How did a "B-side" songs make the charts?

[KellyCriterion]

From wikipedia:

“The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78 and 45 rpm gramophone (phonograph) records, whether singles or extended plays (EPs). The A-side usually featured the recording that the artist or the record producer or the record company intended to receive the initial promotional effort and then receive radio airplay, hopefully, to become a “hit” record. The B-side (or “flip-side”) is a secondary recording’”.

How did a “B-side” songs make the charts?

Prior to digital downloading, from what I understand, song charts were created based on number of units sold.

I find many references saying things like “xyz song made it #21 on the charts, despite being released as a b-side”.

I must be missing something… how did B-side songs “chart” independely of whatever song was on the A-side? The discs were sold as individual units.

There’s this reference on Wikipedia, but I don’t quite get it:

At first, most record labels would randomly assign which song would be an A-side and which would be a B-side. (All phonograph (gramophone) records have specific identifiers for each side in addition to the catalog number for the record itself; the “A” side would typically be assigned a sequentially lower number.) Under this random system, many artists had so-called “double-sided hits”, where both songs on a record made one of the national sales charts (in Billboard, Cashbox, or other magazines), or would be featured on jukeboxes in public places.

[yabob]

The Billboard figures were composites, incorporating radio airplay and jukebox play as well as sales figures.

[silenus]

DJs played it. That simple. Chart positions weren’t just sales figures - they also included airplay. If the “B” side got more airplay, it would chart and get the sales figures as opposed to the “A” side.

As for the double-sided part - same same. If the Beatles released “She Loves You” as an “A” side and “Please Please Me” as a “B” side, both will chart and both will get played in the juke boxes.

[california_jobcase]

Ever hear the Beatles’ “the Inner Light” on the radio? Neither did anyone else, really. It hit #96 for one week, but the other side, “Lady Madonna”, hit #1 for two weeks.

[Vagabond]

@yabob

The Billboard figures were composites, incorporating radio airplay and jukebox play as well as sales figures.

Hey! that’s pretty cool. I’m a musician (or used to be) and I was stumped. In my type of music we don’t see the charts too much so I guess I never learned much about how they ARE ranked…let alone how they USED to be ranked.

[yabob]

The importance of airplay to the perceived popularity and success of popular songs is why the Payola Scandals were such a big deal.

[buddha_david]

From Wikipedia:

*On a few occasions, the B-side became the more popular song. This was usually because a DJ preferred the B-side to its A-side and played it instead. Examples include “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor (originally the B-side of “Substitute”), “I’ll Be Around” by The Spinners (originally the B-side of “How Could I Let You Get Away”), Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones (originally the B-side of Let’s Spend the Night Together), “Maggie May” by Rod Stewart (originally the B-side of “Reason to Believe”), and Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice (originally the B-side of Play That Funky Music). More rarely, both sides of the single would become hits, such as Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You”, or The Beatles´s “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper”, or “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane”

The song “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths started out as the extra track on the 12" of “William, It Was Really Nothing” but later gained a separate release as an A-side in its own right, as did Oasis’s “Acquiesce,” which originally appeared as a B-side to “Some Might Say” in 1995, but gained subsequent release in 2006 as part of an EP to promote their forthcoming compilation album, Stop the Clocks. Feeder in 2001 and 2005 had the B-sides “Just a Day” from “Seven Days in the Sun,” and “Shatter” from “Tumble and Fall” released as A-sides after fan petitions and official website and fansite message board hype, and both charted at #12 and #11 in the UK. In 1986, the first single from XTC’s record Skylarking, “Grass”, was eclipsed in the United States by its B-side, “Dear God” – so much so that the record was almost immediately re-released with one song (“Mermaid Smiled”) removed and “Dear God” put in its place, becoming one of the band’s better-known “hits.”

On some reissued singles the A- and B-sides are by completely different artists, or two songs from different albums that would not normally have been released together. These were sometimes made for the jukebox, as one record with two popular songs on it would make more money, or to promote an artist to the fans of another. For example, in 1981 Kraftwerk released their new single “Computer Love,” coupled with the B side “The Model”, from their 1978 LP The Man-Machine. With synthpop increasingly dominating the UK charts, the single was re-released with the sides reversed. In early 1982 “The Model” reached number one.*

[Isilder]

Its just a scam isn’t.
What if a single was at #1 due to plays and sales.

BUT actually the radio was playing side A, but people were buying it for side B.
The single then gets in the charts, and the sales were attributed to side A, So the radio kept playing side A, since side A is in the charts !

Sometimes the B track was then released as an A side, in order to get it charting.
Charts are not accountable… they are as accurate as horrorscopes and mall polls

“We Will Rock You” was the B to “We are the Champions” in the UK, but for the USA they called it the AA side.

[usedtobe]

How many people used the “one side”/“another side” trick?

Ever used on a single?

<insert rant here re. “click to download” = “go to store and lay down cash”>

[Darth_Nader]

The Dead Kennedys’ “In God we Trust, Inc.” EP was also sold on cassette tape with the b side left blank…

[Colibri]

Since this is about music, let’s move it to Cafe Society.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[Doug_Bowe]

To make sure DJ’s would play the song the band or record company wanted to be a hit there often were “radio copies” provided. The 45’s sent to stations would have the same song was on both sides.

[RealityChuck]

Often the record company picked a weak song for the A side, or didn’t make it clear what was A or B.

[Ellis_Aponte_Jr]

Is it not the case that in the 1950s and 1960s, when “sales” was a relatively more important component of a song’s chart ranking, that instead of tracking actual numbers of sales it was a matter of record retailers submitting a list of their best-sellers and then Billboard or Cashbox collating all of these lists to make their charts?

Because then, retailers could list whichever side they thought people were buying the record for, and so a b-side could thus become the hit.

[Nom_de_Plume]

Yesterday on SiriusXM, I heard a story I hadn’t heard before. Apparently KISS knew the song Beth would become a hit, but it didn’t match the hard rock style the band’s fans were used to. They released it as the B-side of* Detroit Rock City*, so they could act surprised that DJs were playing the B-Side. I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s a good story.

I was DJ in the 80s and remember when SoundScan started to track record sales nationwide. I thought that, before that, charts were based solely on airplay, or at least, additions to stations’ playlists. Of course, that’s before I ever did any programming, so I’m no expert on what happened before the early 80s. (Even then, I never followed the playlists anyways)

[Jack_Batty]

I credit Blue Oyster Cult.

“Burning For You”:

*Time is the essence
Time is the season
Time ain’t no reason
Got no time to slow

Time everlasting
Time to play B-sides
Time ain’t on my side
Time I’ll never know*

[Shinna_Minna_Ma]

According to this site, the Beatles officially released four double A side singles.

[Malacandra]

In 1975 Jasper Carrott had a chart success with the undistinguished song “Funky Moped”, but it was the scurrilous “Magic Roundabout” parody on the B-side that was making it a cult hit.

[KellyCriterion]

Thanks for the info.