In 1966 the Stones released their first fully self composed album and also first good album. Finally the Stones moved away from being a singles band and started concentrating on delivering great albums. Just like the beatles who already delivered the great "Rubber Soul" a year before.The tracks are all written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richard but the influence of Brian Jones is also noticable by the use of sitar, dulcimer and marimba's which gives an extra dimension to the album. This means that Keith Richard plays all guitars on the album.
Mother's Little Helper/Lady Jane single cover
It is still the period where american albums are limited to a maximum of 12 tracks and/or 35 minutes and americans are offered more albums including ones fully compiled by record companies to offer the leftovers. Therefore a much shorter version was released in America dropping 4 tracks to be replaced by the single "Paint It Black" which fits in place because it's from the same period and Brian Jones used a sitar on that song as well. The single "Mother's Little Helper" was among the tracks to be dropped of the US release as well as "Take It Or Leave It", "Out Of Time" and "What To Do". The US market solved this matter after the album "Between The Buttons" was released with another extra US album titled "Flowers".
Promo in magazine
All ingredients are here. The R&B of their previous albums, folk, pop, country, psychedelica and baroque music. A love ballad "Lady Jane" with Brian on dulcimer in a baroque style. They already came up with a great love ballad written by themselves but this song was initially intended for Marianne Faithfull titled "As Tears Go By". Their version of that song was only released in the USA at that time as a single and on another extra US album titled "December's Children (And Everybody's)". "Out of Time" was later covered by Chris Farlowe in 1966 and reached #1 in the UK. Traditional blues can be heard on "Going Home". The only complaint about this song is that it is too long. More than 11 minutes to be precisely.
Paint It Black single cover
The album cover also differs in both the UK and US. In the US they used a colour photo against a blurred background that resembles a psychelic look which corresponds better to the new artistic direction the Stones have chosen.
UK album cover
US album cover
Uruguay album cover
Aftermath (UK)
Mother's Little Helper / Stupid Girl / Lady Jane / Under My Thumb / Doncha Bother Me / Goin' Home / Flight 505 / High and Dry / Out of Time / It's Not Easy / I Am Waiting / Take It Or Leave It / Think / What to Do

Aftermath (US)
Paint It Black / Stupid Girl / Lady Jane / Under My Thumb / Doncha Bother Me / Think / Flight 505 / High and Dry /  It's Not Easy / I Am Waiting / Goin' Home
Lady Jane at Ed Sullivan Show
 Paint It Black at Ed Sullivan Show