As Blue Oyster Cult sang in “Burnin’ For You”, time to play B sides.
This is a bit of a homage to a medium from a bygone era – the 45 rpm single. I’ve compiled a playlist of B sides from previously released singles. I thought it would be fun to look at songs that the artists &/or record companies thought of as “also rans” to the expected hits. For reference sake, I’ve included the A sides as a separate playlist following the B sides.
Occasionally when the B side took off more so than the A side, record companies switched sides on subsequent releases. These include releases by Them (“Gloria” & “Baby Please Don’t Go”), the Rolling Stones (“Lets Spend the Night Together” & “Ruby Tuesday”), and Kiss (“Detroit Rock City” & “Beth”). I’ve included the songs in the category in which they were originally released.
I’ve stayed away from 45’s that were released as “double A sides”, where the band &/or record company knew they had two solid hits, e.g. CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and “Hey Tonight”. With the passing of time, some releases have essentially become Double A’s although they were not originally thought of that way, e.g. CCR’s “Proud Mary” and “Born on the Bayou”.
Here’s a link to a history of the 45 single. It’s a bit dated, but I love the content.
Hope you have fun on the flip side!
Of course, goofy stuff just has to happen. Looks like the “sharing playlist” code in Spotify is wonky. I’ve got to use links instead. The first link is to the B sides, second link is to the A sides. Sorry for the poor look!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6qBUPN1ixFDb75jhuLcorI?si=_A_Welr_T5W38xdSV8eIuQ
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7hkeplXee4mJFhdDoWAYfP?si=qp_dtlTqTWafCAIqhpxDtg
