Stellar B-Sides

[johnbasalla]

The topic of B-sides is beginning to take over another thread. So, here's an official place to post about it.
Which B-sides do you have or know of that are as good or better then their A-sides?

Here's one... "Gotta Get Away" by The Blues Magoos. Just as good as "You Ain't Got Nothin' Yet".

 

[johnbasalla]

Some more:
"Stay With Me" by The Rugbys. This is the B-side to "You, I", their only hit. "Stay With Me" is a more traditional Pop-Rock tune then the percussive based "You, I" but is equal in its goodness. "Stay With Me" is not on the album that features the hit. It could have been a potential hit.

"For My Lady" by The Moody Blues. This is a great B-side to "I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock and Roll Band)", and not just because it's a good tune, but also because it displays the diversity of The Moody Blues, who can do upbeat Rock and a pleasant, soft love tune... and do them equally well.

"The Story In Your Eyes"/"Melancholy Man" by The Moody Blues. Kind of the same thing here, except that the B-side is mysterious sounding. If the goal of putting such quality music on the B-sides of singles by The Moody Blues was to get you to buy the full LP, these two were good advertisements for Moody Blues albums.

"Under God's Light" by Rare Earth. This is the B-side to "Hey Big Brother". It's an uplifting Spiritual Soft Rock tune.
The key lyric goes".. "Everybody's happy, underneath God's light". I can dig that!

 

[radiobum]

Growing up in Phoenix they used to play Surfer Joe(got cold), the flip side of Wipe Out.

 

[Thomps2525]

Where do you surf in Phoenix? The lake at Encanto Park? Here in Los Angeles, Surfer Joe was played just as often as Wipe Out on our two top-40 stations, KFWB and KRLA.

In early 1958, Buddy Holly's Oh Boy was a #10 hit...but the B-side (which would later be recorded by the Rolling Stones) was Not Fade Away (bop, bop, bop-bop) and should have been played---a lot. In 1967, Buffalo Springfield's Bluebird got only to #58 nationally, although it was a top-20 hit in L.A.; it's too bad the B-side, Mr. Soul, didn't get played too. And I'll Get You, the B-side of the Beatles' She Loves You, never charted? Sacrilege!

 

[unitron]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Horn_(song)

I nearly wore out that record and the juke box it was on.

Otherwise I'm not a particular Phil Collins fan.

 

[Silkie]

The label read "Hot Rod Lincoln", by Charlie Ryan, but it was "Swinging On A Star", by Big Dee Irwin and Dee Dee Sharp. The flip side label read "Swinging On A Star", by Big Dee Irwin and Dee Dee Sharp, but it was Hot Rod Lincoln.

 

[OldNumber7]

Fleetwood Mac -- Silver Springs (flip of Go Your Own Way)
Beatles - They had several fantastic Bs but I'll nominate I'm Down (the flip of Help), and She's a Woman (the B of I Feel Fine)
Four Tops - Got a Feelin' (Bernadette)
Bruce Springsteen -- Pink Cadillac (Dancing in the Dark)

 

[firepoint525]

And I'll Get You, the B-side of the Beatles' She Loves You, never charted? Sacrilege!

I have a feeling that if "She Loves You" had been on Capitol, that Capitol would have found a way to (also) get some airplay for "I'll Get You." I'm with you, that is a fave of mine as well. (Should point out, though, that even some of their A-sides got "lost in the shuffle" in spring '64. "From Me To You" only reaching #41 stateside? Also a sacrilege!)

Fleetwood Mac -- Silver Springs (flip of Go Your Own Way)

Didn't "Silver Spring" eventually also become an A-side as well?

Beatles - They had several fantastic Bs but I'll nominate I'm Down (the flip of Help), and She's a Woman (the B of I Feel Fine)

I believe that "She's a Woman" was their highest (separately charted) b-side. It got to #4.

Bruce Springsteen -- Pink Cadillac (Dancing in the Dark)

Springsteen definitely knew how to do b-sides. I believe that "Pink Cadillac" also received significant airplay while "Dancing in the Dark" was a hit, but apparently not enough to chart on its own.

 

[firepoint525]

"Boogie Shoes" by KC & the Sunshine Band has an interesting history behind it.

• 1975 Appeared on their breakthrough (self-titled) album
• 1976 Released as b-side of their #1 hit, "Shake Your Booty"
• 1977 On Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album
• 1978 Finally released as A-side single, only reaching #35

 

[firepoint525]

Live versions as b-sides:

• "Coming Up, (Live at Glasgow)," Paul McCartney and Wings (live b-side also credited to Wings, studio A-side was McCartney solo)
• "I'm Alright" Kenny Loggins (live b-side to his studio A-side) Wish I still had that one!

 

[OldNumber7]

Two more:
Foreigner - Rev on the Red Line (flip of Dirty White Boy)
Steely Dan - Bodhisattva (live) (Hey 19)

 

[OldNumber7]

Fleetwood Mac -- Silver Springs (flip of Go Your Own Way)

Didn't "Silver Spring" eventually also become an A-side as well

The live version became a single in the 90s. The studio version was left off "Rumours" and out only as a B-side until it was finally incorporated in some album anthologies years later.

 

[radiobum]

Where do you surf in Phoenix? The lake at Encanto Park? Here in Los Angeles, Surfer Joe was played just as often as Wipe Out on our two top-40 stations, KFWB and KRLA.

ONLY IF YOU'D BEEN GRAZING IN THE GRASS PRIOR !

