Small Faces were formed in early 1965 by Steve Marriott, previously of the Moments, Ronnie Lane and Kenney Jones of the Outcasts and Marriott's acquaintance Jimmy Winston.[3]Don Arden signed them onto Decca Records, and released their debut single "Whatcha Gonna Do About It" shortly thereafter. It managed to reach number 14 on the UK Singles Chart.[4] The follow-up single "I've Got Mine" was not nearly as successful, as it failed to chart in the UK.
Winston left the band for a solo career shortly after.[5][6] In a 2000 interview, Kenney Jones 'stated' the reason Winston was fired from the band was because "He (Winston) got above his station and tried to compete with Steve Marriott." Reality is he left.[7] Ian McLagan, of the Muleskinners, replaced Winston as the keyboardist.[5] McLagan played his debut performance with them on 2 November 1965.[8] After "Sha-La-La-La-Lee" became their first top ten hit, the Small Faces enjoyed widespread success, particularly in the UK and mainland Europe. Despite rumours that the group split on New Year's Eve of 1968,[9] the truth is that they were actually obligated to perform a few scheduled live performances during the earlier parts of 1969 before finally separating, with Marriott forming Humble Pie, and the remaining Small Faces created Faces with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, both formerly of The Jeff Beck Group.