# Best B-Sides **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874 "2011-10-26T16:48:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/21 "2011-10-28T01:13:13Z")
> [@SykoSkotty](#): > > KISS- “Beth” > > Originally released as the B side to “Detroit Rock City.” To this day, Beth remains the band’s highest charting single. I’d argue that it doesn’t belong in a thread titled “ **Best** B-Sides.” Joe ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/22 "2011-10-28T01:16:07Z")
A side We are the champions, B side we will rock you Going from memory here, with Queen. Declan ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/23 "2011-10-28T02:27:12Z")
_[Be Kind To My Mistakes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpVKPUoI554)_, the B-side of Kate Bush’s _This Woman’s Work_. Also _[Not This Time](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Waac8sNUNcs)_ the B-side of _The Big Sky_. Two of my favorite of her songs. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/24 "2011-10-28T02:29:27Z")
**Dear God** - XTC ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/25 "2011-10-28T02:47:42Z")
The B-side for Napoleon XIV’s “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-hhaah!”. Ranks with Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music” as pure artistic triumph. [They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa! - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They%27re_Coming_to_Take_Me_Away,_Ha-Haaa)! ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/26 "2011-10-28T03:00:25Z")
Oasis, “Acquiesce”…maybe the best thing they did after “Live Forever.” ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/27 "2011-10-28T05:06:43Z")
“Maggie May” by Rod Stewart was initially the B-side to “Reason to Believe” when it was released in the UK. It went on to outperform the A-side. > **[Maggie May](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_May)** > > "Maggie May" is a song co-written by singer Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton, and performed by Rod Stewart on his album Every Picture Tells a Story, released in 1971. > In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the song number 130 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. > "Maggie May" expresses the ambivalence and contradictory emotions of a boy involved in a relationship with an older woman and was written from Stewart's own experience. In the January 2007 issue of Q magazine, Stewart recalled:... /Heard this on the radio today. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/28 "2011-10-28T09:30:35Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > **The Smiths** - London Oh, look, you have one of the best right there in the OP, darn. I’d add **Joy Division** ’s _Novelty_, _Dead Souls_ and _These Days_ ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/29 "2011-10-28T14:24:34Z")
> [@kelly5078](#): > > Any Beatles B-side could easily be an A-side. _You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)_ :dubious: My nomination in the Beatles subcategory of this thread would be _Don’t Let Me Down_. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/30 "2011-10-28T14:43:18Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > A side We are the champions, B side we will rock you > > Going from memory here, with Queen. > > Declan They did this with ‘Fat Bottomed Girls/Bicycle Race’ as well. A general plan to release a single with two strong songs meant to go together. It seems to have worked. Murder by Numbers - The Police. That’s one hell of a song that, curiously, was not on the vinyl but was on the cassette. It was the B-side of the ‘Every Breath You Take’ 45. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/31 "2011-10-28T14:47:46Z")
_Solace_, B-side of _The Entertainer_ by Marvin Hamlisch. Sparked my juvenile love of Joplin and ragtime which has continued to this day. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/32 "2011-10-28T14:59:23Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > The B-side for Napoleon XIV’s “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-hhaah!”. Ranks with Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music” as pure artistic triumph. > [They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa! - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They%27re_Coming_to_Take_Me_Away,_Ha-Haaa)! See also “[Noollab Wolley](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9MS-JM20f4)”, the B-side to “Yellow Balloon” by the Yellow Balloon. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/33 "2011-10-28T15:29:52Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > They did this with ‘Fat Bottomed Girls/Bicycle Race’ as well. A general plan to release a single with two strong songs meant to go together. It seems to have worked. > > Murder by Numbers - The Police. That’s one hell of a song that, curiously, was not on the vinyl but was on the cassette. It was the B-side of the ‘Every Breath You Take’ 45. “Double A-side”. > **[A-side and B-side | Double A-side](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-side_and_B-side#Double_A-side)** > > A double A-side, AA-side, or dual single is a single where both sides are designated the A-side, with no designated B-side; that is, both sides are prospective hit songs and neither side will be promoted over the other. In 1949, Savoy Records promoted a new pair of singles by one of its artists, Paul Williams' "House Rocker" and "He Knows How to Hucklebuck", as "The New Double Side Hit – Both Sides 'A' Sides". In 1965, Billboard reported that due to a disagreement between EMI and John Lennon a In... ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/34 "2011-10-28T18:03:28Z")
> [@kelly5078](#): > > Any Beatles B-side could easily be an A-side. Nitpick: “The Inner Light” (Lady Madonna) is another big exception. . ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/35 "2011-10-28T19:55:02Z")
**Strawberry Fields Forever** if you count **Penny Lane** as the A side, which is the way it was treated by AM radio at the time, and Penny Lane if vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/36 "2011-10-28T19:59:59Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Nitpick: > “The Inner Light” (Lady Madonna) is another big exception. > > . Like I said, almost any… ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/37 "2011-10-29T02:11:26Z")
> [@kelly5078](#): > > Like I said, almost any… And like I said, it was nitpicking to point out the two exceptions out of dozens. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/38 "2011-10-29T02:38:52Z")
“Silver Spring” - B side of “Go Your Own Way” - Fleetwood Mac. Didn’t make it onto an album until the Live one, but was always a concert fave. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/39 "2011-10-29T05:16:46Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > “Silver Spring” - B side of “Go Your Own Way” - Fleetwood Mac. Didn’t make it onto an album until the Live one, but was always a concert fave. Good one. My favorite Fleetwood Mac song. ---
**Author:** ![Trick\_Rider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Trick\_Rider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trick_Rider)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-b-sides/600874/40 "2011-10-30T01:27:32Z")
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