As well as this album, I have two other sources that give the location and date for "Little Red Rooster" as Chess in November 1964, those being the CD box set SINGLES COLLECTION: THE LONDON YEARS, and Martin Elliott's 1990 book ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS; "Little Red Rooster"'s B-side, "Off The Hook", was recorded at Regent Sound in June 1964.
Great compilation but it always annoyed me that it claims that "Little Red Rooster" was recorded at Chess, Chicago when it was actually recorded at Regent Sound Studios in London.
Record of the week! Every time I pop on the site this one pops up somewhere, comments or random records. It's everywhere, nothing wrong with that - it is a great compilation.
I was working in a record shop at the time of this album's release so I grabbed a copy as soon as the first lot were delivered and mine have black labels.
The mono tracks on Side A (Side 1) are LOUD, I had to turn my levels down recording it, and Sides B and C (2 and 3) are quiet by comparison, having probably only between a half, and two thirds the volume of Side A, with the exception of tracks 1 and 2 on side B (2), (Two of the mono recordings).
It picks up again for the fourth side of stereo recordings (but made me think there was something wrong with my hearing after the high levels of the mono tracks seemed to drop away sharply over the next tracks), making me think that the first three sides were done separately from the fourth for this compilation.
They are black... well, i thought so until you said that! :)
In fact, when I read your comment TP, I clicked on my own scanned images to be sure, and they certainly have a very dark blue-ish-ness about them, so I became uncertain myself, and went and dug it out to look at again.
But yes, they are a charcoal black colour, with a silvery grain in some lighting, with silver print.
The closeness of Greg's dark blue labels with their colour difference and the black on mine is not so very far apart tone wise.
My matrix numbers are:
Side 1: Z-ARL-14077.P-2W and 2D and GAD (machine stamped)
Side 2: Z-ARL-14078.P-1W and CH and GMM (machine stamped)
Side 3: Z-ARL-14079.P-2W and 4D and MU (machine stamped)
Sise 4: ZAL-14080.P-2W and 2B and UKC (machine stamped)
That last matrix on side 4 is ZAL, not Z-ARL.
So as my side 2 matrix agrees with Greg's, it would seem they are not far off each other... and indeed, my sleeve is exactly the same as Greg's, with Decca address inside, and I have one of the original poly-lined inners with blue print, which is date stamped: R.S 6-76.
Had a little look around the net since, and did a bit of "mousing over" ebay images etc. and it seems, from what I could tell, that it's these black label editions were sold both here in England, and exported to U.S (Hence the "imported" stickered ones I kept seeing). And furthermore, there are at least two other black label variations I could see: One was pretty close to mine, but the label covered the whole label area of the vinyl (mine are "small"" labels, with a good 4-5mm of the raised label area projecting out from under labels themselves, and another varaition, which at first glance looked the same, but on closer inspection was less "busy" as far as label notes are concerned, and without the NCB boxes.
Add to that the later white labels with red/blue rims, and I could see this page filling up with a vast qauntity of label scan variations... If anyone has a copy, might pay to look a little more closely to see if you have a variation you could scan and submit.
Perhaps someone could help me out with this album....
Although I uploaded the black label scans as re-issue labels (a fair assumption I thought, as the usual blue labels are the standard fare for Decca and the Stones, so black ones would naturally be later (?)), I've been seeing various claims around internet-land of these being "Imports", and "Original Black Labels", as well as "rare" etc.
It's worth pointing out that I've seen almost the exact same claims for the blue ones in equal measure!
So, which came first, and for what reason... the blue or the black?
Label scans added,there really is a difference in the colour of the labels.
Matrix side 1 (image 66716) = Z-ARL-14071.P-lW and 1 and 11 and U (machine stamped).
Matrix side 2 (image 66717) = Z-ARL-14078.P-lW and 1 and 1 and GM (machine stamped).
Matrix side 3 (image 66718) = Z-ARL-14079.P-lW and 1 and N1 (machine stamped).
Matrix side 4 (image 66719) = Z-ARL-14080.P-2W and 2 and 3 and A and H (machine stamped).