What was the purpose of picking such lousy songs, typically, for the “B” sides of 45’s? Didn’t they want to PROMOTE the LP from which the song came and/or promote the band? Of course, some “B” sides cannot be found on ANY LP…not sure the logic here, unless the band had no LP at the time???
Does anyone know how this worked?
To answer your first question: they want to save all the good songs from the album to later release as singles.
Second question: B-sides not found on any album are more than likely extra material that didn’t make the cut. Sometimes, however, a B-side will be a remix or radio edit of the A-side.
CD singles nowadays often contain remixes and material that didn’t make it onto the album
Some examples where the ‘B’ side became the ‘A’ by accident:
Steam: “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye”
KISS: “Beth” - much to the dismay of KISS Army members everywhere
See what Cecil has to say.
Damn Cecil! :mad: I had some good answers for this, and he stole most of my limelight.
To add slightly to the illumination provided by Cecil: In the days of '45 records, the single(hit) came out much earlier than any LP that it may have eventually wound up on. “Flip Side” songs often were never to be found on a subsequent album. I believe that in the early days of Rock ‘N’ Roll, much more $ worth of sales came from the 45 rpm singles than from the less popular 33&1/3 RPM albums. The companies obviously didn’t want to offer two great songs on one record, when they could sell two records. Sometimes they screwed up, as with Elvis’s “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel.”
An excellent example of this is Bruce Springsteen. In the early 80’s (prior to CD’s) Columbia Records would release his newest singles flipped with a previously unreleased track thereby insuring big sales from his hardcore “gotta have it all” fans. In the CD era, Tori Amos does this quite a bit.
My question is why in the hell did Queen put Don’t Try Suicide on the B-side of Another One Bites The Dust ???
I was FIVE YEARS OLD ! I distinctly remember my dad taking a paperclip and scratching the B-side such that it would not play…
“I was FIVE YEARS OLD ! I distinctly remember my dad taking a paperclip and scratching the B-side such that it would not play…”
You lost me there Lockfist. Why did he do that? I liked both songs. 
[Aretha]
Don’t you blaspheme in here! Don’t you BLASPHEME in HERE!
[/Aretha]
Your dad was pro-suicide?
It is believed that an entire bar was cleared out in seconds after someone put on the B-side of They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-haa!, entitled !Aah-ah Yawa Em Ekat ot Gnimoc Er’yeht, which is basically the A-side played backwards.