Forty Licks by Rolling Stones (Compilation, Rock): Reviews, Ratings, Credits, Song list - Rate Your Music
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Forty Licks
By Rolling Stones
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ArtistRolling Stones
TypeCompilation
Released30 September 2002
RYM Rating 4.10 / 5.00.5 from 1,794 ratings
Ranked#9 for 2002, #178 overall
Genres
Descriptors
male vocalist, melodic, raw, hedonistic, energetic, psychedelic, love
Language English

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The Super Hit Collection of The Rolling Stones
Remastered Series
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Issues

13 Issues

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13 Issues

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72 Reviews

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moochie Feb 01 2013 4.00 stars
Forty songs on two discs. About thirty that are good to great. Ten or so are from the latter days that don't hold up to the Stones in their prime. They could have found some better songs that would have made for 40 great songs out of 40. I find with these retrospective albums that they always have to throw in some inferior material from more recent albums in order to suggest that the band hasn't lost anything. But it is very rare for any band to sustain excellence after a fertile period of ten years or so. In any event, this compilation does serve to remind one of how much great music the Stones have made.
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 comusduke Jan 14 2012 4.00 stars
It’s a frequent occurrence that I wake up in the morning with a song ringing in my head; what usually happens next is that when I walk out on the street the album that song belongs to will be playing in my Discman; it was a slightly different wish I woke up with three days ago: and what better prescription to appease an unspecified need to listen to the Stones than picking up a career spanning compilation like this one, and get Stones-soaked to the skin like I’ve been doing for the past two couple of days?

I haven’t counted them but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be far from the truth if I said that there are many more compilations than original Stones’ albums out there; however there’s no denying this is a special one; to start with a 40th birthday is certainly a special occasion even for the longest living R’n’Roll band in the world; the lavish LP sized box in which it was released (just like “Chicago IV” or Donovan’s “Gift From a Flower…” three decades earlier) and the similarly sized 30-page booklet stuffed with beautiful photos, original liner notes , extensive info and even a tongue&lip-shaped mouse mat to remind us we’re in the internet age, showed they spared no expanses and I’m tempted to say it was a premonitory visual sign of the vinyl revival that was about to begin; furthermore the 4 new songs recorded for the occasion decisively made it a must-buy for any self respecting fan.

I’m no Stones fanatic myself but it surely tasted good to be subjected to this shock treatment again; there’s obviously not one song from each of the 40 years of the band’s life,( long periods without novelties), the earliest songs are the 1964 Single released covers of “Not Fade Away” and “It’s All Over Now” and the group’s 1st decade got the lion share of the circa 78 x 2 minutes of total playing time, taking all of CD1 and part of CD2; but that’s OK with me; except for 3 of the 4 new songs everything makes part of the soundtrack of the lives of most of us; that’s to say that with the ups-and-downs and the alternative paths they took every once in a while it’s almost certain everyone will find one, two or three songs he doesn’t like or even hates;

But the inconvenience of having to eventually skip a track is conveniently compensated by the abundant info, and my superficial knowledge of the band was delighted to learn details such as the following: that it was Traffic’s Dave Mason who played the wind instrument shenai which along with Brain Jones’ tamboura created the underlying Indian sound on “Street Fighting Man”; that it was Jack Nitzsche who made the arrangement for “You Can’t Always Get what you Want” where the London Bach Choir instills the liturgical feel and where Al Kooper guests both on organ and on the sound defining French horn; that it was the rather obscure Merry Clayton who did the high-end Gospel-y harmonizing on “ Gimme Shelter”; that it was Rocky Dijon who fuelled the percussive frenzy of “Sympathy for the Devil” a track where even Charlie Watts is credited on back-up vocals; that it was John Paul Jones who wrote the strings arrangements and Nicky Hopkins who played the quasi toy-piano like part on “She’s a Rainbow”; that Keith Richards joined forces with Bill Wyman to create the bowed double-bass rumble that contrasts with Brian Jones recorder on “Ruby Tuesday”; that it was Jagger who played the cool electric piano on “Fool to Cry”; that Jimmy Miller had to help or replace Watts for the drums parts of “Exile”’s “Tumbling Dice” or “Happy” or that it was Ron Wood who played the anchoring bass line of “Emotional Rescue”…

In a strictly musical/song perspective it’s certainly interesting to try to determine why “Some Girls” is such an acclaimed album in the groups discography when “Miss You” is just a dancing-fool hymn, “Beast of Burden” sports irritating Saturday-Night-Fever-Bee-Gees-esque vocalizations over a repetitive chord sequence and “Shattered” is basically an uninspired two-tone vamp – with an welcomed instrumental passage it must be said; or why in 83’s “Undercover” they still hadn’t got rid of the Disco infection/influence…on a more positive note it’s inspiring to notice that, and as if they meant “Bill’s gone but we still Rock”, they created a real guitar deluge on “You Got Me Rocking” and a mean mid tempo Rocker on “Love is Strong” under an invigorating “Voodoo” spell in 1994, and that Keith does a fine Tom Waits impersonation on the new song “Losing My Touch”.
Published
724381339824 CDVDXX 2964.LC03098.PM666 CD (2002)
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 Remtiw May 26 2019 4.00 stars
Forty Licks functions as both a commemoration of the Stones' 40th anniversary and as an answer to the Beatles' blockbuster 1 compilation released two years earlier. It does its job well, for the most part. Any Stones compilation which features both their pre and post '71 material is bound to get major points for being able to tell the whole story, but that story is told in a disjointed manner. The non-chronological sequencing fails to effectively show the group's transformation from simple blues-based covers band to rock 'n' roll outlaws, but most egregious of all would be the four new compositions tacked on by the Stones into Disc 2. Only "Don't Stop" is worthy of repeated plays, and even then it falls into the same generic mold that the rest of the post '81 material falls into. This has a ripple effect in that valuable time on the CD is taken up by third-rate Stones material ("Anybody Seen My Baby?" "Love Is Strong" "Mixed Emotions" "Losing My Touch") while notable classics are missing from both discs ("Time is On My Side" "Heart of Stone" "Play With Fire" "As Tears Go By" "Lady Jane" "2000 Light Years from Home" "No Expectations" "Midnight Rambler" "All Down the Line" "Rocks Off" "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" "Respectable" "Waiting on a Friend"). In the end, what results is a compilation which ends up having the same faults of 1 only magnified to an even greater degree. It's too safe, too shallow, and doesn't tell the whole story.
Published
p_q Feb 18 2019 3.50 stars
"Yesterday don't matter if it's gone"

