Greatest Greatest Hits

All the best of the early Stones are on this album, which makes it a great intro to the band and a pure pleasure to listen to!

Just look at the list of 21 classic songs you get here

While I am writing a review of this two-CD collection of classic early Stones tracks, Hot Rocks 1964-1971 basically sells itself. You get all of the best songs from one of rock's most successful, long-established groups. These songs are probably older than Keith Richards' wife, but they still stand head and shoulders above most of the music released in the last three decades. On most retrospective collections, people look down the track list and ask why is that song on here or say they don't even remember this or that track. Not so with the Stones' Hot Rocks - each of the 21 song titles is immediately recognizable.



It's great to hear some of the really classic songs any time you want. I'm actually rather sick of Satisfaction because that sometimes seems to be the only Stones track the deejays think they can play. It's a great song, but it's far from the Stones' best. I'll take Paint It Black any day of the week - this song has a uniquely haunting quality that reaches out and grabs you, and many may remember how it was used to perfection in the film Full Metal Jacket. CD number one has a great mix of fast and slow songs: Jagger gets mellow on the likes of Time Is On My Side, Play With Fire, and As Tears Go By, but the truly memorable songs are rocking tracks such as Get Off of My Cloud, Mother's Little Helper, and 19th Nervous Breakdown. CD number two finds the guys a little farther along in their careers, and it's not hard to hear the maturity of the sound as the Stones' begin experimenting with different styles and adding an unquantifiable sense of polish to their work. Jumping Jack Flash, Sympathy For the Devil, Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar - we all know and love these. I'm actually fonder of the tracks that get a little less attention, though: Street Fighting Man, Gimme Shelter, You Can't Always Get What You Want, and Wild Horses. I only have one little complaint: Midnight Rambler (the only live song included here) just seems to have pretty poor sound quality.



If you've read this far, you'll realize that all I'm really doing is telling you what songs are on Hot Rocks 1964-1971 - that's really all you need to know. If the titles alone don't convince you to buy this collection, nothing I say here will show you the error of your ways, either.

Still the best early Stones compilation

Spanning the first seven years of the Stones' recording career, "Hot Rocks" includes almost every song the casual fan could want from that period.

It doesn't include their earliest blues and R&B covers, which is a shame, but once you're hooked I'm sure you can find the money to go out and get the Stones' first four LPs anyway ;-)



But look at what is here: "Satisfaction", "Heart Of Stone", "Honky Tonk Women", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Brown Sugar", "Sympathy For The Devil" and many, many more. This excellent, attractively packaged and well annotated compilation truly provides the cream of the crop.

Get "Hot Rocks" and "Jump Back: The Best Of The Rolling Stones 1971-1993" and you'll have a much better career overview than with the good-but-not-great 2002 box set "Forty Licks".