This is the later May 29, 1964 - U.S. London Records vinyl version of The Rolling Stones, often listed as England's Newest Hitmakers. The UK version has not been released on CD. Here is how you know the difference:

April 17, 1964 - U.K. Decca Records vinyl version
.....includes Mona (I Need You Baby), does not include Not Fade Away
.....Tell Me version 1 (long 4:08 version without fade out but with guitar break)
May 29, 1964 - U.S. London Records vinyl version
.....includes Not Fade Away , does not include Mona (I Need You Baby)
.....Tell Me version 1 (short 2:59 version with fade out but without guitar break)

You will find Mona (I Need You Baby) on the CD release of The Rolling Stones, Now!

The album was originally released in the UK without any title....the Band wanted people to ask for "the Rolling Stones album", but the U.S. record company execs added "England's Newest Hitmakers" to the cover. Some of the Amazon reviews of this album sound like the reviewer is hearing the Stones for the 1st time. Come On!.... this one features no less than *5* signature songs! The best version of Carol done until the Stones themselves topped it with the live versions in the 80s, the classic Route 66 (which they still do), Mick's 1st signature song in Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away, Willie Dixon's I Just Want To Make Love To You (years before Mick would make headlines mouthing the much less controversial Let's Spend The Night Together on the Ed Sullivan Show), and the 1st Jagger/Richards composition Tell Me (which is still hard to get out of your head). And this doesn't even get into the 2 Motown groove pieces Can I Get A Witness and Walking the Dog. Now, try to think of another band that came anywhere near this on their 1st release....not many....perhaps the Beatles, but jeesh, at least the Stones didn't do any Broadway hits!

This is the remastered super audio CDs (SACD) of the Stones ABCKO catalog (which includes all the early Decca/London material. ABCKO acquired the Stones' catalog after Allen Klein became their manager in 1965. The resulting legal battles produced releases that the Stones opposed (they took out full page adds asking fans not to buy them), including the controversial Metamorphosis releases (which are now available on CD for the 1st time ever). But the sad fact is that the Stones lost control of their great early material. With these remastered SACD releases, we at last have some idea of what they really sounded like in the studio. I guess if we had these 40 years ago they would have ended up Greatest Rock And Roll Band in the Universe instead of just our tiny little World.

The tracks were recorded in 1964 as follows:
Jan 3, 1964 at Regent Sound, London
.....Carol
.....Route 66
.....Walking the Dog
.....You Can Make It If You Try
Jan 10, 1964 at Regent Sound, London
.....I Just Want To Make Love To You
.....I'm A King Bee
.....Honest I Do
Jan 28, Feb 3-4, 1964 at Regent Sound, London
These were the famous sessions with Phil Spector, Gene Pitney, & Graham Nash that also produced the profane "Andrew's Blues" and the drunken "Spector & Pitney Came Too" that were never released.
.....Little By Little
.....Can I Get A Witness
.....Now I've Got A Witness
.....Tell Me
.....Not Fade Away

This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own
collection.

14 of 14 found the following review helpful:

The Stones way back when  Nov 18, 2002
By Martin Lemos
The Rolling Stones way back when started off as a R&B, Blues band that interpreted the songs of their idols. On this album, we get to see the influences first hand, and I can only wish that they still made songs like this. There are some good songs here that only casual Stones fans wont know, but they are missing some great music. I think that the listener should give these following songs a real listen to: NOT FADE AWAY, ROUTE 66, I JUST WANT TO MAKE LOVE TO YOU, HONEST I DO, CAN I GET A WITNESS, LITTLE BY LITTLE, I'M A KING BEE. These songs are great and fun to listen to. With the bonus of being remastered, I think compared to the earlier CD, you can hear a difference. I highly recommend this CD for every STONES fan, and this isnt a bad place for some casual fans to start.

11 of 11 found the following review helpful:

Passage of years has done nothing to dim this star....  Apr 26, 2007
By collegemoney
As time passed by, my sense that this and "Out of Our Heads" were their finest efforts never really left me. Not to say that enormous chunks of wonderful stuff didn't follow, of course, unlike many bands who peaked on their early releases and never challenged again. I just loved the raw passion in the way they covered material like "Not Fade Away" "Hitch Hike" and "Walking the Dog," and made it their own. To me, these well chosen covers were much more appealing than some of the later "middle of the LP" songs from their own writing. And, as for "Tell Me," it just doesn't get much better than that!

13 of 16 found the following review helpful:

The Savage Young Stones  Oct 13, 2004
By Johnny Heering "trivia buff"
This was the Rolling Stones first album, and it was an excellent debut. Having not yet developed as songwriters, nine of the twelve songs here are covers of American rock, R&B, and blues songs. The album gets off to a great start, with a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away", which was the Stones first UK Top 10 hit. Then the band goes through several other great covers, which they probably had played many times at their live appearances. As for the original material... "Now I've Got a Witness" is an enjoyable instrumental jam, with the title obviously being a play on "Can I Get a Witness", the Marvin Gaye song that they cover here. "Little By Little" is a fun bluesy number, which Phil Spector shared credit for writing with "Nanker Phelge". The real gem of the original songs is "Tell Me", which is a tender ballad that probably caught a lot of people by surprise at the time. "Tell Me" went on to become the Stones first US Top 30 hit (it was not released as a single in the UK). A great debut by one of the greatest bands of all times, and highly recommended. Oh, I should mention that despite this CD being labeled as "stereo", it is actually in mono.

10 of 12 found the following review helpful:

One of the all time greats!  Oct 14, 2002
By Steve Garza
Yeah, yeah, we all know about the Stone's history...we've all read the same books and reviews. This is the band that made me force my mother to buy me a [money] electric guitar! After learning how to play guitar with this record more than 30 years ago (I still use the same 3 chords), I can FINALLY HEAR THE DISTORTED TUBE AMPLIFIERS ON ROUTE 66. This re-mastered version brings to life the concept of "live in the studio". There wasn't much dubbing on this LP. I first purchased Ya ya's and Let It Bleed when the re-masters were released. They sound better than the first (1986) CD releases. But the difference is PROFOUND on the early recordings. Listen to Keith's already dirty guitar work on "Little by Little", his amplifier was LOUD! You can hear Jagger's breathing into mike and the wailing backing vocals on "Tell Me" much louder and clearer than on my prized mono UK vinyl original! True, they couldn't sing very well, God love 'em, but neither could I! Yeah man...the Beatles were a cool band, but who could figure out how to play "Sgt. Pepper" on a Kay guitar? I'll stick w/ Mick 'n Keef...a real working man's band they were!

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