The Rolling Stones
(England's Newest Hit Makers)(1964)


 

  1.Not Fade Away
  2.Route 66
  3.I Just Want To Make Love To You
  4.Honest I Do 
  5.Now I've Got A Witness
  6.Little By Little
  7.I'm a King Bee
  8.Carol
  9.Tell Me
 10.Can I Get a Witness
 11.You Can Make it if You Try
 12.Walking the Dog

 

The debut offering from The Rolling Stones, England’s Newest Hitmakers, came out in 1964, and in many ways, it was exactly the kind of record you’d expect from a British R&B outfit still wet behind the ears. No surprises in terms of format—nearly all covers, the safe route taken by most labels at the time who weren’t yet ready to gamble on original material from their new signings. But even with the musical training wheels on, it was clear these guys weren’t just going to play nice.

What separated The Stones from the rest of the pack was their rawness. While most of the early British invasion acts were filtering American pop through a layer of politeness, The Rolling Stones were pulling straight from the darker, sweatier corners of American R&B and blues. The songs might have been someone else’s, but the grit and swagger were all their own. Even in tidy suits, they sounded dangerous. To conservative ears of the day, they weren’t just another rock group—they were a warning sign.

And the funny thing is, England’s Newest Hitmakers is an excellent album. A lot of these early British records sound quaint today, but this one still breathes. The Chuck Berry cover Carol swings with sneering confidence, Not Fade Away (from the Buddy Holly catalog) shimmies with menace, and Route 66 rumbles forward like a train that’s a few seconds from coming off the rails. They go deeper too, pulling out Willie Dixon’s I Just Want to Make Love to You and Slim Harpo’s I’m a King Bee—cuts that would have felt more at home in a Chicago bar than on a British stage, but the Stones make it stick.

There’s even an early instrumental, Now I’ve Got a Witness, written by none other than Phil Spector. It’s a curious piece—perhaps not essential, but it adds texture to the album and hints at the larger sonic landscapes the band would later explore. The big surprise, though, is the lone original: Tell Me. A Jagger/Richards composition, and shockingly good for what it is. Lyrically simple, yes, but clocking in at over four minutes and fitting seamlessly with the rest of the material, it showed that this band wasn’t going to rely on others’ songs forever.

In the full sweep of their career, England’s Newest Hitmakers rarely ranks as a fan favorite—too primitive, too reliant on borrowed tunes—but dismissing it entirely is a mistake. It’s not essential in the sense that later masterpieces are, but it’s a fascinating first chapter from a band already intent on rewriting the rulebook. Listen to it again, and it still sounds like a group about to explode.


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