With the release of the remastered super audio CDs (SACD) of the Stones ABCKO catalog (which includes all the early Decca/London material), there is now some confusion as they have released some of the early albums in both US and UK versions.

This is the version of Big Hits (High Tide & Green Grass) that was released on Apr 1, 1966 in the US. The American record company execs had tampered with the original UK design of most of the Stones albums up to this time, often releasing inferior American versions. On this one they reversed the trend and the UK design, which was released Nov 4, 1966, did not include Paint It, Black. The UK version substituted Mother's Little Helper and added 3 additional tracks (Take It Or Leave It, Out Of Time, and What To do).

This US version covered their American hits from 1964-1966. Here are the songs on this album, in the order they were released as singles in the U.S.:

There is an interesting story about the cover art and 8 page photo book that was part of the original album. The photos were originally done for an album to be called Could You Walk On The Water?, but the concept was so controversial at that time that the photo of the Band walking on the water of a California reservoir was dropped and the photo of them standing on the bank was used. The album was renamed After-Math (although the American version dropped the hyphen) and the artwork was used for this greatest hits album.

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 Greatest Rock And Roll Band in the World.

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.

High Tide was originally issued as separate US and UK albums with slightly different track listings. This CD reissue has superb sound quality and contains most of their early classics. The exclusion of Lady Jane and Little Red Rooster is unfortunate. But there's enough of their brilliant classics in various styles here, for example brooding ballads like The Last Time, Time Is On My Side and Play With Fire. As Tears Go By was of course a massive hit for Marianne Faithfull. Classic, raucous rock surfaces on Get Off My Cloud and I Can Get No (Satisfaction) - amongst its many cover versions was a 1974 hit by the flash-in-the-pan Bubblerock! Other great songs include the visceral Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown and Not Fade Away. I'm giving it only four stars, though, since the album Through The Past Darkly has a better selection of their early work, while the two Hot Rocks compilations contain a wider selection of their classic 60's work. But this is still a great album.

Back in the days of records, the first three "albums" I ever bought for myself were SURREALISTIC PILLOW by the Jefferson Airplane and AFTERMATH and BIG HITS (HIGH TIDE AND GREEN GRASS) by the Stones. Looking back, that was a great purchase. All are classics and are loaded with absolute killer songs. On BIG HITS, "It's All Over Now" and "The Last Time" were the tunes that first made me a Stones fan, and "Satisfaction" is considered by many to be the greatest single rock song of all time. At a time when the Beatles usually occupied the top spot on the "charts", Satisfaction" was a monster hit and dominated radio airplay for months during the spring and summer of 1965. With the recent purchase of this CD, I now have all three of the albums from my first purchase on disc.

BIG HITS was the first of many collections of Stones "greatest hits". It was the definitive collection when I first got it, but because it's their earliest greatest hits release, many of the cuts on this disc are relatively unpolished and some are now less well-known than later material. Nevertheless, these are still great songs and, on it's own, this disc is still very much worth owning. The problem is that, if you're a real fan, you have these songs on other discs, so this one is a bit superfluous. Conversely, if you're just a casual listener, there are now several Stones "hits" collections that are bigger and more complete.

I don't want to downplay this disc. It's still a great set and there are people out there that will want to own it, but most will simply want to look elsewhere for Stones collections, and that's why I've only given it 4 stars. It's a 5 star body of material, but it's utility has been outmoded by subsequent releases. Still, if it fills a need for you, or a gap in your music library, go for it. It remains a superb body of work and the sound quality on this disc is quite good.

Warning --- NOT a SACD disc - it is a DSD remaster - sounds really good - but NOT SACD good.

You can't go wrong with this one. It features the early Stones singles that "jumped out of the radio". Satisfaction, Get Off My Cloud, The Last Time, It's All Over Now, Tell Me, etc. etc. I agree there may be more compilations that cover a more comprehensive look at the stones career, but I recommend getting the Vol. 2 as well (Through the Past Darkly, Big Hits Vol 2) since it picks up with singles Paint It Black in '66 and goes through their Honky Tonk Women era of '69. The remastered sound is clean and spacious with more definition on lows as well as highs. Vol. 1 is the same as the early release in 1966, that was worn out by every college student throughout America. It also includes a picture book with color photos of the early Stones. A fabulous greatest hits package by one of the greatest rock bands in history.