Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Come On
2. I Want To be Loved
3. I Wanna Be Your Man
4. Stoned
5. Not Fade Away
6. Little By Little
7. It's All Over Now
8. Good Times, Bad Times
9. Tell Me
10. I Just Want To Make Love To You
11. Time Is On My Side
12. Congratulations
13. Little Red Rooster
14. Off The Hook
15. Heart Of Stone
16. What A Shame
17. The Last Time
18. Play With Fire
19. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
20. The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man
21. The Spider and The Fly
22. Get Off Of My Cloud
23. I'm Free
24. The Singer Not The Song
25. As Tears Go By

Disc 2:

1. Gotta Get Away
2. 19th Nervous Breakdown
3. Sad Day
4. Paint It, Black
5. Stupid Girl
6. Long Long While
7. Mothers Little Helper
8. Lady Jane
9. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
10. Who's Driving Your Plane?
11. Let's Spend The Night Together
12. Ruby Tuesday
13. We Love You
14. Dandelion
15. She's A Rainbow
16. 2000 Light Years From Home
17. In Another Land
18. The Lantern
19. Jumpin' Jack Flash
20. Child Of The Moon (rmk)

Disc 3:

1. Street Fighting Man
2. No Expectations
3. Surprise, Surprise
4. Honky Tonk Woman
5. You Can't Always Get What You Want
6. Memo From Turner
7. Brown Sugar
8. Wild Horses
9. I Don't Know Why aka Don't Know Why I Love You
10. Try A Little Harder
11. Out Of Time
12. Jiving Sister Fanny
13. Sympathy For The Devil

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79346 in Music
• Released on: 2002-11-01
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Original recording remastered, Box set, SACD, Hybrid SACD
• Dimensions: .46 pounds

CD Description
THE SINGLES COLLECTION: THE LONDON YEARS comes as advertised--the box includes every American and British A-side and B-side the Rolling Stones released between 1963 and 1971 (after which the band began releasing discs under the Rolling Stones Records imprint). The fantastic speed and scope of the Stones' early artistic development have few parallels in popular music, and this collection not only details that incredible process, but serves as a microcosm of '60s pop culture as well.
From the down-and-dirty Chicago-style blues and R&B of the group's early covers (Chuck Berry's "Come On", Willie Dixon's "I Just Wanna Make Love to You") to the dreamy chamber pop of "Lady Jane" and the proto-hard rock of "StreetFightin' Man", the band was always on the cutting edge, both reacting to and anticipating cultural and musical trends. One listen to this box, however, reveals that, unlike the Beatles, the Stones seldom veered far from their roots, alwaysinjecting a vital dose of raw sexuality and pure rock & roll spirit into even the boldest of experiments.

Customer Reviews

Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.
With so many Rolling Stones compilations now on the market, it must be difficult to know where to start. Well, it all depends on what you are after. Allow me to illustrate. If you want a concise package of their best material from their best era, then go for Hot Rocks. If you're after an overview of their entire career, then it's Forty Licks all the way. However, if you want a comprehensive anthology of the Stones' evolution from blues wannabes to world superstars, then they don't come much better than this.

Strange as it seems in this day and age, the Stones were essentially a singles band up until around 1968. In those days, a-sides were how a band was defined. But the b-sides were important as well, and people used to actually listen to them, unlike now. Here, we get all of their early singles - a-sides and b-sides - gathered together back to back onto 3 discs. So, whilst we get all the usual suspects, like Not Fade Away, Satisfaction and Get Off My Cloud, we are also treated to such early gems as Little By Little, Off The Hook and The Spider And The Fly. Along with Paint It Black and Mother's Little Helper, we also get Long Long While and We Love You. Absolutely Superb!

The only place where this collection falters is, wait for it, around 1968, when the Stones - indeed the world - became less interested in singles and more into albums. Hence the album track Gimme Shelter does not qualify for a place here, whereas b-sides Surprise Surprise and Try A Little Harder do. Hmm, shame. Still, the compilers have used the opportunity to gather up some half decent loose material from that time, such as Jiving Sister Fanny and Mick Jagger's Memo From Turner, so bravo for doing that! All of which makes this an indispensable collection - five stars!

Expensive but packed with memories...
For those seeking a cross section of the Stones' best early period work this album is of limited value, missing - as it does - key tracks from their first albums. For those seeking a compilation of early period "Greatest Hits" it's a fairly expensive luxury. So... why 4 stars?

Easy... if you were living in London when "Come On" was released, if you went to your local record store and played it and it's marvellous "B" side - "I Want To Be Loved" - on your mono, low-fi record player over and over again, if you went back to the store and bought single after single as they were released and put both sides through the same repeat play process, if you still have them in your attic in a lovingly scratched, wholly unplayable state or if you've lost them over the years... then this is all you could ask for.

"B" sides were important then and, with a group like the Rolling Stones you played them, sometimes as much as the "A" sides. Disc One contains all the "B" side classics: "I Want To Be Loved", "Stoned", "Little By Little", "Good Times, Bad Times", "Off The Hook", "Play With Fire" etc. And, while the "B" sides on CD Two and Three are more patchy and less relevant, the A sides on these two CD's are a pretty comprehensive "Greatest Hits" collection in their own right.

So, if you were there and you want to be there again, then CD One is an indispensable memory bank: play it straight through and you can almost hear the 45's dropping down from the multidisk arm. And if you weren't, well this is what it was like!

Comprehensive sixties collection
The Rolling Stones have had a very long career, but it their sixties music on which their reputation is based, and it is that music which this set focuses on. Originally released as a boxed set, it was later re-released as a triple CD. In 2002, a new re-mastered version of the triple CD was released with improved sound quality.

Their first single was Come on, a cover of a Chuck Berry song. It made the top thirty in Britain. The follow-up single, a cover of the Beatles' I wanna be your man, fared better, just failing to make the British top ten. Next came Not fade away, a cover of a Buddy Holly song but with a Bo Diddley beat. Continuing with covers, this was followed by Its all over now, originally recorded by the Valentinos, a group which included Bobby Womack. In November 1964, Little red rooster (a hitherto obscure blues song) became another cover hit. Like Its all over now, it was a British number one. In 1965, they had phenomenal success with their own self-penned songs. The last time, (I can't get no) Satisfaction and Get off of my cloud were all major international hits. All three were British number ones.

All the above classics are here, plus those that followed including Jumping Jack Flash and Honky tonk women. You also get their versions of songs they wrote but allowed others to have hits with, like As tears go by (Marianne Faithful) and Out of time (Chris Farlowe). Ruby Tuesday was only a B-side but was later covered by Melanie who was very successful with it.

This is an excellent collection of music by one of the most important groups in rock history, when they were at their peak.