Placement of Singles (as in records)

I can’t use the term LP as they don’t have them (much) anymore and I guess it matters less on CDs but here is the question.

Did it matter where they placed the tracks that were to become singles when they used vinyl LPs. For instance I recall a lot of the first singles issued of the LP were Side One, track One.

I realize at times an unexpected track became a single due to demand but don’t most record companies know what songs will be singles. Or knew. I realize times are different now that they have album tracks (airplay only tracks) on Billboard.

The answer is yes, mostly.

The strongest track - in the opinion of the marketing executives - was traditionally put as Track 1, Side 1 of the album. (This would be in the U.S. In the U.K. there was a long traditional of leaving the singles off the LP entirely on the dubious theory that people would have already bought the single and therefore would feel somehow cheated to have to buy it again as part of the record. That’s why the Beatles had to put out an album of singles late in their career to get the songs onto an LP.)

But marketing executives are not the listening public. They were sometimes wrong and some other song - played by a radio station, say - got more listener response, leading it to be released as a single. And there are a zillion instances of the B-side of a single becoming more popular than the supposed A-side. Um, “Incense and Peppermints,” by the Strawberry Alarm Clock for one.

Originally, too, LPs were mostly built around the single. But after bands started recording their own music and albums became full of strong songs and buyers declined to pay for 11 crappy songs to get the one good one (hey, just like today) the artists starting taking more control. Albums started getting a flow. The two sides took separate shapes and forms. Strong songs would be placed wherever they felt right in the flow. Good albums would have several singles to draw on. (I think Michael Jackson holds the record with seven singles from an album.)

So your second thoughts are about right. Most singles are designed that way, but the unexpected happens a lot in music.

      • I remember with cassette tapes, often the big hit was track #1 on side two, and if there were two good hits, they would often put them as track #1 on both sides–so you had to advance through the whole tape if you just wanted to hear either of those songs.
        ~

Exapno- books have been written about the b sides that became hits. The 2 biggest "oldies’ of all time, Earth Angel & In the Still of the Nite were b sides. Phil Spector was so angry about it that he shot… oops, no he began putting literal junk on the b sides. The DJ had to play the a side or none at all.