Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger (born July 26, 1943, Dartford, Kent, England) is a British musician best known as the flamboyant lead singer of the Rolling Stones, an English rock band, for which he cowrote the majority of songs. He has also released a number of solo albums. In addition to his work as a musician, he has appeared in film and cofounded a film production company. Jagger is known for his unique voice, his frenetic dance moves and stage antics during live performances, and his controversial countercultural image. The prominent American music magazine Rolling Stone in 2011 ranked Jagger as the fourth best lead singer of all time on its list of top 10 singers.

Jagger is the eldest child of Basil (“Joe”) Jagger, a physical education teacher, and Eva (née Scutts) Jagger, a homemaker. He attended Wentworth Primary School in Dartford, Kent, England. He met his longtime songwriting collaborator, British musician Keith Richards, at the school in 1951. Jagger later transferred to Dartford Grammar School at the same time that his parents moved the family to Wilmington (also in Kent), and he and Richards lost touch. During his adolescence, Jagger sang in the church choir and developed a fondness for American blues music, which included the works of American musicians Howlin’ Wolf, Little Richard, and Muddy Waters. By age 14, Jagger had started to play the guitar, and he became the lead singer of Little Boy Blue and the Blues Boys in 1960.

The Rolling Stones

Jagger reunited with Richards in 1961, after the pair had met accidentally at a train station in Kent. Jagger, who was attending the London School of Economics at the time, bonded with Richards, who was attending Sidcup Art College, over their shared interest in American rock and rhythm and blues (R&B) music. Jagger formed the Rolling Stones with Richards (guitar and vocals) along with fellow British musicians Brian Jones (multiple instruments), Charlie Watts (drums), and Bill Wyman (bass) in 1962. During the band’s early years, it performed and recorded versions of older blues songs (see the Rolling Stones: Formation and early music). The band’s first top 10 hits, however, came in 1964 and 1965 with “Time Is on My Side” and “The Last Time,” respectively—the latter being written by Jagger and Richards. The band’s first number one hit, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” another original written by Jagger and Richards, also charted in 1965. The Rolling Stones also became known for their high-energy live performances, which largely feature Jagger’s constant movement that combines dancing, arm flailing, and body gyrations with exaggerated facial expressions to engage the audience.

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Jagger and Richards would collaborate on numerous songs throughout their long tenure with the Rolling Stones. Music historians and aficionados often point to the albums produced between 1968 and 1972—Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969), Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! (1970), Sticky Fingers (1971), and the double album Exile on Main Street (1972)—as the band’s most creative and enduring works (see also the Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street). Throughout this period, the band recorded a string of some of the greatest rock songs in music history, including “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Street Fighting Man,” “Sister Morphine,” and “Gimme Shelter.” The period was also marked by the band’s legal troubles, which included multiple arrests for drug possession, the death of band member Brian Jones, and the Rolling Stones’ flight to France as tax exiles (because their success landed them in Britain’s 90-percent earned-income tax bracket during the 1970s).

Artist collaborations and other work

Although the band continued to record and release music throughout the 1970s and ’80s, Jagger also embarked on a series of notable partnerships with other artists. His more well-known collaborations include providing the backing vocals to “You’re So Vain” by American musician Carly Simon in 1972, joining American singer Bette Midler onstage in the music video of her remake of the Rolling Stones’ song “Beast of Burden” in 1984, and releasing a cover version of “Dancing in the Street” (written by American songwriters Marvin Gaye, William [“Mickey”] Stevenson, and Ivy Jo Hunter) with British musician David Bowie in 1985. (The music video to the song was unveiled during the Live Aid famine benefit concert on July 13, 1985.)

Amid simmering tensions with the Rolling Stones, Jagger released his first solo record, She’s the Boss, in 1985. The album reached number 6 on the U.K. album chart and number 13 in the United States. The album’s lead single, “Just Another Night,” reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. Jagger rejoined the Rolling Stones after his subsequent solo record, Primitive Cool (1987), which despite receiving high marks from critics, failed to sell as well as his debut. Jagger released additional solo albums—Wandering Spirit (1993) and Goddess in the Doorway (2001)—while simultaneously writing, recording, and performing with the Rolling Stones. He and British musician Dave Stewart collaborated on the soundtrack to the movie Alfie in 2004; the song “Old Habits Die Hard” won the Golden Globe Award for best original song in a motion picture the next year.

In addition to his musical work, Jagger has worked as an actor. He starred as the notorious Australian outlaw and title character in Ned Kelly (1970) and Turner, a retired decadent rock star, in Performance (1970). Jagger was originally cast in Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo (1982), for which he filmed a scene, but scheduling conflicts forced him to leave the project, and he was also cast to play Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in an early 1970s adaptation of Dune, the classic 1965 science-fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert. However, Chilean-born French filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky never made the film. In addition, Jagger founded the film production company, Jagged Films, in 1995.

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Jagger has been married twice, and he has fathered eight children, including one child with ex-wife Nicaraguan-born human rights activist Bianca Pérez Morena de Macías and four children with ex-wife American model and actress Jerry Hall. Jagger has been the subject of several books, including Mick Jagger: The Unauthorized Biography (2005) by British music journalist Alan Clayson, Mick Jagger (2012) by British author Philip Norman, and Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger (2012) by American author Christopher Andersen. Jagger continues to perform with the Rolling Stones, and he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, along with the rest of the band, in 1989. He was knighted by Elizabeth II in 2003.