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Author Topic: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?  (Read 5715 times)

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Ydoll Gwyn

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B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« on: February 20, 2005, 04:39:48 AM »
One of the Beatles most unacknowledged features is the quality of their B-sides. Younger people might not realize what a dumping ground for trash the B-sides of seven-inch singles used to be for many groups.

So confident in their flip-sides were the Beatles, that they called many of their singles "double A-sides". A nice challenge to other groups.

Here are some of their wonderful B-sides -- that would have been A's for most other groups.

I'm Down
Rain
Baby You're A Rich Man
I Am The Walrus (this - a B-side to Hello Goodbye: strange decision)
The Inner Light
Revolution
Don't Let Me Down
Old Brown Shoe
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Frightwolf

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2005, 03:03:35 PM »
Quote from: Ydoll_Gwyn
One of the Beatles most unacknowledged features is the quality of their B-sides. Younger people might not realize what a dumping ground for trash the B-sides of seven-inch singles used to be for many groups.

So confident in their flip-sides were the Beatles, that they called many of their singles "double A-sides". A nice challenge to other groups.

Here are some of their wonderful B-sides -- that would have been A's for most other groups.

I'm Down
Rain
Baby You're A Rich Man
I Am The Walrus (this - a B-side to Hello Goodbye: strange decision)
The Inner Light
Revolution
Don't Let Me Down
Old Brown Shoe

Never really a fan of Old Brown Shoe.  A great substitute would be Day Tripper, a really great B-Side.  

Some more:

Penny Lane
I'll Get You
This Boy

And since we're including sonsgs that can already be on albums:

Eleanor Rigby
Come Together
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In Blue Hawaii

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2005, 07:11:14 PM »
Yes It Is
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Kevin

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2005, 09:27:26 AM »
Quote from: Frightwolf

Never really a fan of Old Brown Shoe.
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Kevin

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2005, 09:33:49 AM »
Quote from: Ydoll_Gwyn

I Am The Walrus (this - a B-side to Hello Goodbye: strange decision)

Do you think Walrus would have done well in the charts? Icon song that it is, I don't think it would have done the intended job of getting to number one. Can't see the suits at Parlaphone and Capitol going with that one
I thjink it sits quite nicely behind HG though

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zipp

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2005, 03:23:58 PM »
Quote from: kevin_b
Were not Day Tripper. Penny Lane, Eleanor rigby and Come Together A sides?

Yes indeed.
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Kevin

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2005, 03:28:24 PM »
Quote from: zipp

Yes indeed.

Phew. For a moment there I thought I'd crossed into somekind of parallel universe or something. Next thing you know people will be calling Magical Mystery Tour an album!
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Kevin

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #7 on: February 22, 2005, 03:53:40 PM »
I've often wondered about the whole "double a" thing.
Would Yellow Submarine have done well on its own?
I don't think Strawberry Fields would have done too well on its own (GREAT GREAT song, but not a song that would hurtle to number 1) (and yes I know it didn't anyway).
I would be happy to have them both as B sides in the grand tradition of Rain, Walrus and revolution. None of them have suffered from not being A sides.
I think.
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zipp

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #8 on: February 22, 2005, 05:02:49 PM »
Quote from: kevin_b
I've often wondered about the whole "double a" thing.
Would Yellow Submarine have done well on its own?
I don't think Strawberry Fields would have done too well on its own (GREAT GREAT song, but not a song that would hurtle to number 1) (and yes I know it didn't anyway).

Yellow Submarine would have been number one on its own.

But SFF is an interesting one.The trouble with the American charts is that the Beatles were their own worst enemy.Without Penny Lane to play then I imagine the radio stations would have played SFF more and the sales returns would all have indicated SFF.So it may well have made number one in the States.

I think the b side could have been When I'm 64 since that was an early Pepper recording.


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Kevin

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2005, 05:29:47 PM »
Quote from: zipp

Yellow Submarine would have been number one on its own.