 

[billyg]

Link Wray
The Swag (Flip of "Rumble".. also the theme to John Water's "Pink Flamingos")

Shirelles
Look A Here Baby (Flip of "Dedicated To The One I Love")
Boys (Flip of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and later covered by The Beatles)
Til My Baby Comes Home (Flip of "Que Sera Sera")

Four Tops
Wonderful Baby (flip of "If I Were A Carpenter")

Supremes
Ask Any Girl (flip of "Baby Love")
He's All I Got (flip of "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart")

Four Seasons
Marlena (flip of "Candy Girl")
Betrayed (flip of "Toy Soldier")
Little Angel (flip of "Big Man In Town")
Huggin' My Pillow (Flip of "I Got You Under My Skin")
Raven (flip of "Watch The Flowers Grow")

? And The Mysterians
Midnight Hour (Flip of "96 Tears")

Bryan Hyland
I Can Hear The Rain (flip of "The Joker Went Wild")

Tommy James & The Shondells
Baby Baby (I Cant Take It No More) (flip of "I Like The Way")
One Two Three And I Fell (flip of "Mony Mony")

Flying Machine
Maybe We've Been Loving Too Long (flip of "Smile a Little Smile") ;D

David Cassidy
All I Want To Do Is Touch You (flip of "Cherish" and a much better song! Still not on CD)

The Sweet
Restless (flip of "Ballroom Blitz")
Heartbreak Today (flip of "Fever Of Love")

 

[Oldbones]

Supremes
Ask Any Girl (flip of "Baby Love")
He's All I Got (flip of "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart")

Quite a few Supremes B-sides were every bit as good as the A side. A couple of my faves are:
"Put Yourself In My Place" (You Can't Hurry Love)
"There's No Stopping Us Now" (Love Is Here, Now You're Gone)

The label read "Hot Rod Lincoln", by Charlie Ryan, but it was "Swinging On A Star", by Big Dee Irwin and Dee Dee Sharp.

Actually it was Little Eva, not Dee Dee on that one.

 

[Thomps2525]

Little Eva got her nickname after a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin; Uncle Tom saved Eva from drowning and she then persuaded her father to buy him. "Buying people"---what a quaint concept. Silkie's confusion of Little Eva with DeeDee Sharp is somewhat understandable: both artists had dance songs in 1962 and, in fact, The Loco-Motion was originally intended for DeeDee Sharp; Eva sang the demo but producers liked her voice enough to let her record it.

I have always liked Jan & Dean. In 1961 Jan Berry recorded a solo 45, Tomorrow's Teardrops. KFWB in Los Angeles played it but it never charted. The B-side was a fun little schoolboy-crush kinda song, My Midsummer Night's Dream. Ignore the mistake in the title on YouTube---just listen and enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFUcF3mV_Uo

 

[allenv]

Mississippi Delta/Ode To Billy Joe-Bobbie Gentry

 

[billyg]

"Boogie Shoes" by KC & the Sunshine Band has an interesting history behind it.

• 1975 Appeared on their breakthrough (self-titled) album
• 1976 Released as b-side of their #1 hit, "Shake Your Booty"
• 1977 On Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album
• 1978 Finally released as A-side single, only reaching #35

And I also remember seeing it on a 12" import single - all 2:12 minutes of it. ;D

And interesting to note every song on KC's next album, "Part 3" was released as an A or B side. Not even Micheal Jackson's "Thriller" did that. ("The Lady In My Life" was the only song on that LP to not make it to 45)

1) Baby I Love You (Flip of "Keep It Comin' Love")
2) Wrap Your Arms Around Me (Flip of "I'm Your Boogie Man)
3) I Like To Do It (A-Side)
4) Shake Your Booty (A-Side)

5) Lets Go Party (Flip of "It's The Same Old Song")
6) Come On In (Flip of "I Like To Do It")
7) I'm Your Boogie Man (A-Side)
8 ) Keep It Comin' Love (A-Side)

 

[firepoint525]

Didn't those imported 12-inchers play at 45 rpm? If so, (only) 2:12 of music on one side of a 12-inch record wouldn't look quite as bad! (Herb Alpert's "Rise" actually became a club hit in the UK on the wrong speed, because the djs played the 33 rpm 12-incher at 45 rpm, and since it was an instrumental, they had no clue that they were playing it on the wrong speed!)

As for Michael Jackson's Thriller album, there were nine songs on it: the seven A-side singles that all went top 10, "The Lady in My Life" which you mentioned, and one other song. I don't still have that album, so I don't remember what that last song was. Was it a b-side to one of the other songs? (I remember "The Lady in My Life" getting some airplay around '84 or so, as maybe some djs were thinking that it was about to be released as a single.)

 

[firepoint525]

The Beatles' double-sided single "Something"/"Come Together" provides an interesting case-study. Here was a rare case in which the B-side (the sliced-apple side) was actually outpacing the A-side (the whole apple side) on the charts. (Usually, when that happens, the B-side becomes the A-side.) "Come Together" was #2, while "Something" was #3. But while those two were in the top 10, Billboard had a change in its chart policy, in which both sides of the single were combined into just one listing on the charts. So what happened was that "Something" and "Come Together" collectively became #1 for a week, becoming the first truly "double-sided" #1 hit.

Had this policy been in effect in 1966, there is an outside possibility that "Yellow Submarine" and "Eleanor Rigby" might have been a double-sided #1 hit. As it was, "Submarine" peaked at #2, while "Rigby" was #11.

The downside to this "combine both sides of the single into just one chart listing" was that the B-side began to significantly diminish in importance. :'( This may have been when record companies started sending "double A-sided" singles to radio stations. Usually one side was in stereo (for the FM stations) and the other side was mono, but it was the same song (the A-side) on both sides.