Legendary rock and roll band The Rolling Stones got their start in 1962 and they’re still performing on the road and releasing new music today after nearly five decades in the business. Most books written about the group cannot rightly sum up their entire career; it’s just been too storied and too drawn out to correctly quantify the magic behind the men.

The band’s front man Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards were childhood friends growing up in England. After moving away from one another, the men reunited by chance in 1960 while respectively on their way to college. They shared eerily similar taste in music and formed a small band named Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys.

After meeting and befriending other band mates Ian Stewart, Charlie Watts, Tony Chapman and Brian Jones, the guys christened their band and came up with the name by chance. Jones was in charge of the christening, and in a panic, he took a name from a Muddy Waters track titled Rollin’ Stone.

The Rolling Stones played their first formal shows in 1962, beginning with blues legends by Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. Their shows weren’t incredibly successful, but the Stones were certainly making a name for themselves; and in 1963, the group reached an agreement with IBC Studios to start recording.

After some buzz was created, former Beatles’ publicist Andrew Loog Oldham became the band’s manager in 1963. With a little help, the young, upstart manager got the Stones signed to Decca records. The Rolling Stones released their first single that year, a cover of Chuck Berry’s Come On, and it rose to number-21 on UK’s charts.

After another two years of rerecording songs written and performed primarily by black blues artists, Oldham convinced the band to begin writing and recording their own material. The Stones then took to America to start touring and made appearances on popular shows of the time like Dean Martin and The Ed Sullivan Show.

In 1965, Mick and Keith’s collaborative effort, The Last Time, hit number-one in the UK and rose to 5^th on the US charts. This gave the men confidence and they began to break away from the covers and to produce more original material. At this time, the Stones had already released two albums that were very successful in the UK.

During the band’s third tour of North America, Richards and Jagger began working on their song (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. This song would become—and still is—one of the band’s most popular tunes, and it also cemented the Stones as original artists who could stand out on their own.

To date, The Rolling Stones are one of the world’s biggest bands and have been since the mid 1960s. They have recorded over 50 albums and have an impressive canon of rock hits, including classics like Paint it Black, Ruby Tuesday, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women, Gimme Shelter, Sympathy for the Devil, and dozens of other smash hits.