England's Newest Hitmakers Released: May 30, 1964

England's Newest Hitmakers in depth

It's not the snappiest name for an album. The blatant cash-in on the ongoing value of novelty in the British Invasion of North America is laughably crass by today's creative and commercial standards.

But there's nothing blundering or ill-judged about the music on England's Newest Hitmakers. Instead, listeners get the genuine sound of white English boys playing black American music with as much authenticity as they can bring to this inherently artificial combination.

And it works. Of course it works, because there's nothing fake about the band's love for, and growing mastery of, the R'n'B idiom and the instruments on which it's played. England's Newest Hitmakers achieves its own authenticity - a new kind of music, as fresh and original in its transatlantic translation of black-blues as The Beatles' reinterpretation of white pop-rock had been on Please Please Me, their own seminal, game-changing debut.

Mick Jagger has repeatedly claimed that The Rolling Stones/England's Newest Hitmakers is his favourite album and it has been described (by NME stalwart Roy Car, for example) as the greatest debut album ever made. It is certainly one of the most important

England's Newest Hitmakers is a taut, focused, kick-ass statement of intent. Recorded at Regent Sound Studios on Denmark Street, London's 'Tin Pan Alley', early in 1964, the sound is necessarily simple; but what it lacks in sophistication it more than compensates for in raw musicality and animal magic.

The recording studio was a tiny back room, quite literally sound-proofed with egg cartons. The recording 'desk' was a a two-track Revox nailed to the wall. There was only enough space for the band and their instruments to fit in there, but no chance of creating any separation between the sounds of the instruments. Apart from a basic vocal/instrumental split on the two tracks, this was to all intents a live recording.

The result is enough to make any listener in 2010 understand a bit about why The Rolling Stones emerged as such a phenomenal live act in the early sixties. The excitement is palpable, the energy unstoppable, and the musical craft, embryonic as it is, enough to identify this as a band of serious musicians.

Brian Jones, in particular, plays a leading part on the record -his finest moment and very much the record he wanted to make with the group he wanted to lead. From his harmonica on I Just Want To Make Love To You, to some sublime slide work on I'm A King Bee and fortissimo backing vocals on Walking The Dog, he never sounds better.

A final thing worth noting about England's Newest Hitmakers is the presence during the recording of Gene Pitney and Phil Spector, who were both genuine superstars at the time the record was made. Their contribution to the music is not particularly evident , but the fact they were there at all (it's rumoured that Spector turned up with a clutch of cognac bottles) was a potent indicator of greatness to come - and the cunning of Andrew Oldham's PR and professional networking strategy to get the band recognised.

Along with Please Please Me and the original Elvis Sun recordings, The Rolling Stones/England's Newest Hitmakers is one of the most important rock records ever made, for its own original sound, and for the direction it led subsequent generations of music makers.