“Wolf Creek Pass” was an A-side and a hit in its own right. Are you sure the single you saw wasn’t a commercial “Oldies” reissue rather than a promotional (DJ) copy? Because it was common practice to reissue singles with a hit on each side some years after they had originally come out.
It’s more likely you bought “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in early 1964, as it was released in the U.S. at the very tail end of 1963 and likely wouldn’t have been widely heard on the radio or available in stores until the year had turned.
The B-side of this single in the States was “I Saw Her Standing There.” (In the UK and most other places, it was “This Boy.”)
“There’s a Place” was a B-side (of “Twist and Shout”) in the U.S. It was not released on a single in the UK.
The Turtles’ “Sound Asleep” is the first 45 I remember owning. That was in 1968 when it was new. I can’t remember if I bought it myself (with birthday money), or if it was a gift. I would have been five years old, so either is likely.
I Feel Fine by the Beatles. My father hated the Beatles, the record soon dissappeared.
I had LPs but didn’t buy too many 45s. The only one I remember buying is “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor.
“Time Is On My Side” by The Rolling Stones 1964.
It’s long gone.
Interesting. That song didn’t do very well on the charts (only made it to #57), so it would have received only limited radio airplay. It could well have been bought by an adult who just grabbed a 45 at random.
On the other hand, it’s a fun song, and I can see how would appeal to a 5-year-old.
I am pretty sure…I remember because I was working a station in the high country of Colorado (not really that far from Wolf Creek Pass and right next door to where McCall lived) and I was playing it regularly because of my familiarity with the pass when my boss came in and slammed it down in front of me and said, “This (‘Convoy’) is the hit. This is the side you will play!”
I remember a few years later when “Wolf Creek Pass” became a lesser hit.
I’m guessing you’re referring to Bill Fries, a singer and advertising creative, who created the McCall character for an ad campaign, and later started recording music as McCall.
I don’t think I ever bought one. I did get one at Showbiz Pizza when I had a birthday party there. It had a version of the Beatles’ “Birthday” along with some other song I don’t remember. I also remember getting a promotional McDonald’s 45 in the newspaper in 1989. The gist of it was that if you got the lucky record in which the singers sang the entire McDonald’s jingle without messing up, you won a million dollars or something like that. Mine was not the lucky one.
The only 45 I ever bought was “Pop Goes The World” by Men Without Hats. I still have it, and the Record World bag it came in, although I don’t have the receipt.
I bought it because I liked the song, but it was a silly thing, so I knew no self-respecting radio station would ever play it again after its popularity waned – it got to #20 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 – so the only way I could expect to hear again was to have my own copy. I was correct that to this day even oldies stations rarely play this song, but I didn’t expect the creation of something like Youtube, so that I now can listen to it at a moment’s notice when so desired.
According to my copy of Bill Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles, Wolf Creek Pass b/w Sloan (MGM 14764) peaked at #40 in early 1975, and Convoy b/w Long Longsome Road (MGM 14839) came out at the end of the year, peaking at #1.
Sugar, Sugar by The Archies.
I remember where I bought it, I remember how much it cost (69 cents), I remember the flip side, and I remember racing home to play it. I still have it.
I have no idea what my second 45 was, though.
mmm
Queen, Another One Bites the Dust/We are the Champions.
I tried to buy Three Dog Night’s Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog but they gave me Three Dog Night’s Joy to the World instead!
I was 8.
CMC fnord!
Little Bitty Pretty One, by Bobby Day. I still have it. Michael Jackson covered it years later.
“Mr Jaws” by Dickie Goodman.
I thought it was funny when I was 7.
My mother bought me, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” when I was two; I still have it–it sounds like Jodie Foster talking to outer space.
The first 45 I bought was (Eumir) Deodato’s rock and roll (actually, bossa nova) version of, “2001.” The last I saw of it, it was heading down the street with a bindle over its shoulder because I bought the 8-track, then the cassette, then the vinyl LP, then the CD.
And I just listened to it a few days ago on my iPod.
I think Undercover Angel back in the mid to late 70s.