In its original concept, the label was formed to ensure the Rolling Stones would retain the rights over their own music, while also giving each bandmember the option to release solo albums. The first album to be released was Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka in 1971, which is widely credited with being the first world music LP.[by whom?] In 1972 the label released Jamming with Edward!, a collection of tracks recorded by Jagger, Wyman, and Watts with Nicky Hopkins and Ry Cooder in 1969.
Bill Wyman released two solo albums through the label, Monkey Grip in 1974 and Stone Alone in 1976. Wyman found that the label's promotional and sales people paid very little attention to him, as the Rolling Stones had albums due out shortly after both releases which were the subject of major marketing campaigns.[citation needed] As a result, Wyman chose to record his next solo album with A&M.
In 1977 Peter Tosh, a former member of Bob Marley's band the Wailers signed a recording deal with Rolling Stones Records. His debut album on[1] the label, Bush Doctor, which featured Jagger on the track "Don't Look Back", was moderately successful. Despite further moderate success, Tosh left the label in 1981 due to personal problems with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, his band members and the recent passing of Bob Marley.
1980s to the end
Jagger released his first solo albums, She's the Boss and Primitive Cool, in 1985 and 1987 respectively, through a newly conceived partnership between Rolling Stones Records and CBS Records (now Sony Music). Thus the trademark Rolling Stones logo was affixed to each record and the label "Rolling Stones Records" was also printed on each new release, which angered Richards.[citation needed] In fact, through the 1980s and early 1990s, "Rolling Stones Records" continued to be printed on the labels of all new releases up through Flashpoint (1991). However, as the back catalogue has been shifted to Virgin/EMI, these markers are the last vapour trails of Rolling Stones Records. In 2008, the group switched distribution of Rolling Stones Records back catalogue material as well as new material to Polydor Records in the UK, and Interscope Records in the US (both imprints of Universal Music Group, also distributor of their pre-1971 catalogue as UMG is the distributor for ABKCO Records).