Help Me Understand: What Exactly Is a "Single"?

So yes, I know what a single is (or was). But I get confused when I read things like this:

From Wikipedia re: Michael Jackson's Bad:
"Released outside the United States and Canada, "Leave Me Alone" topped the Irish charts, as well as peaking within the top ten in five other countries."

Does this mean that a physical 7" or 12" of Leave Me Alone was pressed for the European market but not for the American market?

From Wikipedia re: Prince's When You Were Mine:
"Though not released as a single, the song received a promotional 12" release "

So, was a "promotional" single used for radio purposes only? Were these not sold in stores?

From some random web page that I just Googled:
Have you ever listened to a just-released album, gravitated toward one particular track and thought with certainty, "Oh, this song is definitely going to be a single!"? And then you wait, and other songs are chosen as singles from that album, and you keep waiting, and the album cycle ends… and you realize that the most obvious single choice (to you, at least) was never chosen?

What incentive was there for DJ's to play the singles only? Why couldn't they have played any old song they wanted? Was it really the record company that dictated which songs became hits? Why couldn't the public have decided that on their own by buying the album, listening to it, and calling into their local station to request their favourite song?

So... would someone mind filling in the story for me? I'm mostly curious about the singles market from the 60's-90's.

Thanks,
G

 

Pretty much "yes" to all your questions.

Radio stations and/or fans did occasionally go outside what the labels dictated and created "hits" or forced single releases into the labels, but for the most part the labels called the shots

 

Throughout much of the '70s, here in Boston there were several FM stations that played album cuts well-mixed with some more "popular" tracks from singles. WBCN is the prime example, and they probably relied more on "deep album cuts" than singles in the Top 40 or whatever other metric you might look at. While that didn't necessarily change what or wasn't released as a single, it certainly affected what we had to listen to all day long, and it wasn't just 50-100 of the top-selling singles. Those were really good days of radio, from about '70-'77.

 

Back then, it was easier to sell a single to consumers than an entire album, particularly when a band in new and unknown. They'd listen to what the band had come up with, and select the most likely candidates for radio play: this would usually be songs that sounded 'commercial', by which they meant 'an easy sell'. Strong hooks, simplicity, immediacy and succinctness were favoured over songs that took more time for a listener to understand and appreciate, they were placed on albums. This doesn't mean complex singles weren't released and didn't become huge successes. It was just considered more likely that easier to digest ideas were more saleable.

The limitations of the 7 inch single favoured brevity, which would encourage fantastic bass and drum response from most record players. From a lifetime of collecting vinyl, most singles that were big hits are usually fantastic sounding records, in a way 33rpm 12" vinyl and mp3s can't reproduce. 45rpm 12 inches sound the same way: it's easy to spot a dance hit when you get into 12 inch mixes from just how alive and pumping they are. Lower charting hits and failures just don't sound as good or generate the same excitement. It's easy for me to listen and hear why a song wasn't a hit - usually the record just doesn't sound good.

The first record I ever bought was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by the Buggles. This is an incredible-sounding record, full of life and excitement, even 35+ years later. CD versions just can't compete.

As for your other questions:

Promotional copies were pressed to test the likelihood of DJ's playing it, and it it was successful, a widespread consumer release might happen. Naturally, this process could be rigged or plays 'encouraged' with monetary transactions but the record company could never 'guarantee' a hit. Different marketing departments in different countries might recognise songs that would more appeal to regional tastes, which is how I have a 7" single of XTC's 'Earn Enough For Us'. Aussie radio wouldn't have touched anything else on that album. Now and then, public demand could lead to songs being pressed as singles. 'The Look' by Roxette was only released in America due to a fan getting the song played on his local radio station and the response was great. Sometimes DJ's might recognise the B-Side was more commercial and flip the record.

So why identifying a hit was sort of a Science, there was still large element of chance involved.

As a writer, I simply presume everything I write could be a single, which forces me to trim the fat and stay on point. As the market has shifted back into vinyl, where running time is more limited, it's a good skill to have.

 

It's easy to forget that up until about 1956 or so (ie the first 50+ years of recorded music) virtually all records were singles. "Albums" were three or four singles collected and sold all at once.

 

Those literal "albums" of singles are fascinating relics. LPs were reserved for classial and spoken-word recordings until that point.

 

Great replies! Thanks guys

 

I love the stories where the dj's went rogue and either flipped the record over and played that or chose an album cut that caught on.

Some examples:

1. Coming Up (live version) - Paul McCartney.

2. Sonny & Cher - It's The Little Things. This was flipped then rereleased as the A-Side.

3. Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond fake by editing duet of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" got enough airplay that they went in the studio and recorded a real duet that was played so much that we still may have hives.

 

Can't say I have ever called to request a song AFTER I bought it but maybe someone has...

