Contrarily to all other countries and despite its later catalogue number, 'Not Fade Away' [F 11845] was issued before 'I Wanna Be Your Man' in Italy, as the date '13-4-64' reveals in the off-groove of its labels.

7 PS and 4 labels variations are documented so far, all most likely issued in 1964.
PS with double colored borders, and labels with the 'Diritti riservati' mentions were issued first.
To be noted as well, two different types of font faces were used for labels, easily recognizable by the shape of their 'O's and numbers : the 'round typo' has circular O's while the other has oval ones. Such differences apply up to 'The Last Time' [F12104], including promo white labels.

'I Wanna Be Your Man' [F 11764] was issued two months later, in June 1964. Again, variations are numerous here. 2 double borders, and 4 single borders have been documented, as well as white promo labels.

Labels with a 'BIEM' note and misspelling 'Nennon-McCartney' are supposedly first pressings.

The third single, 'It's All Over Now' [F 11934], bore the UK number as the previous ones, and is the last 45 to appear originally in double colored borders PS. Only one type of label has been found so far but it's likely that others exist.

'Il Disco Poker' or 'Carol' [F 11999] is the only EP issued in Italy in the 60's and its exclusive tracklisting seem to compile two singles that were released in... Belgium. Italians being not very familiar with the EP format, it was sold with the tag '4 Successi al prezzo di 2' on cover [4 hits for the price of 2']. All picture sleeves shortened 'I Just Want' for the Willie Dixon cover, also misspelled on labels [see details on the left].

More than 15 variations exist for this EP, including promo white labels and reissues. It was basically issued with all possible colors, even with some titles in red or blue, and band name in white. A success that Decca strangely tried to reiterate in 1973, reissuing this EP with a complete new 'live' cover [full colour artwork and new 'boxed' Decca labels - 2 variations]. Originals and reissues of this EP are both very collectable.

The 4th single 'Little Red Rooster' [F 12014] shortly followed, including a few colored borders variations and two promo editions.





Exceptionally rare were the issues of 'The Last Time' [F 12104] with the '1^st LP' cover pattern, the rarest being the blue titled one.


Note that 'The Last Time' was reissued on a promo-only issue in 1967 with 'Lady Jane' on B-side.

The last original single issued with the colored borders was 'Satisfaction' [F 12220] in August 1965. As in most countries, it was coupled with 'The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man' - systematically misspelt 'Assistent' on Italian covers and labels - and topped the local charts.

More than 20 different issues of 'Satisfaction' are known to exist, including 4 different promo white labels - one being an odd 'C 12220' number [instead of F 12220], and reissues from late 1965 to the early 70's within a completely different full colour cover subtitled 'Trionfa in tutto il mondo' ['a triumph all around the world'].
The latter is more common than its predecessors, but here again labels variations apply, from the curved Decca logo labels to the new 'boxed Decca' ones.

'Get Off Of My Cloud' / 'I'm Free' [F 22265] is the Italian version of the UK export single. Only once cover was printed, which used the David Bailey's band shot from the debut eponymous album. This is the occasion to notice that for some reason, some labels, in 1965, turned from dark blue to a greener or dark turquoise tone.

Note that 'Get Off Of My Cloud' was reissued on a promo-only issue in 1967 with 'Little Red Rooster' on B-side.

In March 1966, a very special and exclusive single was issued in Italy : 'As Tears Go By' sung in... Italian ['Con Le Mie Lacrime' - F 22270]! This will be the first and last attempt for Mick Jagger to sing a Stones' song in a foreign language, but it's worth a listen. Coupled with 'Heart Of Stone', this single is very popular among collectors.

The first cover - aka the 'snooker' cover - initially housed labels of type I [curved Decca], then II [boxed] when reissued in May 1973 into the same 'live' PS than 'Little Queenie'.

This single was ultimately reissued in 2016 on Abkco / Decca with a new number, for exclusive distribution in Italy, although it was pressed in the EU [most likely in Czech Republic].

'19th Nervous Breakdown' [F 22272] was an exclusive coupling, with 'Talkin' About You' on B-side. Two versions - grey and yellow - of its unique picture cover were printed, the second one with the mention 'disco giallo' [gold disc] being rarer.

Great exclusive PS were made for the next singles as well, often with backs completely different than fronts: a graphic and colourful 'Paint It, Black' [F 12395 - two versions, with a 'disco giallo' triangular note in white or black], a gatefold cover for 'Mother's Little Helper' [F 22405 - unique number] which includes the band's back catalogue inside [some misspellings], or a psychedelic 'Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?' [F 12497] whom artwork was reworked from the David Bailey shot used for the US LP 'Aftermath'.

The 'Let's Spend The Night Together' cover artwork is similar to elsewhere with its 'Between The Buttons' look, but mind its pink back as a scarce version features an extra few lines ad for the 'Giovani' TV program where the song had been broadcasted. This is also the last single to appear with the curved Decca logo [type I].

At this period, promo copies were pressed for various distributors which explain the existence of many white labels variations.
Some of these jukebox copies can sometimes be found into their corresponding stock PS whom center has been neatly cut to show labels, a habit that will remain until the 80's.

'We Love You' [F 12654] is another unique cover and used a 1967 famous picture of the band with Charlie Watts wearing a moustache.
An attempt to design an Italian-only 'Stones' logo was then made - see the bottom right corner of the cover.

Such logo was re-used, by the end of 1967, for the very nice and unique psychedelic cover of 'She's A Rainbow' [F 22706], backed with '2000 Light Years From Home' and bearing the UK export number.

'Jumpin' Jack Flash' [F 12782] and 'Honky Tonk Women' [F 12952] have the same picture sleeve as - almost - the rest of the world, but 'Street Fighting Man' [F 22825] in between, has a unique cover, inspired from the fish-eye shot of the US 'Have You Seen Your Mother...' picture sleeve. The latter also includes the alternate mono mix version of this track, available on the original US pressing.

For some reason, the live single 'Little Queenie' [F 22903] - extracted from 'Get yer Ya Ya's Out' 1970 album - does not wear the UK number F 13126.
Its unique 'Da Vivo' PS was used again in 1973 for the reissue of the 'Con Le Mie Lacrime' single.

A few months later, in 1971, the second and last EP was released with 'Street Fighting Man' [F 13195], coupled, as in England, with 'Surprise, Surprise' and 'Everybody Needs Somebody To Love' and turning at 33⅓ rpm.
Once again, the picture sleeve is exclusive and nice, but wrongly uses the Peter Webb's 1970 shot with Mick Taylor in the line-up. Its scarcity suggests that it possibly got withdrawn at the time.

From this EP onwards, no more promo white labels would be released by Decca.

The late releases 'Sad Day' [F 13404], 'I Don't Know Why' [F 13584] and 'Out Of Time' [F 13597] also have their interest.

The first one was issued in a unique gatefold 'live' picture cover with a back catalogue in its inner side - very much the way 'Mother's Little Helper' was issued in 1966. Speaking of the latter single [F 22405], it was even shortly reissued in this year of 1973 in a standard PS.

'I Don't Know Why' is a miniature of the LP 'Metamorphosis' from which the tracks were extracted [Spain used the same artwork for 'Out Of Time' in 1975].

Quite curiously, the late 'violins' version of 'Out Of Time' has the same cover than Germany.

Faithful with their artistic reputation and printing excellence, Italians produced a quite charming picture sleeve collection and one can only regret that a cheap and fragile paper was used for all these covers.
Parallely to the 7" production, Italy was one of the rare latin countries to publish sheets music and the same care in design was brought to them - some offering color variations.

Grazie mille a Vanni Musio per il suo aiuto.