It was a B-side in 1977; I think that @doreen is wondering what would have happened if “Silver Springs” was released as a single (i.e., an “A-side”) back then.
In 1970, Led Zepplin released a single of The Immigrant Song, which appeared also on LZ III. The B-side of that single was a song called Hey, Hey, What Can I Do, which did not appear on the album, nor on any subsequent album. It did get a substantial amount of airplay over the years (possibly more than the A-side) and stands as an unusual example of a single that remained obtainable for much longer than most usually do (I recall seeing a Japanese pressing in a record store at least 15 years on). That is a very obvious case of a B-side driving sales, because why would you buy the single when you could get all the great songs on the album?
ISTR that Paul Revere and the Raiders, whose biggest hits were all written by someone else, has a deal with Columbia Records to use their own compositions as B-side material so they could get royalties.
From Wikipedia, regarding “Strawberry Fields Forever” / “Penny Lane”:
I’m not sure how it was determined which side of a double A-side single was selling better.
I have always said, they should have put it on Coda. At least one good song would have been in that crap pile. I would have bought a copy.
I actually have a 45 of it, but am so glad it finally was released on a CD.
Yes, that’s what I meant.
Here’s the original. It is, in fact, a pretty great song.
People have hit the multiple reasons for why double-sided hits made no sense except for super-superstars like Elvis and the Beatles in their wildest heights.
Not much to add, but I want to stress one point that’s been implied. Nobody knows if a song is going to be a hit. The record business is full of promising songs that never made it big, songs pulled off albums that became gold, songs that producers pushed on artists that the artists hated, songs that were recorded to fill out the last ten minutes of a session, and b-sides that listeners demanded over the a-side.
“Incense and Peppermints” initially appeared on the B-side of Thee Sixpence’s fifth single, “The Birdman of Alkatrash,” released on All-American Records in April 1967. However, local radio stations began playing “Incense and Peppermints” instead of the A-side, and the song began to gain in popularity in and around Los Angeles. Sensing the possibility of a national hit, the Uni Records subsidiary of MCA (now called Universal Music Group) picked up the record for national distribution and the single was re-released in May 1967: this time with “Incense and Peppermints” on the A-side and “The Birdman of Alkatrash” as the B-side. By the time of this second pressing, the band had changed its name to “The Strawberry Alarm Clock” due to the existence of a local group with a name somewhat similar to Thee Sixpence.
Hits are rare and precious. You can’t predict hits. Somebody honestly thought The Birdman of Alkatrash could be a hit. Even superstars have off days and often become yesterday’s news. From 1964 through 1968 Elvis failed to chart any top ten singles. (His previous top ten song in 1963 was a cover of the 1962 flop Bossa Nova Baby.) What everybody wants is a string of consecutive hits, but they find those only by looking in the rear-view mirror.
In the 60s, it was a foregone conclusion that a new Beatles single would be a hit.
True, but the people at Decca records didn’t think they’d amount to much.
They thought Brian Poole and the Tremolos were a better bet.
But granted, the Decca guy who refused the Beatles later somehow made up for it by eagerly signing the Stones.
I like the Coasters version better than the Surfaris’
Well, they did modify the original composition for what was arguably their best known piece. Previous versions sound quite different from what I am familiar with.
Dude, I literally excepted the Beatles in my post.
On George Harrison’s recommendation.
The fact is that no one knows what’s going to be a success. The Tremolos were successful, with a few hits, so it wasn’t wrong choosing them, but they weren’t the Beatles.
Dude, I am so sorry.
I wish I was one of them.
Back in the '90s I worked for a restaurant with a surf motif. We had a 400 CD changer with lots of surf music mixed in with pop. That goddamn song played ALL. THE. TIME.
I eventually became the manager. Around that time, purely by coincidence, the CDs that contained that song began to mysteriously vanish. But that fuckin’ song was like a virus. Just when I thought it was stamped out, it would suddenly play again.
Eventually the song was eradicated from the CD player. The years went by, and I was successful in forgetting “Surfer Joe” ever existed. Until yesterday, when I read this thread. Now it’s come roaring back to the front of my memory.
I’m going to go cry myself to sleep now.
In my teens, I had a 45 of “Wipe Out” pressed in the 1970s that had “Surfer Joe” on the flip with just three verses. I gained some appreciation for it when I discovered the original with all five verses. It’s got a really nice story arc in the longer version, loading up his woodie with 26 boards, sneaking off base to surf Trestles, doing KP as the result…