But seriously, Yes, I have been surprised that some of the better songs do not make it out as singles when they seemed like obvious choices.
I think the honest answer as to what got played on the radio in some cases was payola... the power of major labels was to pay off DJs to play the songs they wanted to promote, especially after they bet big and pressed a lot of 7" singles of a song. Not always I'm sure, but it probably explains some really bad songs that became hits. Now after Bill Clinton cleared the way for Clear Channel's monopoly in the 90's, there are probably even worse forces at play... only a couple large corporations own all the radio stations and can no doubt make deals with just a few remaining major labels to play the same list all over the US with almost no competition in the same format in most markets... no wonder radio is a void now.

 

I'm going to adda few things to others' answers.

This is correct. Thriller and Born in the U.S.A. both had seven singles taken from them; the feeling was that "Leave Me Alone" as an eighth single from Bad would be overkill. Never mind that it would have been nice to have on 45, as it was a CD (and cassette?) bonus track and not on the LP.

Again correct. Record labels sometimes pressed promotional singles and sent them to targeted radio stations. In the 1980s, these were usually 12-inch singles with special promotional catalog numbers. Labels sent these to radio so that program directors didn't have to listen to the whole album to find radio-friendly cuts; the labels had already chosen which songs they wanted to promote. These sometimes were "real" singles, but often they weren't. It used to drive me nuts when I heard a song on the radio frequently, only to find no actual single.

By the 1970s, radio DJs had little if any say in the music they played. Program directors made all the selections. A dirty little secret of radio: The vast majority of requests are for songs the station was going to play anyway. Those that don't fit the format or playlist are ignored.

Also, DJs didn't usually play songs off albums; they played them off singles - which, by the early 1970s, were usually serviced to radio with the same song on both sides so they couldn't be "flipped" any more. Or they played songs off "carts," which looked like 8-track tapes but had only one song on them. So they couldn't go off script. If they did, and the PD got wind of it, the jock could be fired.

The public rarely played a role as to what songs were released as singles, but they did have the power not to buy or request a song that was, thus resulting in a flop.

 

I think the reason why DJs didn't play songs from albums is because most record buyers in the '50s and '60s (i.e., kids) couldn't afford to buy a whole album. It wasn't until the late '60s/early '70s that radio playlists expanded and "Album Oriented Rock" became a staple of FM radio.

 

I never understood the controlling nature of the biz and not wanting a record to get flipped and the B side becoming the A side. A hit is a hit. Take the success and be happy. It's better than having a flop.

 

Queuing Randy Newman-It's Money That Matters.
Remember that US radio was a commercial medium first(David Sarnoff,I'm looking at you) and an info,entertainment medium second. The goal of anything between ads was to keep you tuned in.There is a reason why they called soap operas soap operas. Modern radio(late '50s) used a clock system that broke the typical hour down into minutes for news,weather,traffic,a current song,an oldie,a slow song,fast,etc. Part of the DJ's job was to forecast what was coming next after the ads. With this amount of control,relegating what music was played was part of the package. Labels spent time,money and energy into creating a balance of subject,beat,hooks included that would keep listeners not only tuned to the song but to hear it again,hence,the controlled playlist. After creating such a piece,reps were sent out to procure airplay for hopeful returns,often armed with gifts ranging from free goods to money and more sordid stuff. Less work for more money and,eventually,revenues for the station if it worked-a recipe for success.
After years of suppression(David Sarnoff,I'm still looking at you),the US government take on the new/old fangled FM system was to bring FM to a wider audience and ruling that FM could not simply be a simulcast of the AM signal. Older audience fare like classical and "beautiful music" gave way DJs and PDs playing just about anything that came into the building and didn't break obscenity laws. After a while,that free form way of business gave way to being just another controlled money stream. Both outlets were oft times playing different tunes, but money for play was part of both AM & FM.

 

A single is whatever the label calls a single.

 

In the UK, DJ Tony Blackburn was responsible for getting Diana Ross I'm Still Waiting released as a single.

 

Many Beach Boys singles got "flipped" in this way and had their b-sides make the charts. Several times, these were the "car songs" on the b-sides of the "surf songs." By my count, this happened 10 times. Today, these charting b-sides are some of their most famous songs and few people realize they were originally b-sides:

* "409" (b-side to "Surfin' Safari", #76)
* "Shut Down" (b-side to "Surfin USA", #23)
* "Little Deuce Coupe" (b-side to "Surfer Girl," #15)
* "In My Room" (b-side to "Be True to Your School," #23)
* "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" (b-side to "Fun Fun Fun", #120)
* "Don't Worry Baby" (b-side to "I Get Around," #24)
* "Little Honda" (b-side to "Wendy" on a charting EP, #65)
* "Please Let Me Wonder" (b-side to "Do You Wanna Dance," #52)
* "She Knows Me Too Well" (b-side to "When I Grow Up," #101)
* "God Only Knows" (b-side to "Wouldn't it Be Nice", #39)

Note: "God Only Knows" may have been intended as a "double A-side"

As you can see, for the Beach Boys this habit of charting both sides of a single stopped abruptly after 1966.

Did any other act have 7 b-sides make the top 100 (and 5 make the top 40)? The Beatles, presumably...

 

A better question would be: "At what point did the word single become more common than the word 45?"