The red lips and protruding tongue debuted on the 1971 album Sticky Fingers and have appeared somewhere on every album since. The logos designer, John Pasche, said his favorite work by the band was the album, Exile on Main St., released this month in 1972, because of its gritty, raw quality.
Mick Jagger commissioned the logo when Mr. Pasche was a student at the Royal College of Art in London. Mr. Jagger was inspired by Kali, a Hindu goddess with multiple arms and a pointed tongue, but Mr. Pasche was also impressed by the lead singers mouth.
Mr. Pasche said he worked on the logo nonstop for two weeks, for which he was paid 50 pounds, then about $120. (A modified version appeared in the United States.) It was just a lucky break, said Mr. Pasche, who also designed posters for the band. Right place, right time.
Since then, his simple, anti-authoritarian logo has appeared in some odd places. It has been replicated as mouth-shaped urinals and, Mr. Pasche said, a fan once sent me a photo of the logo tattooed on his girlfriends back side.