B-Side choices

Thought Dirty Water as the B side to Caroline was great, along with Down Down on the 12" as both weren't on the From the Makers of Live at the NEC set. And there was no way of hearing all this stuff back then unlike these days unless you heard it/taped it off the radio.

I wonder how much thought went into the B-side of a single? Probably quite a bit if there was a royalties issue at play. 

My main gripe in the past was when a B-side was something I already had. And this probably happened more often than it didn't. Especially with a 2nd single off an album, because I already had the A-side as well!

It got a bit silly in the 80's, for example, when they released 4 singles from Back To Back and there was absolutely nothing new for me to listen to, despite the various formats (12", pic-discs, double singles in gatefold sleeves etc). Extended 12" versions was about all there was to offer something slightly different for the less than casual fan. And we now know there were other tracks out there that went unreleased for years. 

Daftest B-side for me was when Mean Girl was backed with Everything. What were PYE thinking?  Nearly put me off the band

The b sides Between Never too late and Back to Back were mainly tracks taken from albums. I think by this point the record companies were aiming product at record buyers who weren’t necessarily hardened Quo fans or would go and buy the albums. Also there wasn’t much extra material lying around and most of what was recorded got put onto the album. “Calling the shots” was the only rare track so to speak. When we got to “In the army” onwards there seemed to be excessive material including abandoned unused solo material so getting non album b sides wasn’t an issue. The 12 inch single format had taken off so all of that extra stuff was to embrace that and the pending cd single. Most of Rick’s related stuff was appearing on the b sides so assume like above was a royalty agreement again.

Regarding Quo a few of their B sides were previous hits Burning Bridges had Whatever you want as its flipside maybe that helped the sales???

Don't get me wrong I wasn't knocking the songs they used as b-sides, I like the songs.

More specifically I was saying in the days when 7 inch vinyl singles were used in jukeboxes in pubs and entertainment places, someone would put on a familiar song which typically was a hit of that era, but might take a punt of playing the B-side, because they might really like the a-side, but might not normally like that particular artist. So the B-side in my opinion should be similar to the a-side which is the hit that drew them to that artist in the first place.

To put it another way can you imagine someone who doesn't normally like Quo but we're crazy about Marguerita Time, so they we're down the pub and thought I want more of the same, so put the B-side on, which is Resurrection only to find a totally different style song, and even had a different singer, as they probably don't know anyone in the band, but just loves Marguerita Time, so playing the B-side was like hearing a different band, in fact they probably thought they made a mistake and the wrong record was playing.

I'm sure this has happened to lots of artists, not just Quo, where the B-sides have no resemblance to the a-side which drew the listener to the artist. But this surely is to an artists detriment, and it causes confusion to the listener.

Its a bit like you can imagine them thinking what is this? It's nothing like the hit. Which becomes off putting, or put them off anything else the artist has to offer.

I remember when our local pub first had whole albums put on the jukebox when cds first became popular, and Thirsty Work was put on there, and over time certain songs became popular with the regulars.
The point of no return was the most played, Sherri, Restless, Lover of the human race, all songs you could say was the softer side of Quo, but I was surprised at how popular Point of no return was, yet it was never a single or on the radio etc. Yet it quickly became a hit in that pub.

So it kind of highlights to me how important it was to get those b-side choices right in terms of strengthening the artists popularity.

Admittedly too late now, but I thought it would be interesting if you had the chance to go back and re-write history, what songs would you marry with the a-sides instead of what has been chosen.

When I was younger and buying vinyl singles in particular, the B-side was never really in my thoughts. If it happened to be a good one, it was a bonus. Although I agree that if both sides were equally as good, it tended to make me look out for the artist more and maybe check out the album. Paper Plane/Softer Ride is a prime example of that. 

The Sweet, of course, became well known for their B-sides; for a while anyway. It was almost a deliberate ploy to show off their other side. If you pardon the pun. Marguerita Time/Resurrection might fall into that category. As would Rock 'n' Roll/Hold You Back/Backwater. I think the juke box version only had an edited version of Backwater as the B-side. I once bid for a copy on e-Bay but didn't get it. 

The CD single took things to another level because there could be several additional tracks making most releases like an EP. Losing the medium's charm in the process I'd suggest. 

I always thought b sides were tracks deemed not good enough for albums but listening to many acts sometimes they were better than A sides. I think it was sometimes a case of an act wanting to give their fans something different which wasn’t usually available on an album. Later on there was a trend to put 2 or 3 duplicate tracks of the A side on the b side in remixed form or just an instrumental. Live tracks became a bit of a normality too especially in Quo’s case.