Rolling Stones Big Hits (High Tide & Green Grass) CD

Full Title - Big Hits (High Tide & Green Grass). Remastered reissue of 1966 compilation, suitable for standard & 'Super Audio' CD players. Digipak.

The Rolling Stones: Keith Richards (vocals, guitar); Mick Jagger (vocals); Brian Jones (guitar); Bill Wyman (bass); Charlie Watts (drums).
Recorded in London, England, Chicago, Illinois & Hollywood, California between 1963 & 1966.
The first hits compilation of the Rolling Stones is still one of the most potent collections of singles that one can find. Listening to it in 1966 or today, one can understand how, almost prematurely for the 1960s -- as most of the material here dates from 1964 or 1965 -- the Stones set themselves up as the decade's most visible rock & roll rebels. The defiant, in-your-face fuzztone riff and sexually frustrated lyrics of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and the frenetic pounding punk anthem "Get Off of My Cloud" are highlights of a 12-song set that has no weak points, only peaks -- the louder-than-life rhythm guitars on "It's All Over Now" and "The Last Time," the wailing R&B of "Time Is on My Side," the balladry, folk, and soul style of "As Tears Go By" and "Tell Me," and all of the rest make for a body of work that's still amazing to hear decades after the fact. Appearing as it did in the late winter of 1966, this collection completely missed the group's drift into psychedelia, and it has since been supplanted by Hot Rocks and More Hot Rocks, but Big Hits is still the most concentrated dose of the early Stones at their most accessible that is to be had, short of simply playing their first five U.S. albums. The artwork and photography were pretty cool too, and the original LP had one of rock's early classic gatefold album designs. ~ Bruce Eder
Like its 1969 second volume THROUGH THE PAST DARKLY, BIG HITS (HIGH TIDE & GREEN GRASS) is a fine collection of '60s Stones classics, but it's a rather bluesier one. This is exemplified by such rootsy tracks as the redefined Buddy Holly tune "Not Fade Away" and the R&B bounce of Bobby Womack's "It's All Over Now." Not that the group's original songs were lacking in grit or attitude; the vituperative "Get Off My Cloud," delivered in Mick Jagger's best Sidcup dialect still sounds magnificent, as does Brian Jones's booming Vox pearl guitar on "The Last Time" and Keith Richards's opening chords to the aforementioned "Not Fade Away." This is a disc to be handed down to your children.

NME (Magazine) (7/8/95, p.46) - 9 (out of 10) - "...top stuff..."