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Old 5 Nov 2011, 08:44 AM   #1
Adam Lachlan
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Superior B-sides

Anyone on here have popular songs, singles etc whose b-side they much prefer over the a-side, perhaps that (one may think) should have been released as a single instead? Care to share them on the forum? I a have a fewas follows:

(Artist : B-side [A-side])

Paul Anka : Don't Gamble with love [Diana]
Petula Clark : You'd better love me [Downtown]
The Batchelors : Happy land [I believe]
Richard Chamberlain : I will love you [True love]
Bay City Rollers : It's for you [Bye bye baby]
Johnny Otis Show : Romance in the dark [Ma he's making eyes at me]

And
The Beatles : I feel fine [She's a woman] - but I don't think this counts as it may have been a double "A" side.

Last edited by Adam Lachlan : 6 Nov 2011 at 01:06 AM.
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Old 5 Nov 2011, 12:06 PM   #2
robert@fm
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The best example is probably the Mason Williams single, a rather boring country song called Long Time Blues. Never heard of it? That's probably because radio DJs only played the B-side -- Classical Gas. It made massive sales because everyone bought it for the B-side.
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Old 5 Nov 2011, 02:20 PM   #3
n5bb
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Wow! This thread is bringing up some old memories! Of course, you have to be old enough to have seen a vinyl recording. You might even remember the classifications HiFi (High Fidelity), Mono (Monaural), and Stereo on those record jackets and labels.

Classical Gas was so very popular in the late 60's and into the 70's. Here is Mason Williams 20 years later. And 40 years later with the 1968 experimental video "3000 Years of Art". He wrote the Smothers Brothers theme music, and was a comedian and writer for that show.

This is a great example of a B side. Nobody remembers Long Time Blues.

Bill
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Old 5 Nov 2011, 02:49 PM   #4
n5bb
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How about Day Tripper by The Beatles (B side of We Can Work It Out).
Or Eleanor Rigby (B side of Yellow Submarine).
Or I Am The Walrus (B side of Hello, Goodbye). I Am The Walrus is one of the most amazing songs ever recorded when played back using earphones. When it was released it signaled a revolutionary change in the content and production qualities of music.

Actually, I admit that I like both sides of these. But the B sides seem to me better songs.

Last edited by n5bb : 5 Nov 2011 at 02:56 PM.
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Old 6 Nov 2011, 01:15 AM   #5
Adam Lachlan
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I have now edited my first post to include links to each song on Youtube. "Don't gamble with love" is of course the original 1957 version (being on the flip side of "Diana"), way better than the later recording in my opinion.

In fact n5bb, I am not old enough to remember the vinyl recordings, although all the songs I have listed above are in my possession as their respective 45rpm singles, bar Paul Anka and Johnny Otis which are 78rpm shellac, the latter being identical to the record seen in the video.
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Old 6 Nov 2011, 02:14 AM   #6
Tsunami
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Some b-sides I like a lot:

"Man in the Ocean" - Heather Nova
"Grow Young" - Heather Nova
"So Sister" - The Verve
"Leni" - Placebo


Not a very impressive list, I stopped buying cd singles by the beginning of the new millennium due to the costs involved while I was still buying full albums regularly too. Also, b-sides used to be more carefully worked on in the seventies and eighties, but I was a bit too young (born 1981) to fully experience that era so a lot of songs I adore from that era may have been b-sides without me realising it ...
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