TThere are some bands that the term 'legendary' just doesn't suffice. The Rolling Stones are unarguably one of those bands that changed the course of rock and roll, and they are easily one of the most influential bands of all time. The thing is, just because they are one of the most important bands in the history of popular song, it doesn't mean you have to love everything they've ever done. It's obvious to anyone with even a passing interest in popular song that The Rolling Stones have recorded some of the greatest rock songs in the history of great rock songs, but for me personally they are just one of those bands I admire rather than adore. I love their singles, but have always struggled to appreciate even their most popular albums. They are a band capable of unparalleled brilliance, but I just struggle connect to anything of theirs beyond their best known numbers. I just want to hear the hits, and the best of the rest, and that's why I love Forty Licks.

But what hits! - It's no accident that The Rolling Stones were given the moniker of The Greatest Rock and Roll Band of all time. With a 60s output that boasts such all time classics as "Gimme Shelter", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "You Can't Always Get What You Want", and "Ruby Tuesday", there's enough evidence here as to why The Rolling Stones were considered second only to The Beatles as the decade's greatest band. The 70s brought the likes of "Brown Sugar", "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" and "Tumbling Dice", strong singles which demonstrated that, although the band's hit rate had lessened, they were still capable of stunning tunes. With each decade the hit rate dropped a little further, with great numbers on albums released with decreasing frequency.

Released in 2002, Forty Licks was a well promoted double CD greatest hits set. Disc one covers their career up to 1970, while disc two covers 1971 to 2002. It doesn't take a genius to realise that it equates to the band's first six years on one disc, and a further thirty one on the other. Now take a guess as to which is the best! I can pretty much guarantee that for every time you play the second disc of Forty Licks, you will have heard the first at least five times. Disc one is where the greatest concentration of good stuff is found, as it is the music on which The Rolling Stones' immense reputation is built. Twenty tracks and not one dud. That's some hit rate by anyone's standards.

Disc two is obviously much less even and were it not for the material from Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St., along with a select few big hits from later in their career, it's doubtful you would be playing it all that often. That doesn't mean that it doesn't have its moments of greatness, such as "Angie", "Miss You" and "Start Me Up", but beyond that, and the material from the aforementioned Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. it's little more than a mopping up exercise with only brief flashes of what made The Rolling Stones such a brilliant band. That said, at the time of its release, Forty Licks was the only readily available compilation that covered the entirety of their career up to that point, so it's perhaps not surprising you have to take the rough with the smooth. For some of us, this truly is all The Rolling Stones we'll ever need, and it remans a gas, gas, gas.

"Ain't it stra-a-ange"
Published
Travis_Bickle_Abides Nov 17 2017 5.00 stars
The Rolling Stones may be a singles band, but they’re the greatest singles band of all time, and this collection demonstrates that. (Even so, the Stones have released solid albums like Sticky Fingers so it’s not even completely true to say that.)

Other than a few obligatory “new songs” this is a great introduction to the group, and has just about every song you could ask for. It’s the compilation that got me into the Stones, and has remained a mainstay on my phone ever since.
Published
gushwilly33 Mar 23 2017 4.50 stars
short a few licks. new songs are strong, bordering on great.
Published
hellaguru May 26 2016 4.00 stars
Make no mistake- you DO need ALL of their classic albums. But as far as gap-bridgers are concerned, this is up there with "The Singles Collection (The London Years)" and is more concise to boot.
Published
rjthemusicrambler Dec 02 2012 0.50 stars
If there was a 0 this would get it. Another insufferable compilation, with the lame money-grabbing "two new songs" technique.
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Catalog

Ratings: 1,794
Cataloged: 2,080
Track rating sets:Track ratings: 60
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2 Jun 2024
adnielsen Owned4.00 stars Excellent
31 May 2024
Violet_Leaf  4.00 stars
27 May 2024
Rattrocker CD4.00 stars very good, would recommend
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TheGrove0fC3dar  5.00 stars Classic
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El_somni  4.50 stars
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MarulAdam  3.50 stars
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albert_me CD4.00 stars
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Cover art for Forty Licks by Rolling Stones
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Previous
Next
The Super Hit Collection of The Rolling Stones
Remastered Series
Next in discography: The Super Hit Collection of The Rolling Stones
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Track listing

Credits

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Contributions

Contributors to this release: yerblues, jonathan, Alenko, blui, tweekdakat, coolidge, [deleted], Tornadoes, robrate, ridder, Mr_, [deleted], Grobbel, dlaoidekemp
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