Let’s clear up any confusion by doing a little housekeeping:
What song did you encounter, and like, and then were embarrassed (or at least, surprised) to find it was a cover of a much more widely popular version?
What song did you encounter, and like, and then were embarrassed (or at least, surprised) to find it was a cover of a much more widely popular version?
Singles that were standalone and not part of a longer album; the only way you could own it was to buy the 45. My example is “Honky Tonk Woman.” It came out around the same time as Let It Bleed but didn’t appear on that album. By contrast, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was a hit single AND appeared on Let It Bleed, so that wouldn’t count for this category.
I interpret it to mean songs that were released as singles, and became hits, but were not included on an album, except maybe later as part of a “greatest hits” or other compilation.
As I understand it, this was more common in the UK than in the US. So, for example, when the Beatles’ albums were first released on CD, they also released two discs of songs that were never included on any of their “proper” British albums. Some of these were rarities or alternative versions, but some were hit singles.
Hit singles not taken from a non-compilation album
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
I Am The Walrus - The Beatles
Virginia Plain - Roxy Music
Honky Tonk Woman - Rolling Stones
Hey Jude - The Beatles
House of Fun - Madness
Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys
Under Pressure - Queen + David Bowie
Released as a stand-alone single in October, 1981; though it was later included on Queen’s non-compllation album “Hot Space,” that album wasn’t released until seven months later, in May, 1982 (four months after the single had peaked at #29 on the U.S. Billboard chart).