Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)

Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) is the first compilation album by the Rolling Stones. With different cover art and track listings, it was released on 28 March 1966, on London Records in the US and on 4 November 1966, by Decca Records in the UK.

This article is about the Rolling Stones album. For the Outlaws song, see Green Grass and High Tides.

Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)
Original US edition
Greatest hits album by
the Rolling Stones
Released28 March 1966 (1966-03-28) (US)
RecordedLondon, Chicago, & Hollywood, 1964–1965
GenreRock
Length36:29
LabelLondon
ProducerAndrew Loog Oldham
The Rolling Stones US chronology
December's Children (And Everybody's)
(1965)		 Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)
(1966)		 Aftermath
(1966)
The Rolling Stones UK chronology
Aftermath
(1966)		 Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)
(1966)		 Between the Buttons
(1967)
UK edition
Released 4 November 1966 by Decca

The American edition focused on songs from 1964 and 1965 with two new tunes: the recent "19th Nervous Breakdown" and the re-recorded "Time Is on My Side" with the guitar intro. The British version covered a longer period, from the group's first single A-side in 1963, "Come On", to several songs from 1966, including the recent hit "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?".

The album reached number three on the US Billboard 200[1] and number four on the UK Albums Chart.[2] It remained on the chart 99 weeks in the US, where the RIAA certified the album double platinum, signifying over two million copies sold.[3]

Release

The songs chosen for the American version of Big Hits were roughly split between originals written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and those by American R&B and rock 'n' roll musicians, with most of the songs taken from the first five US Stones albums released by London Records.[4] The album cover photo for the US edition was taken at Franklin Canyon Park in the mountains above Beverly Hills by Guy Webster.[5]

The UK Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) includes tracks released after the American edition appeared. The Rolling Stones' debut 1963 single, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On", was included, but the more successful follow-up, "I Wanna Be Your Man" — composed by rivals (although in reality as friends) Lennon–McCartney — was left off the album. However, an early slick-proof of the album, displayed on Exhibitionism in London in 2016, showed the track as slated for inclusion, but it was ultimately replaced by "Time Is on My Side" by Jerry Ragovoy (as 'Norman Meade'). The fisheye lens-view photo used for the album cover was taken in New York City by Jerry Schatzberg, while the photo for the London Records cover was used as the back cover.

Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) reached number four in the UK charts. The British version was again made available to the public as part of a limited edition vinyl box set, titled "The Rolling Stones 1964–1969", in November 2010. It was also re-released digitally at the same time. The vinyl version of the album includes a booklet pasted into the gatefold with color photos of the Rolling Stones in concert and in the studio.

Once more, the UK version was released on Record Store Day in 2019 on Green Vinyl, to go along with the release on its second volume, Through the Past, Darkly, which was released on orange vinyl for both Record Store Day and its 50th anniversary, as stated on the Record Store Day sticker affixed on the front of the vinyl cover.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[7]
Tom HullA+[8]

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Bruce Eder said the US edition of Big Hits is "still one of the most potent collections of singles that one can find ... Appearing as it did in the late winter of 1966, this collection completely missed the group's drift into psychedelia, and it has since been supplanted by Hot Rocks and More Hot Rocks, but Big Hits is still the most concentrated dose of the early Stones at their most accessible that is to be had, short of simply playing their first five U.S. albums."[4] Reviewing the 2002 ABKCO reissue, Kent H. Benjamin from The Austin Chronicle regarded it as essential in order to "get most of the Stones' original singles in true stereo".[9]

Music biographer and journalist Johnny Rogan said that the UK edition of Big Hits and the Beatles' A Collection of Beatles Oldies (1966) were significant because "Britain's two premier groups" had released "greatest hits collections in the home market for the first time in their careers". Both albums, in his opinion, "represented a coming of age, reminding listeners and the artistes themselves that they were already the equivalent of heritage acts, whose remarkable run of hits qualified them for a rare priviledge [sic?], unlikely to be repeated for many years, if ever."[10]

Track listing

US edition
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Original US release
(Month/year)		Length
1."(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"Mick Jagger & Keith RichardsSingle (5/65)3:43
2."The Last Time"Jagger-RichardsSingle (3/65)3:40
3."As Tears Go By"Jagger-Richards, Andrew Loog OldhamDecember's Children (And Everybody's) (12/65)2:45
4."Time Is on My Side" (guitar intro version)Norman Meade a.k.a. Jerry RagovoyBig Hits (3/66)2:58
5."It's All Over Now"Bobby Womack, Shirley Jean WomackSingle (7/64)3:26
6."Tell Me (You're Coming Back)"Jagger-RichardsEngland's Newest Hit Makers (5/64)3:46
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Original US release
(Month/year)		Length
1."19th Nervous Breakdown"Jagger-RichardsBig Hits (3/66)3:56
2."Heart of Stone"Jagger-RichardsSingle (12/64)2:50
3."Get Off of My Cloud"Jagger-RichardsSingle (9/65)2:55
4."Not Fade Away"Norman Petty, Charles Hardin a.k.a. Buddy HollySingle (3/64)1:48
5."Good Times, Bad Times"Jagger-RichardsSingle (7/64)2:31
6."Play with Fire"Group a.k.a. Nanker PhelgeSingle (3/65)2:13

UK edition
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Original UK release
(Month/year)		Length
1."Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?"Jagger-RichardsSingle (9/66)2:34
2."Paint It Black"Jagger-RichardsSingle (5/66)3:40
3."It's All Over Now"Womack, WomackSingle (6/64)3:27
4."The Last Time"Jagger-RichardsSingle (2/65)3:40
5."Heart of Stone"Jagger-RichardsOut of Our Heads (9/65)2:46
6."Not Fade Away"Petty, HardinSingle (2/64)1:48
7."Come On"Chuck BerrySingle (6/63)1:49
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Original UK release
(Month/year)		Length
1."(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"Jagger-RichardsSingle (8/65)3:43
2."Get Off of My Cloud"Jagger-RichardsSingle (10/65)2:55
3."As Tears Go By"Jagger-Richards, OldhamSingle (2/66)2:45
4."19th Nervous Breakdown"Jagger-RichardsSingle (2/66)3:57
5."Lady Jane"Jagger-RichardsAftermath (4/66)2:31
6."Time Is on My Side"MeadeThe Rolling Stones No. 2 (1/65)2:53
7."Little Red Rooster"Willie DixonSingle (11/64)3:05

Personnel

The Rolling Stones

Additional personnel

Charts
Year Chart Position
1966 UK Official Albums[2] 4
1966 US Billboard 200[1] 3

Certification
Country Certification Sales
US RIAA[3] 2× Platinum 2,000,000
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References
  1. "The Rolling Stones: Chart History – Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved 28 December 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. "The Rolling Stones – Albums". Official Charts. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  3. "American album certifications – The Rolling Stones". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  4. Eder, Bruce. "Rolling Stones: Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 December 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  5. Webster also used Franklin Canyon as the setting for the Sounds of Silence album cover for Simon and Garfunkel.
  6. Larkin, Colin (2011). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. p. 2005. ISBN 0857125958.
  7. Anthony DeCurtis; James Henke; Holly George-Warren, eds. (1992). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd ed.). Random House. p. 599. ISBN 0679737294.
  8. Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Grade List: The Rolling Stones". tomhull.com. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  9. Benjamin, Kent H. (13 December 2002). "The Rolling Stones: The ABKCO Reissue Series Album Review". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  10. Rogan, Johnny (2015). Ray Davies: A Complicated Life. Random House. p. 285. ISBN 9781847923318.

Further reading

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