THE ROLLING STONES 'England's Newest Hitmakers' FACTORY SAMPLE 1964 TEST PRESS
£
410
$
543
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Description
Offered here is an incredibly rare, quite possibly unique, test pressing of the first US Rolling Stones lp, "England's Newest Hitmakers", ultimately released in May 1964 as London LL 3375
As most collectors will know, the initial, first run of this release was manufactured in England by Decca for export to the US, before American London took over manufacture themselves to keep up with the unexpected demand. Therefore this represents the absolute earliest possible pressing of the very first Rolling Stones lp, ever sold in North America. An historic item, I think you'll agree!
This pre-dates both the sought after maroon FFRR pressing, and even the white label promo, and would have been made in absolutely tiny quantities, (quite likely as few as 5 or 10) purely for the purposes of assessing the audio quality of the forthcoming release. They were not generally seen as having any value after that, so would have either been scrapped, or as in the case of this one, taken home and enjoyed by an employee of the record company.
Condition: Despite the surface wear you'd expect of a nearly 50 year old record that never came with a proper sleeve (test pressings came in an inner sleeve only), this plays very well indeed, with no skips or sticks. Yes, there is some surface noise, and occasional pop from the odd slightly deeper mark, but due to the raucous sounds contained within and the legendary Decca 'loud' cut, the music consistently wins through. A very enjoyable listen, and even without the rarity aspect, this would still be a very serviceable playing copy.
Both labels are the correct era 1964 Decca 'Factory Sample' variety, with the typical hand annotations you'd expect, including an erroneous 'No 2'. Perhaps it was misidentified in the Decca offices, or perhaps at a later date, either way, this is 100%, definitely 'England's Newest Hitmakers', with the tracklisting as follows:
Side One:
1/ Not Fade Away
2/ Route 66
3/ I just want to make love to you
4/ Honest I do
5/ Now I've got a Witness
6/ Little by Little
Side Two
1/ I'm a King Bee
2/ Carol
3/ Tell Me
4/ Can I get a Witness
5/ You can make it if you try
6/ Walking the Dog
I'll grade this a solid G+ overall, and my grading is strict, so that doesn't mean 'trashed'! As mentioned above, this was never supplied in a finished sleeve, but comes in a new white innersleeve with the tattered remains of the original Decca Inner included for posterity!
Matrix numbers: XARL 6291 / XARL 6292
Feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have, and please note, this will only be shipped with full insurance, and bulletproof packaging!
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