The Rolling Stones in the '60s

So monumental are the Rolling Stones that we've had to divide their work into several essential playlists, and this one mines the '60s, the decade they made their own. For starters, we give you their monster singles, the tracks that sound as sharp now as they did when they first blew the doors of R&B off their hinges.

The Stones' early singles include "Not Fade Away" — a cover of the Buddy Holly track — and their version of Lennon & McCartney's "I Wanna Be Your Man". Back then, Ian Stewart was playing piano (although officially excluded from the lineup), and Keith Richards dropped the s from his name to sound cooler.

Those of you digging for prized Stones oddities, like ravenous pigs in a truffle field, will find plenty to set your snout alight here. Metamorphosis is a Decca outtake album drawing on material recorded from 1964-69 and includes a far jauntier version of "Memo From Turner" than the one that appears on the Performance movie soundtrack.

The Stones of the '60s were truly phenomenal. They reinvented R&B, spearheaded the British Invasion of the U.S.A., honed their image as the nasty boys of rock (they were the anti-Beatles), courted notoriety like black magicians, and matured from an inventive covers band into a bona-fide songwriting powerhouse. Early mover-and-shaker Brian Jones was ousted from the lineup in 1969 (and was found dead shortly thereafter), but the band played on and became the rock gods we know and still love.