Their Satanic Majesties Request is the sixth studio album by The Rolling Stones and was released on 8 December 1967 by Decca Records/ABKCO Records in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States by London Records/ABKCO. Its title is a play on the "Her Britannic Majesty requests and requires…" text that appears inside a British passport.
Richie Unterberger of Allmusic wrote:
Without a doubt, no Rolling Stones album — and, indeed, very few rock albums from any era — split critical opinion as much as the Rolling Stones' psychedelic outing. Many dismiss the record as sub-Sgt. Pepper posturing; others confess, if only in private, to a fascination with the album's inventive arrangements, which incorporated some African rhythms, Mellotrons, and full orchestration. Never before or since did the Stones take so many chances in the studio. In 1968, the Stones would go back to the basics, and never wander down these paths again, making this all the more of a fascinating anomaly in the group's discography.
This legendary Rolling Stones concert filmed during their Japanese tour (Tokyo February 1990) features outstanding performances of classic Stones tracks.
By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the late '60s, they had already staked out an impressive claim on the title. As the self-consciously dangerous alternative to the bouncy Merseybeat of the Beatles in the British Invasion, the Stones had pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to define hard rock.
The Complete Show from December 19, 1989 Convention Center Atlantic City, New Jersey.
By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the late '60s, they had already staked out an impressive claim on the title. As the self-consciously dangerous alternative to the bouncy Merseybeat of the Beatles in the British Invasion, the Stones had pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to define hard rock.
The second in the series covering all of the Rolling Stones' classic 45s in CD format, SINGLES 1965-1967 starts at the exact point where the Stones became more than just a better-than-average bunch of English boys declaring fealty to Chicago blues, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." Ending 11 discs (and numerous B-sides) later with the hazy "In Another Land"/"The Lantern" (the second single from the consistently underrated THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES REQUEST), this set presents the period where the Stones truly earned their status as the World's Greatest Rock Band…
It's often unfair to compare the Rolling Stones to the Beatles but in the case of the group's mono mixes, it's instructive. Until the 2009 release of the box set The Beatles in Mono, all of the Fab Four's mono mixes were out of print. That's not the case with the Rolling Stones. Most of their '60s albums – released on Decca in the U.K., London in the U.S. – found mono mixes sneaking onto either the finished sequencing or various singles compilations, so the 2016 box The Rolling Stones in Mono only contains 56 heretofore unavailable mono mixes among its 186 tracks…
It's often unfair to compare the Rolling Stones to the Beatles but in the case of the group's mono mixes, it's instructive. Until the 2009 release of the box set The Beatles in Mono, all of the Fab Four's mono mixes were out of print. That's not the case with the Rolling Stones. Most of their '60s albums – released on Decca in the U.K., London in the U.S. – found mono mixes sneaking onto either the finished sequencing or various singles compilations, so the 2016 box The Rolling Stones in Mono only contains 56 heretofore unavailable mono mixes among its 186 tracks…