One band I don't think I've ever featured on The Roundtable are The Rolling Stones. Not for any good reason. I assumed everyone knew their material by heart and anything I added would just be redundant. But since they actually have been around for fifty years, a lot of their material has probably not been heard lately, certainly from the early albums, when they were very much influenced by Chicago Blues and the Chess Records sound.

I admit this is my favorite period of the band. And even though much of the material they recorded on those first several albums wasn't penned by Jagger-Richards, it was still very exciting to listen to at the time.

One track they did write, which I'm featuring tonight, is off their 1965 album The Rolling Stones, Now! Recorded over a period of months and at several locations, including the famous Chess Studios in Chicago and RCA Studios in Hollywood. What A Shame is off the first side of the lp and it's vintage Stones, featuring Brian Jones on Lead Guitar and Ian Stewart on Piano.

Good times.

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Tonight it's early Rolling Stones, the 1964 period. This session (actually live radio appearance) comes by way of the BBC radio series The Joe Loss Show, recorded on July 17,1964. Unlike a lot of live appearances of this vintage, the screaming doesn't drown the band out and the audience doesn't drown the band out.

Everyone has a favorite period of the Rolling Stones - I confess, this is mine. Still very much entrenched in Chicago Blues, The Stones were getting huge at this point.

Here's the lineup of what's on the player:

The Joe Loss Show, July 17, 1964

1. It's All Over Now
2. If You Need Me
3. Confessin' The Blues
4. Carol
5. Mona

The sound is okay for the period. This is mostly likely one of those BBC sessions that didn't escape the eraser and we've had to rely on private enthusiasts who were hovering over their tape recorders at home in order to get this piece of history preserved. Thank god they did, otherwise a massive chunk of musical history would be missing. The irony is, during these early years of the British Invasion, it was deemed illegal by the British government to record anything off the air, even as a hobbyist. So the idea that someone would have faced jail time if they recorded this program seems a bit strange. But the cause of history is glad they did.

If, by some strange reason you may have forgotten, today marks what would have been Rolling Stone founding member Brian Jones birthday - Number 69 to be exact. Those of us who were fans since Day One remembered how much the sound had changed when Brian left the band (actually kicked out over his drug excesses which, for The Rolling Stones was really saying something). And how saddened we all were when we learned of his death some weeks later (a death disputed over the years as either overdose, suicide or murder). Little did we know it would be the start of a trend that also saw the untimely deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison - all going down that same road. Things just up and changed in a very short period of time.

But that's another story.

Tonight it's celebrating the work of an incredible talent whose contribution to Rock will never be short-changed, despite what's been said over the years and all the rumors to the contrary. He did some great work and he was one of the masterminds, if not the mastermind behind what The Rolling Stones were all about.

Because their history goes back such a long way, and because there have been so many albums released by them over the decades, it's possible, if you've come to their music the past twenty years, that you may have missed the formative period of The Rolling Stones. Those early years when they were raw and knee-deep in Chicago Blues.

To give you an idea of what they sounded like in 1965, here's a track from one of their milestone albums, Out Of Our Heads, and a song made popular in 1962 by Solomon Burke, but given the distinctive Mick Jagger touch and the inimitable Brian Jones accompaniment, Cry To Me.

Happy Birthday Brian Jones. You're still missed.