Singles Collection:The London Years (1989)


 

Disc One
  1.Come On
  2.I Want to Be Loved
  3.I Wanna Be Your Man
  4.Stoned
  5.Not Fade Away
  6.Little By Little
  7.It's All Over Now
  8.Good Times, Bad Times
  9.Tell Me
 10.I Just Want to Make Love To You
 11.Time is on My Side
 12.Congratulations
 13.Little Red Rooster
 14.Off the Hook
 15.Heart of Stone
 16.What a Shame
 17.The Last Time
 18.Play with Fire
 19.(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
 20.The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man
 21.The Spider and the Fly
 22.Get Off My Cloud
 23.I'm Free
 24.The Singer Not the Song
 25.As Tears Go By

Disc Two
  1.Gotta Get Away
  2.19th Nervous Breakdown
  3.Sad Day
  4.Paint it Black
  5.Stupid Girl
  6.Long Long While
  7.Mother's Little Helper
  8.Lady Jane
  9.Have You Seen Your Mother Baby,
    Standing in the Shadow?
 10.Who's Driving Your Plane
 11.Let's Spend the Night Together
 12.Ruby Tuesday
 13.We Love You
 14.Dandelion
 15.She's a Rainboy
 16.2000 Light Years From Home
 17.In Another Land
 18.The Lantern
 19.Jumpin' Jack Flash
 20.Child of the Moon

Disc Three
  1.Street Fighting Man
  2.No Expectations
  3.Surprise, Surprise
  4.Honky Tonk Woman
  5.You Can't Always Get What You Want
  6.Memo From Turner
  7.Brown Sugar
  8.Wild Horses
  9.Don't Know Why aka
    Don't Know Why I Love You
 10.Try a Little Harder
 11.Out of Time
 12.Jiving Sister Fanny
 13.Sympathy for the Devil

 

As far as box sets go, The Singles Collection: The London Years is as straightforward as they come. A 3-CD set that compiles every A-side and B-side the Stones released from 1964 through 1971, it’s a no-frills chronicle of the band’s formative years. For the diehard fan, this is an invaluable document. For the casual listener, well, there are probably better places to start.

The charm here lies in the completeness. With 58 tracks total, there’s a healthy dose of material that wasn’t included on any of their studio albums at the time. Depending on how well you know the band’s early years, you might stumble across a dozen or more songs you’ve never heard before. That alone makes this worth investigating for anyone who wants to go beyond just the hits. Still, it has to be said—there’s a lot of filler, too. For every Jumpin’ Jack Flash or Paint It, Black, there’s a forgotten B-side that sounds like it barely made it out of the rehearsal room.

If you’re just looking to get your hands on the big singles, you’re probably better off with one of the countless 1- or 2-disc compilations floating around. This is not a curated “greatest hits” experience—there’s no polish here, no reordering for impact. It’s chronological, unfiltered, and sometimes a bit repetitive. There’s a fair bit of the band’s early R&B and blues material, most of which didn’t get much airplay, and surprisingly, a decent helping of the band’s brief psychedelic phase is tucked away here too, largely on B-sides and lesser-known cuts.

But that’s exactly what gives this box set its character. It’s not a celebration—it’s a record. It shows the Rolling Stones as a working band, developing their voice, evolving their sound, and sometimes stumbling along the way. For those who want the whole story, it’s all here. No fan who picked this up was disappointed. But it’s for completists, not dabblers. If you’re not ready to sit through a few deep cuts that probably should’ve stayed in the vault, this might not be the place to start. But for those who want to understand the early Stones in full—this is essential.


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