Singles Collection: The London Years

The Rolling Stones

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Get Satisfaction Here

During a 2005 interview, Keith Richards was asked about the many recordings languishing in the Rolling Stones' overstuffed vault. He acknowledged there's a lot of material, and hinted that some was unfinished or otherwise deemed by vocalist Mick Jagger not worthy of release. "Sometimes we pile up more stuff than anybody can handle," he laughed, recalling that the hit "Start Me Up" was found six years after it was initially recorded. "It would take a comprehensive inventory, and we're not very comprehensive."

Until such a set comes to pass, and Richards suggests it'll be when he and his bandmates are dead, there are ways other than the original albums to appreciate the Stones' legacy, among them this chronologically arranged set of singles, complete with B sides. From early bursts like "Not Fade Away" and "Time Is on My Side," "Let's Spend the Night Together" and the immortal "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," this set charts the individual steps that led to a rock and roll dynasty. Though the band was, from its earliest days, intent on putting together coherent and well-paced albums, its singles stand as a separate legacy; they're some of the most rousing, melodically intricate three-minute masterworks in rock history. And the B sides, many of them blistering blues played by students not content to be copycats, amount to an alternate history of the group—those looking for new reasons to be awed by the Stones are referred to the original "Off the Hook" or such covers as Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "Little Red Rooster." The enduring chart-toppers have appeared on countless anthologies (with 1972's Hot Rocks still the best of them), but this head-spinning collection shows just how inventive the Stones were on a regular basis, before they took that "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" stuff too seriously.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1989, Abkco
Key Tracks: "Satisfaction," "Little Red Rooster," "Let's Spend the Night Together."
Catalog Choice: Out of Our Heads; Aftermath
Next Stop: The Beatles: Anthology
Book Page: 658

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