Many of the Rolling Stones’ catalog of albums recorded between 1963 and 1970, largely by the original Jagger/Richards/Jones/Watts/Wyman lineup, are being reissued by ABKCO Records throughout the remainder of 2023 and into early 2024 with vinyl editions of these 16 releases on 180-gram LPs. Some of these titles have been out-of-print as stand-alone vinyl records for the past 37 years.
Forty Licks, the album that gathered together fully three dozen of the most enduring and anthemic songs from the group’s peerless career and added four then-new tracks to their incredible story, is to be released for the first time, in a lavish, limited edition four-disc, 180-gram black vinyl version, housed in a wide-spined gatefold sleeve, on July 28.
Today (July 21), ABKCO is premiering a new visualizer video for “Gimme Shelter” which features an animated zoetrope of the cake from the Let It Bleed cover art. Best Classic Bands is proud to debut the clip.
The Forty Licks collection includes 20 (U.S.) Top 10 singles of which 13 broke into the Top 5 and seven going all the way to #1 including “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Miss You,” “Brown Sugar,” “Paint It, Black,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Get Off of My Cloud” and “Angie.”
During the 1960s, it was customary for album release versions to differ depending on the territory in which they were released and this was the case with the Stones in that era. Their U.K. label, Decca Records, and U.S. label, London Records, had separate schedules, often utilizing different cover art and different tune stacks for a given title. In the case of Aftermath, the first Stones album containing only original Jagger/Richards compositions, Americans were treated to the groundbreaking hit “Paint It, Black” kicking off side 1, taking the place of “Mother’s Little Helper” (and sleeve art featuring David Bailey’s haunting color photograph of the band members with faces blurred) on the U.K. version.
Their 1967 opus Between the Buttons (U.S.) which, despite utilizing near-identical cover art as its British counterpart, has the distinction of containing the number one hit “Ruby Tuesday” and the controversial “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” A flurry of collections will be reissued, including the U.K. and U.S. versions of the Stones’ first hits compilation Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) that arrived on June 9 and June 16 respectively. They were followed on June 16 by the U.S.-only release of Flowers (1967), which partially served to give the American market songs that were omitted from the London Records-issued Aftermath and Between the Buttons, but also contained three previously unreleased tracks (“My Girl,” “Ride On, Baby,” “Sittin’ On a Fence”).
The vinyl reissues are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
The band’s first official rarities collection Metamorphosis will get its own vinyl reissue on July 14. Originally released in 1975 by ABKCO, and consisting of outtakes and Jagger/Richards demos written for other artists recorded between 1964 and 1970, many tracks utilize guest musicians such as Jimmy Page (“Heart of Stone”) and John McLaughlin (“I’d Much Rather Be With the Boys”).
On September 15, both the U.S. and U.K. versions of Out of Our Heads (1965) will be reissued. This title marked a milestone in the Rolling Stones’ career – it was their first number one U.S. album, containing their first chart topping U.S. single “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” It was also their last album of this era to primarily consist of covers (Don Covay’s “Mercy, Mercy,” Marvin Gaye’s “Hitch Hike” and Solomon Burke’s Bert Berns-penned “Cry To Me,” among many others). The U.K. version contains two underrated pop gems – “I’m Free” and the sublimely cynical “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man.”
The Rolling Stones’ second hits collection Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (1969), notable for its octagonal sleeve and epitaph for the then-recently departed Brian Jones, will receive its vinyl reissue on October 20 (U.K. version) and November 10 (U.S. version). The former contains “You Better Move On,” “Sittin’ On a Fence” and “We Love You,” while the latter contains “Paint It, Black” and “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In the Shadow?” Virtually every track on the stop sign-shaped package is ubiquitous, from “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” to “She’s a Rainbow.”
December 1 will see the reissue of the aptly titled sophomore U.K. album The Rolling Stones No. 2 (1965), as well as December’s Children (and Everybody’s) (1965), an American release gathering some of the material from Decca’s Out of Our Heads as well as the hit single “Get Off of My Cloud” and “As Tears Go By.” On December 1, Got Live If You Want It! (1966) will again see the light of day. Only released in the U.S., this live album contains performances from three concerts in England recorded earlier in the year, including a barn-burning version of “I’m Alright.” The album is fleshed out with two earlier studio recordings: “Fortune Teller” from 1963 and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” from 1965, with added crowd ambiance.
Both originally released in 1964, ABKCO plans on vinyl reissues for the debut U.S. album (England’s Newest Hit Makers) on October 6 and the debut U.K. album (The Rolling Stones) in early 2024. Their third U.S. album The Rolling Stones, Now! from 1965 will also be reissued in 2024. The latter contains their number one UK hit “Little Red Rooster” (a cover of the Howlin’ Wolf song written by Willie Dixon) as well as the Jagger/Richards ballad “Heart of Stone.”
These 16 180-gram vinyl reissues will join the Rolling Stones back catalog that ABKCO has long kept in print, including 12 x 5 (1964), Aftermath (UK version, 1966), Between the Buttons (UK version, 1967), Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967), Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969), the live album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert (1970), and the collections Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (1971) and More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) from 1972.
Related: Our Album Rewind of Let It Bleed
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Jump into a conversationAllen Klein really struck gold with the Stones. And that mine keeps spitting out nugget after nugget after nugget . . .