It was 50 years ago that a young English band played its first concert as The Rolling Stones -- performing at London's Marquee club for an audience of 100 people on July 12, 1962. Nobody there could imagine the scruffy musicians would become one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in popular music history, as well as a force that would change popular culture.
The World's Greatest Rock 'N' Roll Band Turns 50
1
Charlie Watts (left), Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, and Bill Wyman in London in 1965, the year that the band really found its voice with the singles "The Last Time" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."
2
Jagger and Richards in London in 1967
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Jagger and Richards leave a court in Chichester, England, after being charged with drugs possession in 1967 following a police raid of Richards' home.
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The Stones' infamous concert at Altamont Speedway in 1969 was marred by violence, including the stabbing death of one concertgoer by a member of the Hell's Angels.
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The Rolling Stones perform at the Round House in London in 1971.
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The iconic cover of the Stones' "Sticky Fingers" LP from 1971 (Russian release)
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The Rolling Stones -- named after a 1948 song by Muddy Waters, the father of modern Chicago blues -- perform at Wembley stadium in London in 1973.
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The Stones -- shown here in Atlanta in 1978 -- have released 22 studio albums in the U.K. (24 in the U.S.), 11 live albums (12 in the U.S.), and numerous compilations.
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Worldwide sales of their two dozen studio albums are estimated at more than 200 million.
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Czech President Vaclav Havel (left) talks with Richards and Jagger in 1995, the year the band presented Havel with a gift of new lighting in some of the grand halls in Prague Castle.
13
An August 1998 performance in the Croatian capital, Zagreb
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The Stones announce their 2005 world tour in New York.
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The Stones perform in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2007, two years after the release of their last studio album, "A Bigger Bang."
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The Stones perform near the Adriatic town of Budva in Montenegro in July 2007.
17
Representatives of the Belarus Free Theater group chat with Jagger in Warsaw in 2007. Jagger publicly supported the underground group's battle against Minsk's cultural censorship.
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Jagger (left), Richards (right), and U.S. film director Martin Scorsese discuss Scorsese's Rolling Stones concert film "Shine A Light" at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2008.
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A combo photo shows the Stones in 1965 (top) and in 2008.
20
Jagger performs at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 2011.
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The Rolling Stones pose in front of London's Marquee Club -- the scene of their first live gig -- on July 11, 2012.