The Rolling Stones – 30 Greatest Hits (1977)

I realise now that my choice to write albums in alphabetical order cause me to have an avalanche of compilation albums here in the beginning where I have the albums beginning with a number. But soon these will be over and I can get on with actual albums. For a long time, I didn't really care for The Rolling Stones. I mean, I did like some of their individual songs, but I was never excited enough to listen to their albums. It's only been in the last couple of years that I've understood what this band was all about. I guess this situation rises, because their most well-known songs are usually on the early albums that weren't so good as a whole. The best Stones albums were released around the 1970s, but the most well-known songs already in mid-60s. Back when I was still hung up on the early singles, it made sense to buy this vinyl with a compilation of the bands most popular songs.


I've heard that back in the 60s there was a clear rivalry between The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. I don't know exactly why, because these bands seem to me completely different. Where The Beatles started as a pop band and evolved into experimental psychedelic rock band, The Rolling Stones started as a pure rock band and then evolved into this more soulful band in the turn of the decade. The Rolling Stones was never that experimental though. It was more about the groove. I only understood this a while ago and it opened the Stones to me for the first time.

This compilation album is quite comprehensive collection of The Rolling Stones 60s songs. So, in a way, it's good to own a compilation such as this and actually own the complete albums from the 70s. There are a couple of songs from great albums like Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers, but most of the songs are from earlier years.

I bought this vinyl in a Finnish record store mainly because it contained all of my favourite songs by the band at the time. It was also quite cheap. And I can see why. In this age of Spotify and MP3s, compilation albums have kind of lost their meaning. I can't even say that I want to own it because of album art, because the cover picture is ugly as hell. Nevertheless, if I feel like listening to early Rolling Stones, I rather put this LP on than listen to their greatest hits on Spotify, because vinyl gives an authentic sound to these old songs.

The Rolling Stones is obviously one of the biggest bands in the world and I suppose they wouldn't have gotten so famous if they didn't have something special. I'm quite glad that my quest to find their thing finally paid off and now I understand at least the appeal of their greatest years. I will be happy to write more about The Stones when I deal with their actual albums.

Listen to the album on Spotify.