FIRST STEP
First Step was the first album by the British group Faces, released in early 1970. (The album is credited to the Small Faces on all North American issues and reissues.) It is generally regarded as their weakest studio effort, recorded at London’s famous De Lane Lea Studios too soon after the group’s formation, and reached no higher than #119 on the Billboard charts. However, it is also viewed as the most democratic of the Faces releases, affording as it does each member of the group at least one composer credit. Highlights include Ronnie Lane’s “Stone”, “Shake, Shudder, Shiver”, “Three Button Hand Me Down” (on which both Lane and Wood play the bassline, affording the track a unique sonic quality in the Faces catalogue), and the album’s centerpiece, “Flying”. (More from Wikipedia)
The remaining bandmembers in Small Faces found two dynamite replacements for Steve Marriott; Rod Stewart was brought in as the vocalist, and Ron Wood joined as the lead guitarist. The direction of the band changed dramatically after that; although Small Faces was still the name on the first album by this line-up, First Step (at least in the U.S.), the band is better known as Faces.
(April 2014)
