December's Children (And Everybody's)
by The Rolling Stones

"December's Children" was a U.S. only album that only in a few cases collided with the European releases, and for this reason the record was / is particularly interesting for Stones collectors.

The music is somewhat a mixed bag, consisting of EP tracks and singles. A few numbers were already a year or two old when the album was released in December 1965.

Half of the songs are Jagger / Richards originals and the rest are cover versions of various other artists' songs. Among these, you'll notice the excellent interpretation of Arthur Alexander's ballad "You Better Move On". The energetic and raw opening track "She Said Yeah" is another standout.
Two tracks are live recordings showing that the Stones were also a highly competent live band.

Among the Jagger / Richards originals important is the recently released single "Get Off Of My Cloud" / "I'm Free"; both songs among the very best from this period. Two very fine, and often overlooked, melodic ballads are to me the album's biggest highlights. "Blue Turns Gray two" is also technically a great recording, while "The Singer Not the Song" is an equally impressive number, which maybe has not been given the same "finish". This song can also be found in an excellent cover version by Alex Chilton.

Rolling Stones' "answer" to "Yesterday" is another of the disc's most memorable numbers. "Gotta Get Away" is more on the regular but still okay.

The slightly uneven overall impression and the somewhat short playing time makes me give just 4 stars (Edited)

From Decurso TOP 100 COMMENTER 05/27/2014 18:08 | #113039 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

There are a lot of covers on this album, but most of the covers are good and it contains classics "Get Off My Cloud" and "AS Tears Go By" along with "I'm Free. The two live tracks are just filler, but I really love the rawness on "She Said Yeah".

I can’t get enough of “She Said Yeah,” a great, relatively overlooked rocker in the Stones catalogue. Nice spin on Chuck Berry’s “Talking About You,” as well. There are some Stones standards here: ”As Tears Go By,’ “The Singer Not the Song,” “I'm Free,” and the terrific “Get off of My Cloud.” There’s also a rollicking live cover of “I'm Movin' On.” Overall, a good early Stones collection (and a great, gritty portrait album cover).

This and "Out of Our Heads" is the best the early Stones have to offer and they're both pretty damn great. Great tracklist, not a single bad song even though closing the recond with a live cover of "I'm Moving On" was a strange choice. Also, Mick's vocals on "As Tears Go By" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Best song(s): She Said Yeah; The Singer Not the Song; Get Off of My Cloud; I'm Free; As Tears Go By

I view this record as a money grab by the record company. That being said it does not denigrate the material on this compilation as it is generally excellent. There's one real miss on here but there usually is on most Stones albums. Oh yeah, this record has a really short playing time.