Stones Singles Get Boxed

A trio of box sets will compile the Rolling Stones' ABKCO hits and B sides starting with The Rolling Stones Singles 1963-1965, due May 4th.

The twelve-disc set will replicate the original artwork of the Stones' original 45s along with a new essay about the band by Nigel Williamson. Among the cuts on 1963-1965 are the band's Chuck Berry cover "Come On" from 1963 with its Muddy Waters B side "I Want to Be Loved." Other highlights of the set include a cover of the Beatles' "I Wanna Be Your Man," the instrumental "Stoned" that was nixed from a U.S. release, and three Eps -- The Rolling Stones EP, Five by Five and the Got Live If You Want It EP -- that have never been released on CD before. The band's early original hits also surface with "Time Is on My Side" and "Heart of Stone."

The second and third sets, The Rolling Stones Singles 1965-1967 and The Rolling Stones Singles 1968-1971 cover the band's most productive hitmaking years, when the Stones placed fifteen singles in the Top Forty including six Number Ones. 1965-1967 will be released later in the summer, with 1968-1971 due in the fall.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

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."

More Song Stories entries »

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