THE BEATLES, THE STONES & MARY SCRUGGS

The Stones with Sally (left) and Mary (right)

As any Beatles nut will tell you, the crowded cover of Sgt. Pepper's, photographed by Michael Cooper, includes a nod to the Stones in the form of a Shirley Temple doll wearing a knitted sweater with the words 'WELCOME THE ROLLING STONES' stitched onto it. According to Wikipedia here, this item of clothing 'was provided by Cooper's young son Adam'. In fact, it seems to have been given to the Beatles by Mick Jagger himself, an earth-shattering discovery I made as I flicked through the packed August 1966 issue of Hit Parader (actually out in June).

As you can imagine, the Stones - like all touring bands in the mid-60s - were besieged by competition winners wherever they went. Two such were Mary Scruggs and Sally Ware from Memphis, Tennessee, who got to go backstage before the band's performance at the Mid-South Coliseum on November 17th 1965. Hit Parader - writing about the event some months after the show - made it clear that the Stones were not popular with the venue:

Nonetheless, the girls managed to meet the band after winning different sections in an art contest organised by a local radio station, WMPS (the sweatshirt does not say 'WMCA', despite what practically every source says). Sally's effort was a terrible charcoal portrait of Mick:

Mary, meanwhile, went down the knitwear route. According to the article, she was '17, a Senior at Immaculate Conception High School and an officer in a local Rolling Stones Fan Club':

As the extract above makes clear, Mary gave the sweater to Mick at his request. Far from dumping it as soon as she departed (the likely fate for Sally's drawing), he seems to have taken care to bring it back to the UK, ensuring its place in history when it was photographed in glorious technicolor on March 30th 1967. 

At the close of the year, the Stones repaid the Beatles' tribute by hiding their faces in the lenticular image on the cover of Their Satanic Majesties Request. You can read all about that here. As for Mary - well, she seems to have gone on to become an elementary school art teacher, under the name Mary Anne May. You can read a little more about her here.

Mick Jagger: 'as he really is'

I doubt Mick was too thrilled when his spotty adolescent brother penned this for NME in June 1965:

The Rolling Stones: 'wild, exciting white boys'

I'm pretty sure that this was the earliest national coverage the Stones ever received, in Record Mirror of May 11th 1963. It was written by Norman Jopling, who also gave the Beatles some of their most important early publicity, and is unusual for being about a band that had not yet released a record (their first 45, Come On, appeared in June). Amongst its interesting aspects are the credit for Ian Stewart as a full member of the band, the description of Brian Jones as 'spokesman and leader of the group', and the acknowledgment of the Beatles' respect for them. It also makes a tantalising reference to a 20-minute film of the sextet in action, produced by their then-manager Giorgio Gomelsky. Andrew Oldham, of course, was not yet in the picture...

Brian Jones: "I'd like to buy a house with a big pool"

This comes from the March 26th 1965 issue of NME, and highlights Brian's seldom remarked-upon domestic side. Joey Paige, by the way, was a Hollywood-based bassist who played in the Everly Brothers' band.

Their Satanic Majesties & The Fab Four

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on June 1st 1967, in the most elaborate sleeve of any rock album up to that point. Though cut-outs of the Rolling Stones weren't included, an oblique tribute was paid by the inclusion of a Shirley Temple doll wearing a jumper that has 'THE WMPS GOOD GUYS WELCOME THE ROLLING STONES' knitted on it. Six months and many tribulations later, the Stones finally released their own psychedelic album, Their Satanic Majesties Request. Not to be outdone, they had an amazingly expensive lenticular sleeve produced, with art direction by their chum Michael Cooper. Buried in the blurry image are the moustachioed heads of the four Beatles, but they're nigh-on impossible to spot, so I thought I'd spoil the fun: