England's Newest Hit Makers

London Records issued this on May 29, 1964 as the American counterpart of The Rolling Stones, which Decca had released in the UK on April 17. Eric Easton and Andrew Loog Oldham produced it, Bill Farley engineered, and it was recorded at Regent Sound Studios in London between January 3 and February 25, 1964. The US track order differs from the UK one chiefly in leading with Not Fade Away. Extra players were Allan Clarke and Graham Nash on backing vocals on Little by Little, Gene Pitney on piano, Phil Spector on percussion and Ian Stewart on organ and piano.

It reached number 11 on the Billboard chart and went gold; the UK version was number 1 for twelve weeks. Sean Egan, writing for BBC Music in 2012, called it the best album to emerge from the early 1960s British blues boom, AllMusic gives it four and a half stars, and David Bowie aimed to recreate its sound on The Jean Genie.