselves admitted they disliked the result, feeling their take lacked the humor and drive of Berry’s original. Yet here it was, their opening statement to the world, pressed onto vinyl and shipped into UK record stores. Against their own instincts, the single became the foundation stone of a career that would define rock ’n’ roll itself.
Chaos in the Studio
The journey to that debut was anything but smooth. Early in May 1963, Brian Jones, alongside managers Eric Easton and Andrew Loog Oldham, had signed a three-year management deal. With contracts in place, Oldham booked Olympic Sound Studios in London’s West End for May 10, shelling out £40 for just three hours. Roger Savage, the young sound engineer, even recalled sneaking them in late one night to record four songs quickly, sometimes working without pay. For Oldham, it was baptism by fire. When Savage asked him to mix the tapes, he confessed, “I don’t know a damn thing about recording.” Savage ended up handling the technical side, while Oldham navigated the business chaos around them.
A Song Nobody Loved
Despite their enthusiasm for Elmore James’s Dust My Blues, it was decided that Come On would be the single. Keith Richards later explained the reasoning: Oldham wanted a strong debut to convince the label that the band deserved the chance to record an album. But the choice backfired emotionally. The band found the song too tame, too polite, too far from their raw live sound. On July 7, 1963, they were forced to lip-synch Come On on television’s Thank Your Lucky Stars, dressed in matching houndstooth jackets with velvet collars—an image that felt stiff and manufactured compared to the chaos of their club gigs.
The Release Nobody Expected
Decca’s Dick Rowe wasn’t convinced either. After hearing the Olympic tapes, he suggested the band return to the studio with a more “qualified producer.” The Stones did just that in Decca’s West Hampstead facility, only for Jagger to declare the results worse than before. In the end, Rowe reluctantly approved the Olympic version, and that’s the one Decca pressed. The single barely scratched the charts, peaking at number 38, but the damage—or perhaps the magic—was done. The Rolling Stones had entered the recording world not with triumph but with grit, learning fast that their path to greatness would never be straightforward.
Mick Jagger about Come On (1972): “I don’t think it was very good, in fact it was shit. God knows how it ever got in the charts, it was such a hype. In fact we disliked it so much we didn’t do it on any of our gigs”.
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