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Celebrate the Rolling Stones’ 50th Anniversary by Watching Their First Gig (Sort of)

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones’ first-ever gig at the Marquee Jazz Club in London. The band today is “a very different group than the one that played 50 years ago,” Mick Jagger tells Rolling Stone, which is true. The Stones that played that first very short set in 1962 were comprised of Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones on guitar, Ian Stewart on piano, Dick Taylor on bass guitar, and, according to Richards’ memoir Life, Mick Avory (who, two years later, signed on with the Kinks) on drums. Their quick-and-dirty five-song set list is one that more or less stood the test of time: They recorded all but one of them, and have continued to play several well into the 21st century. Relive the show you probably weren’t at but would’ve killed to see the only way the Internet era knows how — the power of YouTube videos, of course.

1. “Dust My Broom”: Jagger covered this again at an enviably intimate show at the 2005 Mustique Blues Festival on that West Indies island. Richards also covered it with Rod Stewart and the rest of the Faces gang back in 1974, during the band’s final concert, so mash these two clips up for the full effect.

2. “Baby, What’s Wrong”: This song was included on More Stoned Than You’ll Ever Be, a collection of bootleg BBC and studio recordings from the band’s early years. Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj also covered this — just kidding.

3. “Hey Crawdaddy”: This one’s a live recording from the Stones’ Paris show at L’Olympia three years later, on April 18, 1965:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0yI4X-yS8_k

4. “Confessin’ the Blues”:The band put a cover of this Jay McShann number on their second EP Five by Five two short years later, in 1964. Also included on that record: a cover of Chuck Berry’s 1958 song “Around and Around,” which was the B-side to “Johnny B. Goode.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-hu7uwfr9OY

5. “Got My Mojo Working”: There’s no known recorded version of the Stones covering this standard, which was originally sung by gospel singer Ann Cole but popularized by Muddy Waters when he covered it in 1957. Instead, here’s an original Waters performance. Use your imagination to get the Stones effect.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nlfJIWoy-AE