If you're in the market for just one Stones album this year, make it A Bigger Bang. But if you happen to be shopping for an additional stocking stuffer, you could do much worse than this odds-and-sods set. Most of the tracks on Rarities aren't very rare — all of them have been previously released in some form. But this disc works as a discriminating collection of lesser-known gems. The live tracks are revelatory: They include a torrid "Wild Horses," from 1995's live album Stripped, and an achy rendition of "Beast of Burden," from Sucking in the Seventies. The stunner is a live version of "Tumbling Dice," inexplicably left off Stripped. The first two verses (recorded at a rehearsal, then spliced together with a full-on live performance) are backed only by Chuck Leavell's rollicking piano and some righteous hand claps. Then there's a track that captures the early spark of the Stones: a loving cover of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock," recorded in Leeds, England, in 1971, at the height of the band's powers. Once a B side of "Brown Sugar," it's a keeper — and it has finally found a loving home in a good neighborhood.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."