Rolling Stones Five by Five

Graced with cover art of a grotesque gorilla sporting the Stones' trademark leering lips, GRRR! doesn't quite have the classy veneer usually associated with a 50th anniversary collection. Frankly, that's a good sign for the Rolling Stones: they're celebrating their half-century together but refusing to take themselves too seriously, even when they're assembling a mammoth retrospective that's available in two wildly different incarnations…

Rewind 1971-84 - The first thorough post-Hot Rocks compilation was not the hit that CBS was expecting. Though it did peak at #23 in the UK, it only managed a #86 chart in the US due in part no doubt to the slew of cheap "hits" LPs since 1975's Made In The Shade. If you were a loyal customer thru all these years, there were only five (5) tunes compiled for the first time to sink your teeth into [six in the 1986 CD version.] The US and UK LP editions varied slightly with Hang Fire and Emotional Rescue substituting the UK original selections It's Only Rock 'n' Roll and She's So Cold. Until 1993 however, this was as good as it would get.

Brussels Affair (Live 1973) is a bootleg by The Rolling Stones. It is compiled from two shows recorded in Brussels on 17 October 1973 in the Forest National Arena, during their European Tour. The Definitive edition includes 2 CD. Disc one recorded live at the Forest National, Brussels, Belgium on October 17th 1973, 1st show. Disc two contains tracks from Rotterdam, London, Newcastle, Munich in September/October 1973. Disc two, tracks 13-16: Vienna, Austria, September 1st 1973.

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…