How George Harrison Was Responsible for the Rolling Stones’ First Record Deal

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume the Rolling Stones got their big break because of their musical prowess or charisma, but doing so would erase an integral player in landing the Stones’ first record deal: George Harrison. While he was enjoying the Beatles’ massive upswing in the early 1960s, the “Quiet Beatle” seized an opportunity to speak up about the Stones, effectively dragging his fellow English rockers along for the ride to stardom.

Indeed, without Harrison’s help, there is a chance the Rolling Stones might have never made it out of their dimly lit nightclub circuit.

How George Harrison Helped The Rolling Stones Get Signed

In the early days of Beatlemania, the Fab Four would split up to cover more ground as they embarked on publicity ventures and guest appearances. One such endeavor led George Harrison to his native Liverpool, where he served as a judge in a “Beat Group” talent show. Local bands competed for a chance to secure a record deal with Decca Records, whose president, Dick Rowe, was also a judge.

After Harrison and Rowe watched a few hopeful competitors, the Beatle began complaining to the record executive that none of the Liverpudlian wannabe rockers held a candle to a band the Fab Four had recently watched at a nightclub in Richmond: the Rolling Stones.

Harrison later recalled the moment he and his three bandmates saw the Stones for the first time. “They were still on the club scene, stomping about, doing R&B tunes,” Harrison described. “The music they were playing was more like we’d been doing before we’d got out of our leather suits to try and get onto record labels and televisions. We’d calmed down by then” (via Far Out Magazine).

Rowe would later recount, “I pushed my chair back, and I basically ran to my car and got myself down to Richmond to make sure I was there for that Rolling Stones gig.” The Decca Records president knew that Harrison knew what he was talking about—namely, because the Beatle had to deal with Rowe’s bad label decisions before.

The Beatles Used Their Own Experience To Help Out The London Band

George Harrison knew he had to hammer home his point about the Rolling Stones to Dick Rowe because the Quiet Beatle knew just how susceptible the Decca Records exec was to shoddy business decisions. Just two years earlier, in 1961, the Beatles auditioned for that very label. However, Rowe infamously rejected the future Fab Four, citing that guitar groups were quickly going out of style.

The Beatles’ subsequent success with EMI Records haunted Rowe for years to come. So, when Harrison suggested—or, perhaps more appropriately, insisted—that Decca Records give the Rolling Stones a chance, Rowe was ready to listen. Music expert Paul Endacott told Express that Harrison told Rowe, “‘You have got to get yourself down to Richmond because you missed out on the Beatles. You don’t want to miss out on this band.’”

“I mean, I’m sure the Rolling Stones would have found a record company, but the fact is that it happened there and then,” Endacott continued. The Stones signed with Decca Records in April 1963, they released their first single, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On,” two months later, and the rest is history.

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