With ‘On Air,’ Rolling Stones look to past radio recordings

The Rolling Stones have released an album of rarely heard radio recordings, but Keith Richards admits with a laugh: “I barely remember some of them.’’

“The Rolling Stones — On Air’’ was released last week. It features 32 songs that originally aired between 1963 and 1965 on BBC shows like “Saturday Club,’’ ‘’Top Gear” and ‘’The Joe Loss Pop Show.”

“It was weird time to record in London in 1963, ‘64. Both the Beatles and us used to look at each other and say, ‘What are you doing tomorrow? We’ll, we’re doing the Joss Loss show on BBC Radio’ and we all shivered because no one knew how to record these things,’’ Richards said.

“To me, they’re incredible pieces of history.’’

Eight of the songs were never recorded or released commercially. Richards said he remembers the hysteria at the time.

“It was so frantic. Everything was frantic. The schedule was frantic. The fans were particularly frantic. This was the teenybopper time,’’ he recalled. “It was overwhelming ... At 19 years old, it’s all a bit of a blur, but a very pleasant one I have to say.’’

“On Air’’ features well-known Stones songs such as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’’ as well as Chuck Berry covers, including “Roll Over Beethoven,’’ ‘’Memphis, Tennessee,” ‘’Beautiful Delilah” and ‘’Come On,” the Stones’ debut single.