Singles Collection: The London Years

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Manufacturer: Abkco

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Binding: Audio CD
Brand: ROLLING STONES
EAN: 0018771923121
Format: Box set
Label: Abkco
Manufacturer: Abkco
Number Of Discs: 3
Publisher: Abkco
Release Date: 2002-09-03
Studio: Abkco

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Editorial Reviews:

This box set is a compilation of all the Rolling Stones' singles from 1963 to 1971, including A-sides, B-sides and alternate B-sides from the U.S. and the U.K. releases. These 58 songs on 3 discs have been digitally remastered with most tracks in mono to reflect the sound of the original 45s.

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 "Street Fightin' 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, always injecting a vital dose of raw sexuality and pure rock & roll spirit into even the boldest of experiments.

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Not in SACD Format
Comment: Contrary to the product title and description, this item is CD-only. If you want the SACD format, look elsewhere. Apparently, ABKCO is responsible for this confusion. [...]

Customer Rating:

Summary: Rich collection of the Stones' earlier work
Comment: Many of the items on this album have been released before in well known collections (Hot Rocks, More Hot Rocks: Big Hits & Fazed Cookies, etc.). However, this provides a nice survey of what the subtitle refers to as "The London Years."

Especially welcome is Disc One. Here are a number of early works that draw upon the blues tradition out of which the Stones came. Their covers are as interesting, in some senses, as their own music. Chuck Berry's "Come on" illustrates. A nice rollicking version. Some of Willie Dixon's compositions are covered (e.g., "I Want to Be Loved," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and "Little Red Rooster" [a cool version]). One of Buddy Holly's hits, "Not Fade Away," comes off well. Bobby Womack's "It's All over Now" is solidly sung (indeed, in a later Rolling Stones' tour, I saw Bobby Womack sing this as part of the opening for the concert). Stevie Wonder's "I Don't Know Why" is also included. The other songs on Disc One are primarily works by Jagger-Richards themselves. Toward the end of this are quintessential Rolling Stones works of the mid-1960s, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Get off of My Cloud."

The second disc covers the years from "19th Nervous Breakdown" through the psychedelic album, "Their Satanic Majesties Request." Some rather little known works appear, but most are well known. Because of that, this covers much the same territory as "Hot Rocks" and is less interesting than the first CD. The final disc has a lot of the "greatest hits" of the late 1960s and early 1970s (think "Street Fighting Man," "Honky Tonk Women," "Brown Sugar," and "Sympathy for the Devil"). There are also some mildly entertaining trifles ("Jiving Sister Fanny" and "Memo from Turner").

The most interesting of the CDs, then, is the first, since it shows off nicely some of the foundational works upon which the Rolling Stones' oeuvre is based.

Customer Rating:

Summary: There are better choices for Rolling Stones GHs.
Comment: This box set was release in the late 80s during the peak of the box sets revival. The problem with the collection here is that it included all of the 45 records on 3 CDs. This may seem like a good ideal, and I will be the first to admit it, I thought it was great until I got it home and started listening to it. The problem is that not only does it included all of the hits, from "Satification" to "Get off my Cloud" to "Sympathy For The Devil", it includes also the B-side of the 45s, which include such songs as "Little Red Rooster", "Jiving Sister Fanny" and "Who's Driving Your Plane?". The issue is not the good stuff, it the filler that kills it. The Stones have way to many great songs, both before and after "Exile on Main Street" then to waste time listening to almost half the songs on this album. If you love the stones in the London Years, trade this in for Hot Rocks.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great Fun. A Musical Biography of A Legendary Band's Early Years
Comment: This album is simply great fun from beginning to end. Made up of all the material on the Stones' singles, A and B sides, from the London years, it is a grand tour of their early years and their evolution as one of the top rock and roll bands of all time. The mix is good enough on the CD that the mono still sounds fine to me on a stereo system, so I have no complaints there. The sound is raw and energetic, much the way I expect their early concerts sounded. If you are a Stones fan, this is an essential addition to your music collection. So good that when the CD ends, you want to give it another listen.

Customer Rating:

Summary: I'm gonna tear my hair out just 4U!
Comment: Many, like me, read these reviews as a pastime. There are a few reviewers who must be more audiophilic than simply lovers of the Stones, or rock, or any particular group. In this particular case, since it is such a comprehensive and large box set--if you remember these were all singles, that's a LOT of vinyl replaced by 3 little discs--I am not going to be so particular.

This is the first boxed set or CD of any kind my goil friend, and now wife, risked buying finicky me: she felt she could not go wrong! And she was 100% correct. Mono, stereo, SACD, AIFF, AAC, whatEVAH--If you were jumping up and down to these songs over some tiny transistor AM radio in the sixties, and singing these songs in the bathroom, and they came out of your dashboard on Saturday night when you had your date parked out in the woods, BUY THIS! It sounds great, absolutely amazing, song after song, compared to what we had then, and the hits keep right on coming. Try to decide which songs Mick was messed up on. Figure out which ones were influenced by some other band from that era when they came out. Dig how amazing Brain Jones was always!

I don't think you can pack more coolness into a boxt set, as someone else said. This set of mine is like fifteen years old now, and I put it on iTunes a few months back. It gets played, in part, nearly every day, and I have 60 Gigs of iTunes! How good is that?

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