The Rolling Stones is the debut album by The Rolling Stones, released by Decca Records in the UK on 16 April 1964. The American edition of the LP, with a slightly different track list, came out on London Records on 30 May 1964, subtitled England’s Newest Hit Makers, which later became its official title. The album is included in Robert Dimery’s 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. (More from Wikipedia)
The thing is, “Tell Me” didn’t sound as great to me either while I was playing it; I puzzled about it for years. I picked up the song years later on the first Rolling Stones album, The Rolling Stones – or actually, in the US, it was called England’s Newest Hit Makers. As far as I could tell, that was the same version that was on the single.
Just a couple of years ago, I finally found out what was going on when I read the discussion by Richie Unterberger in Allmusic about the differences between the American and the English releases of the first Stones album: “[T]he main difference lies in the version of ‘Tell Me’ included here, which sounds about two generations hotter than any edition of the song ever released in the U.S. – it’s the long version, with the break that was cut from the single, but the British LP and the original late-’80s Decca U.K. compact disc (820 047-2) both contain a version without any fade, running the better part of a minute longer than the U.S. release of the song, until the band literally stops playing.” Apparently that DJ had gotten his hands on a copy of the British version of the song, and I was fortunate enough to hear it that one time at an impressionable age.
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide review of the first Rolling Stones album, The Rolling Stones calls it “the greatest white rhythm and blues album of all time. That isn’t an opinion; it’s a fact.”
(May 2015)
