well, he did list the Winstons’ Amen Brother, and it is a great tune, but it’s completely overshadowed by its drumbreak becoming not only “Straight Outta Compton” (slowed down) but also every single jungle/drum&bass song (well, almost). as a matter of fact, if you have the LP release (33 ⅓rpm) and you play that break at 45rpm, that’s drum&bass, for a couple seconds anyway.
also kind of funny was the listing for Prince’s When You Were Mine (b side of Controversy) was noted as later being covered by, I want to say he said it was Eddie Money? when there was definitely a hit version by Cyndi Lauper on her platinum album She’s So Unusual. I mean, talk about missing the boat…
yeah, the BB headline is not really correct. some of the list has to do with chart positions, but mainly it’s just a guy’s personal list of great bsides, cross-referenced with some professional music writers’ personal lists. which is great. but not what the headline says.
also, with so many obscurities, it was really annoying to have to read through the fine print to find what the A side was so I could determine if I knew this artist whatsoever, rather than just listing it with all the other label data.
despite the UK bias and the fact I’m probably 30 years younger than the author, I actually have plenty of these:
these are just what I have that’s in the link’s list. not too bad for gen-x. I used to have my mom’s “I Saw Her Standing There” but I think my cousin snagged it.
of the ones I have that he didn’t mention, I feel like the most glaring omission was the flip of the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie”: “Haunted Castle”. it’s a great instrumental tune. very different from Louie Louie but catchy as hell.
Somewhat obscure (although I did recently catch it in an old Jonathan Demme movie) was The Bell Notes’ “I’ve had it” with “Be Mine” on the flip. both great. A-side probably better but a great two-fer.
David Seville’s “Witch Doctor” is the A-side well known as the origin of the vocal effect that became The Chipmunks. but the flip, “Don’t Whistle at me Baby,” is a strong tune in its own right, doomed by being a “straight” tune opposite the biggest novelty tune of all time.
moving far forward, The Time released “The Bird” and “Jungle Love” together without A or B labels; rather, “back to back hits” is printed on both sides. and it’s true. love both, JL probably the winner imo.
Huh, my older brother had the single for Doobie Brothers’ Black Water and I was looking up to remind myself what the b-side was, and TIL that it was originally a b-side for “Another Park, Another Sunday” before it caught on and got its own a-side release.
Yup never heard it. Never really listened to much by the Rolling Stones unless it was just on the radio and never gave them much thought. From what I just listened to now… I would’ve that was the Beatles (another band I’ve never really gone out of my way to listen to).
