(Reuters) – The Rolling Stones will release an album of hit songs in November to celebrate their 50th anniversary, including their very first single “Come On.”
“GRRR!” will be available in various formats including a three-CD 50 track version, a four-CD Super-Deluxe version with 80 tracks and a 12-inch vinyl box set, the group said in a statement on Tuesday.
As well as Chuck Berry’s Come On, issued in June 1963, and chart-topping vintage Stones tunes such as “Satisfaction”, “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Brown Sugar” there will be two new studio recordings recently completed by the group in Paris.
“These brand new recordings constitute the first time Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood have all been together in the studio since completing the exalted A Bigger Bang album in 2005,” the statement said.
All GRRR! formats will feature a striking painting by American artist Walton Ford, who has created the latest in a long line of artwork for the band.
News about the release of the album comes on the heels of a Billboard report last week that the Stones are set to play a series of four concerts in November in New York and London.
Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood will play two dates at London’s O2 arena and two at Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center, which has yet to be completed, Billboard reported.
News of the shows comes after the band members initially said they would not tour this year, then hinted at upcoming gigs during a book launch and photography exhibit in London over the summer marking their anniversary.
No representative of the band was immediately available for comment or confirmation.
A new documentary, announced earlier this month in Los Angeles, also is in the works. Called “Crossfire Hurricane” and directed by Brett Morgen, it promises new footage and insights from the band and will open in cinemas in Britain before being broadcast on the BBC and then HBO in the United States.
The Stones, who last toured in 2005-2007 with their top-grossing “Bigger Bang” show, were formed in London in 1962 and are one of the longest-performing rock bands in the world. They have sold an estimated 200 million records worldwide.
(Reporting by Paul Casciato, editing by Steve Addison)
