When you used to buy singles, did you only buy them for the A-side and never flip it over? Or did you always listen to the other side, at least once? Ever found a jewel of a song there?
In another thread, I mentioned the B-side of “Lola” by The Kinks - “Berkeley Mews”. This is a great record, and it was considerably rare for a long time. Now it’s on a couple of different CDs. Some B-sides were throwaway material, because they didn’t have another song. Phil Spector did this a lot. The B-side of a Crystals or Ronettes record would have an instrumental on it, which was only to fill up space on that side of the record. Paul McCartney was always of the mind that you should give the fans their money’s worth. So he has been putting out singles that are not part of an album since his days in The Beatles. The majority of these are different mixes and edits, and often they have a non-LP B-side which is an amazing song. Very few of them have ever been reissued on CD.
Bruce Springsteen has a great track called “Pink Cadillac” that was only on the B-side of “Dancing In The Dark” and its 12" single. There are lots more.
How about you? Ever found a great tune where you didn’t expect to?
If you lived in the age of 45s, you soon found out that most b-sides subtracted rather than added value. I just flipped through a random selection of 45s and found that the b-sides conjured up absolutely nothing. Not a lyric, not a riff, nothing that’s ever been rediscovered or reassessed. 99% of all B-sides suck.
I can think of b-sides that later became well known - Steely Dan has included the live version of “Bodhisattva,” the b-side to “Hey Nineteen,” on most of its greatest hits compilations, and its not just living proof that the Dan could cook with the best of them but that Jeff Baxter and Denny Dias were guitar geniuses - but who the heck bought that as a single in the first place?
So, to answer your question: unless the single was by a legend you played the b-side once and then forgot about it.
I always played the B sides and sometimes found the songs to more to my liking than the A. Pre Disco Bee Gees, Sweet, and Paul McCartney and Wings come to mind, but I’ve long since sold my 45s, almost a decade ago.
Those sound like 70s era singles, while I was thinking of 60s era singles. The time difference may be significant. The record industry was a whole 'nother beast by then.
The B-side of John Cougar’s “Hand To Hold On To” (“Small Paradise”) is much better than the A-side.
Springsteen (or, more likely, Columbia records) would offer a non-album B-side on his singles most of the time. Great sales gimmick.
The Sweet had a brilliant song on the B-side of “Ballroom Blitz,” called “Restless.” That’s now available on CD, but for years it was only on the single.
There’s a great song called “Mighty Man” on the B-side of original Canadian and UK pressings of Mungo Jerry’s “In The Summertime.” It’s only been reissued on one obscure CD compilation, otherwise it’s generally unavailable.
When I read the OP I thought - ‘Hell yes!’ otherwise I would never know the Yes song, ‘Abeline’ - b-side to ‘Don’t Kill the Whale’.
A side is ordinary; B-side is extrordinary. One of my very favourite songs.
Girl’s School was a double a with ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ but never played (better song)
Aretha had a b side called ‘Baby Since Youve Been Gone’ which rocks the house. I have the single but have no idea what is the “A”.
1960s B-sides were usually very much worth flipping. Frequently acts would cut loose in experimentation on that side of the record, with interesting results.
My personal favorite is Ringo Starr’s “Blindman,” written with Klaus Voorman, which never made it to LP. Years ahead of its time!
Crandolph
Being a Ringo Starr fan, “Blindman” was the ‘B’ side to “Back Off Boogaloo” and I liked both of those.
How about the '“B” side to ‘Let It Be’ which was “You Know My Name, Look Up The Number”. I’m so twisted, I bought that 45 FOR the B side !!!
Paul Revere and the Raiders almost always had a wacky ‘B’ side on their 45’s and these would never make it to the albums. The songs were probably written in about 2 minutes yet they were played very well. Perhaps the best of the bunch was the flip side of “Kicks” - “Shake It Up”. Good playing by all the Raiders and the song concludes with a comment from a guy in the control booth. This is well worth a listen.
In some cases (“Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” by Steam and “The Horse” by Cliff Nobles & Company), the DJs played the B-side by mistake and made it the big hit.
Fleetwood Mac had a great Stevie Nicks number, “Silver Spring,” that was the B-side of “Go Your Own Way.” An example of a song that would have been a hit on its own, had it not been paired with an even better song.
The B-side to “My Sharona” by The Knack is a hot song called “Let Me Out”. Thats one single I’m glad I flipped over, though I would concur with earlier views that most B-sides suck ass.
Made in Macau, is there anywhere else you know of where I can get hold of the Yes song “Abeline”? I’d never heard of it until I read your post.
I have a juke box in my basement, and whenever I am down there doing whatever, it’s cranked up so that the windows rattle. All 60’s stuff. It has a switch inside, that allows for continuous play, and I had never used it, happy to pick out my own play list instead of random. So, I am working on a plumbing problem, up a ladder, and expecting to be at it for an hour or so. For the first time, I hit the continuous play switch, thinking it will play some 50 or so selections in an hour. Cool.
Well, for one hour, I listened to the B sides of every record played. I thought some one had broken in, stole all my classics, and re stocked the box with…well, B sides!
Terrible music.
I could not even guess what group was singing.
I have since reversed all the records in their slots, and had to turn all the title/artist cards around, so I can enjoy this feature.
As for the “Na Na Hey Hey” case, as far as I know, that song never was a B-side. It was submitted to the record company (Mercury, I think) as such, but the execs loved it so much, they put “Na Na Hey Hey” on the first side. The songwriter didn’t want his name associated with it, so they invented a band which didn’t exist at the time–Steam–to release it.
Probably my two favorite Beatles songs are B-sides: “Rain” and “The Inner Light.”
Here’s a Q for you, wolf_meister (or anyone), have you ever seen the spaghetti western Blindman (El ciego) that Starr was in (IIRC) which the song was written for? I have not, and last time I did an internet check for it no one had released it on a home medium.
[The B Side](www.blotto1.com/lyrics.htm#The B Side)! Nobody listens to the B side anyway
The B side! Not quite as good as the A side, anyway
The A side gets all the glory.
The B side? That’s another story
The B side!
And you’re probably not even listening to this right now
It started out as a B-side, but, as you say, some Mercury exec thought it should be an A-side (much to the chagrin of one of its writers, Paul Leka who considered it “an embarrassing record…an insult”) and put in on Fontana Records*. It sold over 1 million copies and continues to make money today.
The average songwriter should be so embarassed!
*Source: The Billboard Book of One Hit Wonders by Wayne Jancik
