Before they became David Bowie-sanctioned glam superstars, Mott the Hoople was the brainchild of rock producer and manager Guy Stevens.

His vision for a band that meshed Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones first bore fruit on their self-titled debut album, released in November 1969.

Previously, most of the members had been in British beat groups that had converged in the late '60s to form a band called Silence. Guitarist Mick Ralphs, bassist Pete Overend Watts, keyboardist Verden Allen, drummer Dale "Buffin" Griffin and singer Stan Tippins recorded some demos that caught the ear of Stevens, then working at the brand-new Island Records.

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After having Silence audition for him, Stevens decided he liked the band's sound but wasn't thrilled with Tippins. He demoted Stan to road manager and put out an ad for a new frontman that read: "Singer wanted, must be image-minded and hungry."

In walked Ian Hunter, a seasoned performer who was a bit older than the other members of the band and already had two kids. But Hunter had the look (crazy hair and sunglasses) and the talent (a powerful, stage-tested voice) that convinced Stevens and the others that he was the guy.

The next change was the name. A rock band named Silence was plenty ironic but far from arresting, so Stevens sought something more interesting. While in prison on a drug charge, Stevens read the novel Mott the Hoople by Willard Manus and thought it would make a great band name. The members of Silence begrudgingly agreed to switch.

With a more audacious name and Hunter in place, the band could begin work on filling the potential Stevens saw: The rock 'n' roll muscularity of Ralphs and Watts deftly combined with Hunter's charismatic and sometimes nasal-sounding vocals.

Stevens was eager to get his ambitious plan on tape, so he didn't wait for the band to gel on the road. Instead, Stevens spent a week in the summer of 1969 recording tracks for Mott the Hoople's debut before Ian Hunter could even play a gig with his new bandmates.

Listen to Mott the Hoople's 'Rock and Roll Queen'

The Classic From Mott the Hoople's Debut

Considering the haste with which it was created, Mott the Hoople perhaps inevitably contained three covers, beginning with an instrumental take on the Kinks' "You Really Got Me." The other two (Doug Sahm's "At the Crossroads" and Sonny Bono's "Laugh at Me") are not by Dylan but are certainly done in a Dylan-esque style that had become common in the mid-'60s.

On the other hand, the LP also includes Mott's first stone-cold classic: The side two-opening "Rock and Roll Queen" was a slice of rocky aggression written by Ralphs. Hunter would later mention that the Rolling Stones' "Bitch," released the next year, boasted more than a passing resemblance to his band's blistering creation.

Were the Stones imitating a band that was, in turn, imitating them? Who knows? What is clear is that Mott got the upper hand on the Rolling Stones in at least one way: M.C. Escher refused Mick Jagger's request to create the cover of the Stones' Let it Bleed, but Mott the Hoople was able to put a color version of Escher's "Reptiles" on the cover of their first LP.

Mott the Hoople was released in November 1969 in the U.K. on Island Records (and in early 1970 on Atlantic in the U.S.). They weren't heralded as the second coming of the Rolling Stones or Dylan, but still began to forge a cult following on both sides of the Atlantic. The record hit No. 66 in the U.K., while also scraping the bottom of the charts in America.

Stevens and Mott both had major success in the future, although not with each other. After nearly breaking up in 1972, Mott the Hoople became one of glam's brightest stars with the help of Bowie's "All the Young Dudes" (and his management team). Later in the '70s, Stevens produced one of the greatest albums of all time, the Clash's London Calling. Sadly, he died from a prescription drug overdose at the age of 38 in 1981.

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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso

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