Original Rolling Stones

The Original Rolling Stones were from Mississippi. They started in 1953 at Mississippi State College in Starkville, Mississippi. Andy Anderson and William "Cuz" Covington were roommates and they started playing together in their dorm room. They were soon joined by Joe Tubb. He liked being around them so much he moved his mattress into their room and started sleeping on the floor. The music got so loud in the room where they were practicing the Dean of Housing wrote them a letter and suggested that they move their practice to the music hall. This was all right with them because more people could come hear them play. They soon expanded to two more members and begin playing dances all over the state of Mississippi and even going into Alabama to play. They entered a contest in Memphis and won a recording contract with London Records. Their first release "Johnny Valentine" was the first rock and roll record ever released worldwide. They got mad at London Records when they recorded their release because they wouldn't let the band members play on the record because they weren't members of the musicians union. They then went into another studio and recorded their own record of another song and released it and never went back to London Records. They learned a lot in college but they didn't learn the importance of copyrighting the name of their band.

Remembering

I remember riding my bicycle over to the American Legion Hut at the edge of Hawkins Field in Jackson Mississippi when I was fourteen to hear some of my friends from school play rock and roll. Later on I would hear at the same place The Rolling Stones from Mississippi State. They became the first group to release a rock and roll record that was released worldwide and they were from Mississippi.