R.E.M. has usually put non-album instrumentals on their singles, whether they were 45s, cassingles, or CDs. Some are gems, and some - well, not even R.E.M. bats 1.000. “Reveal” was proof of that. :smack:
BTW, Aretha Franklin turned “Pink Cadillac” into a big hit single. And did you know that Springsteen wrote “Because The Night” and “Blinded By The Light”? The former is obvious; the latter wasn’t, and one other thing. That mysterious word in BBTL is “Deuce”, as in a racecar or a roadster, not that thing women sometimes do that’s not usually recommended by doctors and is actually the French word for “bathe”.
The price I paid was about 69 cents each. I was able to save 10 cents from my lunch money each day and had almost enough at the end of the week to buy a record.
The B side of, I think, the 1960 Johnny Bond version of Hot Rod Lincoln was titled “7 Minute Love Affair”. Only at the end of the song does it become obvious that it is a song about smoking a cigarette.
Of course records were around when I was growing up, but they were dying out. When I started buying music of my own the big deal was cassette tapes so that’s what I bought (You could play them in your CAR, man!). These ‘A sides’ and ‘B sides’ are different sides of the same record? Records were tracked by sales, right? How can an A side and a B side be tracked separately and reach different positions on the charts when they’re sold together as one record?
Regarding 45 records-there were two ways to play them-you either inserted a plastic adapter (to make it compatible with the 33-1/3 spindle, or you put a plastic adapter over the spindle.
Anyway, do they still make these adapters?
Slight hijack: If you want to hear the best ever version of Pink Cadillac, check out Jerry Lee Lewis and Bruce Springsteen on Killer’s “Last Man Standing” album. Amazing.
Because they were “tracked by sales” but not in the computerized Soundscan way they’re tracked today - instead retailers would write out a list of their bestsellers and submit the list to Billboard (or whatever other chart compiler). The retailer could decide whichever side of the record people were buying it for and list the record under that title…
Also, chart positions were partially determined by radio airplay, so this data would make it more clear which side of the single was the popular one (at the moment; often the popular side would switch)…
Also, jukebox sales were factored in, and there’s no ambiguity there about which side people are playing.
In the case of Billboard, this all became academic in late 1969 when they stopped tracking separate sides of a single and began listing them as one unit.
Actually, it was Natalie Cole who had a hit single with “Pink Cadillac.”
Aretha had a hit with “Freeway of Love” which included the line “We’re riding on the freeway of love in a pink cadillac” which may be the source of the confusion.
Believe it or not, Gloria Gaynor’s massive disco classic “I Will Survive” was a B-side. No one remembers the A-side, “Substitute” (not the Pete Townshend song).
I believe I only ever purchase a single single in all by vinyl buying days (which lasted well into the CD era)…that was the aforementioned “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin…and it was only because it was the only way to get my hands on “Hey Hey What Can I Do”.
Of course records were around when I was growing up, but they were dying out. When I started buying music of my own the big deal was cassette tapes so that’s what I bought (You could play them in your CAR, man!). These ‘A sides’ and ‘B sides’ are different sides of the same record? Records were tracked by sales, right? How can an A side and a B side be tracked separately and reach different positions on the charts when they’re sold together as one record?