The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stones COC 59 100 (France)

Sticky Fingers is the ninth British and 11th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in April 1971. It is the band's first album of the 1970s and its first release on the band's newly formed label, Rolling Stones Records, after having been contracted since 1963 with Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US. It is also Mick Taylor's first full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album, the first Rolling Stones album not to feature any contributions from guitarist and founder Brian Jones and the first one on which Mick Jagger is credited with playing guitar.

The album is often regarded as one of the Stones' best, containing songs such as the chart-topping "Brown Sugar" and the folk-influenced "Wild Horses", and achieving triple platinum certification in the US.

 

Front cover                                                                        Back cover

Joni Mitchell - Blue, Reprise K 44128 (UK issue)

Blue (1971) is the fourth album of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Exploring the various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight", the songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar, and Appalachian dulcimer. Blue was a critical and commercial success, reaching #15 on the Billboard 200 and #3 in the UK Albums Chart. The single "Carey" reached #93 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Despite the success of her first three albums and songs like "Woodstock", the 1970s saw Mitchell make a decision to break from performing. After a tough breakup with her longtime boyfriend Graham Nash she set off on a vacation around Europe, during which she wrote many of the songs that appear on Blue.

  

John Lennon, Yoko Ono - Happy XMas/Listen The Snow Is Falling, Apple R 5970

Apple Records released "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and "Listen, the Snow Is Falling" in the U.S. on 1 December 1971 (APPLE 1842). Issued in 7" single format on transparent green vinyl with a card-stock picture sleeve, the pressing bore two label variations, one of which displayed a sequence of five images that showed Lennon's face transforming into Ono's that was originally featured on the reverse cover of the exhibition catalogue for Ono's career retrospective This Is Not Here, presented October 1971 at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York.

A legal dispute between music publisher Northern Songs and Lennon over royalties from Ono's co-writing credit on his songs delayed the release of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" in the UK until 24 November 1972 (APPLE R 5970). The initial British run was issued in 7" single format on opaque green vinyl with the picture sleeve and variant label, but it sold out quickly and had to be repressed on standard black vinyl.

 
Original issue with picture sleeve.