Personaly I don't think Yellow Sub wouldn't have "worked" without being juxtaposed(?) alongside E Rigby. On it's own it would have just been silly, which I think disqualifies it as a true number 1 (though E Rigby would have done Ok on its own)
i think SFF the better song, but Penny Lane the better single. (I see Hello Goodbye/Walrus the same way, and they didn't feel the need to double A that)
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zipp

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #10 on: February 22, 2005, 09:20:55 PM »
Quote from: kevin_b

Personaly I don't think Yellow Sub wouldn't have "worked" without being juxtaposed(?) alongside E Rigby. On it's own it would have just been silly, which I think disqualifies it as a true number 1 (though E Rigby would have done Ok on its own)


In the USA Yellow Submarine got to number two and Eleanor Rigby got to number 11 (on Billboard) so Eleanor didn't save the submarine.
In the UK Yellow Submarine would have made number one on its own.
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Frightwolf

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2005, 01:08:43 AM »
Quote from: kevin_b

Phew. For a moment there I thought I'd crossed into somekind of parallel universe or something. Next thing you know people will be calling Magical Mystery Tour an album!

I'm pretty sure they were B-Sides.  I can double-check too.
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Frightwolf

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #12 on: February 23, 2005, 01:11:24 AM »
All info gotten from this site: http://www.beatles-discography.com/beatles-albums.html


We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper (B-Side)
Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby (B-Side)
Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane (B-Side)
Something/Come Together (B-Side)

So I was right after all :)

And that means MMT is an album!

Which it is, if HDN, Help!, and LIB are.
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Kevin

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #13 on: February 23, 2005, 07:52:09 AM »
Where are you seeing this? Checkout the same site, British singles.
They're all double a sides.
And look at British albums. MMT isn't mentioned BECAUSE IT WAS AN EP (sorry-I'm on a crusade about this)
American releases don't count-that's Capitol marketing, not the Beatles.
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zipp

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #14 on: February 23, 2005, 01:37:24 PM »
Quote from: Frightwolf
All info gotten from this site: http://www.beatles-discography.com/beatles-albums.html


We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper (B-Side)
Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby (B-Side)
Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane (B-Side)
Something/Come Together (B-Side)


Even on the site you mention (great site!) Day Tripper and Penny Lane are double As in the USA.
Eleanor Rigby was double A in the UK.
As for Come Together how come it's on ONE if it wasn't a double A?
(Be careful with your answer or you'll have to include You Know My Name since it was number one with Let It Be!)

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Frightwolf

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #15 on: February 23, 2005, 08:01:11 PM »
Yea Zipp, the site DOES rule.

What happened was that YDoll mentioned this: "So confident in their flip-sides were the Beatles, that they called many of their singles "double A-sides". A nice challenge to other groups."

Which makes sense to me.  Unless I'm missing something and they were both on one side...

Okay, before I go further with this -- Did B-Side mean it was on the back of the record and not the header of the single?
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Kevin

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #16 on: February 24, 2005, 08:40:26 AM »
the single that is being released is the A side.
the song on the back (not intended for release) is the B side.
the Beatles started the trend of making both sifdes A sides ie both songs were single releases designed for airplay (even though on different sides of the vinyl)
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zipp

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #17 on: February 24, 2005, 10:27:20 AM »
Quote from: Frightwolf
Did B-Side mean it was on the back of the record and not the header of the single?

Yes and as Kevin has explained a double A side had two heads and no tail...

Incidentally it started with Day Tripper because I think there was a bit of rivalry between John and Paul each one promoting his own song.So it was a compromise.
As for SFF I think they genuinely thought the two songs were equally good.
Yellow Submarine and Something are exceptions in that they were lifted from successful albums and so were linked to two other commercially viable songs.
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Kevin

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #18 on: February 24, 2005, 10:38:14 AM »
i read somewhere that the industry (in the US at least) was considering abandoning B sides all together in the early 60's, but The Beatles saw to that.
Sham that CD's have made them extinct - they were a nice outlet for bands who wanted to put something on vinyl but it didn't fit as an album track etc.
Those marketing bastards!
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apple sauce

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Re: B-Sides better than their A-Sides?
« Reply #19 on: March 01, 2005, 03:42:19 PM »
100% true! The only band that even comes close these days would be "Oasis."
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