Paint It Black…and Red and White!

Over the last fortnight the music world has been largely dominated by two pillars of the Rock 'n' Roll universe from the Sixties, The Beatles, with the release of their new AI-enhanced single, and The Rolling Stones, who achieved their first No.1 album in twenty years with “Hackney Diamonds”.

The musical legacy and influence of both need no elaboration here. But I believe the Stones’ influence on music marketing and branding was ground-breaking and incredibly farsighted.

Since 1971, the “tongue and lips” logo has symbolised their image as the most recognised rock 'n' roll band in the world.

Of course, there were band ‘logos’ before then, including The Beatles ‘dropped-T’ logo, which was originally done for Ringo’s bass drum in 1963, The Who’s ‘Mod’ logo (1964) and The Monkees’ ‘Guitar’ logo (1966). But most of them were never used on their albums before The Doors’ bold and geometric logo in 1967.

Start Me Up

Despite their popularity and success across the Sixties, The Rolling Stones had an inconsistent approach to “branding”, which was then an alien concept for most musicians. The band’s first albums rarely even featured their name on the sleeve covers. That all changed in?1970, when Mick Jagger seized business control of the band’s future and formed their own Rolling Stones Records label.

He wanted to create a single identifiable image that would represent the band. As he said in a recent BBC documentary, Jagger wanted something that “related to the band – that had colour, funkiness, originality and a sense of f**k-you.”

Like the amount of people who claimed to be in the GPO in 1916, there were a number of claimants to the design of the original “Tongue” logo.

What is generally accepted though is that Jagger?approached an art student,?John Pasche,?from the Royal College of Art in London, to come up with a design for a US tour poster. The commission was for “a logo or symbol which may be used on note paper, as a programme cover and as a cover for the press book”.

The design actually started with Mick Jagger himself and perhaps surprisingly, was not based on his own lips and mouth.

Mick pointed Pasche towards Kali, the Hindu goddess of death, time, and doomsday, known for her associations with sexuality and violence –?all classic Stones themes.

Honky Tonk Women

In the words of Pasche, "The design concept for the tongue was to represent the band's anti-authoritarian attitude, Mick's mouth and the obvious sexual connotations. I designed it in such a way that it was easily reproduced and in a style I thought could stand the test of time."

The finished logo first appeared on the album,?Sticky Fingers?in April 1971, one the band’s greatest ever studio album, with tracks such as ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Wild Horses’. But equally memorable was the controversial LP cover with its denim jeans-clad crotch, and a real working zipper embedded on the cover sleeve. The zipper could then be pulled down to reveal another crotch underneath that was wearing white underwear.

The logo has been used ever since in various forms as the following video shows:

The evolution of the Rolling Stones logo

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

John Pasche was paid ￡50 for his version of the logo in 1970 and received an additional ￡200 in 1972.

He earned a significant amount more when he gave the logo copyright to the Rolling Stones' commercial arm, Musidor BV, for ￡26,000 in 1984 and then sold his original artwork to the Victoria and Albert Museum for ￡72,600.

Today, the combined net worth of all current members, including drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, is estimated at €1.5 billion. Of course, their music and the massive tours have generated most of this. But that ￡50 logo design certainly helped create a music brand that has endured through merchandising, licensing, and sponsorship deals, including the most recent with Barcelona FC and Spotify for their El Classico jersey, to become amongst the most recognised brand marks on the planet.

The Stones brand approach paved the way for others to follow, from AC/DC to Led Zepplin and The Eagles to Radiohead. In Ireland, Jim Fitzpatrick's design of the Thin Lizzy logo is one of the few that has remained consistent over fifty years.

It may be only Rock ‘n’ Roll but they all like branding.

Peter McPartlin is co-founder of The Indie List