Stones US issues differed a lot from the ones on the other side of the Atlantic. The Americans relaesed more albums than the English and the ones with same title always had other tracking. (The first one corresponding was "Satanic..." in late -67.) For this issue only six of the twelve tracks coincide - US version having both '45:s "Satisfaction" and "The Last Time". This was to be their most successful record so far, reaching #2 in UK and topping the US charts. I don't know the reason UK Decca decided to press both the domestic version for England and the American for export. Maybe they thought the taste was different on the European continent, or just saw it as a chance to cash in further. This export was the only variation sold in Sweden at first, the UK version showed up here much later. In any case this mono sounds lovely - big and bouncy with lots of presence. The corresponding export stereo however used the US fake stereo tapes and can be avoided by all who's after a genuine mix
https://monolover.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-rolling-stonesout-of-our-heads-skl.html . First UK mono had ridged label as shown here in a laminated cover. (RÅ*)(ÖXÄP*)
The rule in England at the time was; no 45 tracks on the accompanying albums. In the States it was the other way around; single track were added in an attempt to boost sales.
SvaraRaderaI have no clear preference for either. Both records are worth having and sound good (if you can find a copy that was not subjected to the cheap groove-eating phonographs of the day, that is).
Decca UK also manufactured a few US-only export titles for the London label (including this one, it was pressed from the same metalparts). Those are very much worth finding, even though they are relatively scarce and hard to find in clean condition.
Last, this site is the be-all-end-all when it comes to Stones on Decca: http://stonesondecca.com/index.html
Yup I like them both too, but only mono of course. I had a stereo version of this export and it was borderline ridiculous. Imagine my joy when selling it almost made me rich. The guy didn't care enough to even play the records, he just wanted a complete Stones mint collection. I agree with "stonesondecca" - it's on my linklist, but should check it more often.
RaderaAh, you must have had the orig. UK w/ blue unboxed fake stereo pressing then. That "mix" is the one I grew up on, and even as a youngster with little knowledge of stereo vs. mono, I just knew something was terribly wrong with that. I still remember it had some horrible panning going on in "Hitch hike". What were they thinking... :)
RaderaYes it was one of those and I agree fully. But happy there are collectors who put rare before sound and happily pays a fortune for crap - got good deals from that :)
SvaraRadera