When the Beach Boys released their Motown-inspired, back-to-basics shouter "Wild Honey," they paired it with the psychedelic hash-fest, "Wind Chimes," from their prior album. Both great songs, but I'll bet the kiddies were confused when they flipped that one over.
Public Image Ltd - The Cowboy Song One of my favorite bands in the world, but this can most generously be called a non-song. Makes “Fodderstompf” feel like a total banger in comparison.
Huh? Spector usually put throwaway instrumentals on his b-sides so there’s be no question about what the intended hit song was.
The b-side to Turbonegro's cover of Suffragette City was a (very) politically incorrect spoken word piece in Danish...
I bought an old 45 by The Gentrys called "Why Should I Cry". (I only bought it because of the Mouth of The South). That song is a typical '60s pop song. The flip is a song called "I Need Love" and that song is heavy and psych sounding. It doesn't really sound like the same band. I know it's not the most extreme example, but it is one that always stood out to me.
Norton Records' mail order service used to offer a cool compilation of the Spector b-sides, that probably was an unauthorized bootleg. Those b-sides aren't reissued often, if at all, or at least they weren't in the pre-digital age.
Love this one. It was an early sign of the great introspective songwriter Westerberg was underneath the 'Mats' energetic noise.
The b-side to The Beach Boys' "Heroes and Villains" is "You're Welcome." It's a sublime recording, and showcases the groups vocal harmonies. What makes it unusual is that it's very short - 1 minute, 17 seconds. Imagine The Beatles releasing "Your Majesty" as a b-side, and you get the idea.
Another B-side that just came to mind..."Fire Ball" by Mercy...the A-side is their big hit "Love Can Make You Happy" which is about as far as you can get from this fuzz-guitar number.
This may not even e the same group. The album built around "Love Can Make You Happy" (which didn't include this) was otherwise cover songs performed by an anonymous studio group.
most B- sides by Manfred Mann , mostly written by Mike Hugg This is the "B-side " to Ragamuffin man, I quite like it but you wouldn't think it was by the same artist
Well that was the "bonus B-Side" on the 12" single - which isn't really what the OP is asking for, as he said he spent pocket money as a little kid because he liked the A-Side. In the case of Maiden, I'm sure miost (if not all) of the people who bought their 12" singles were hardcore fans who bought them specifically FOR the B-Sides as they already have the A-Side on the album. Also being a 12" only B-Side, there's no danger of rooms full of people getting assaulted by jukebox-play of that track, unlike with this 7" B-Side to Tracy Ullman's biggest hit (a cover of Kirsty MacColl's 'They Don't Know'): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7U7VAfkUoc
Yes, I have the album..."Love Can Make You Happy" is re-recorded on it (the mono single is best!) I got the single in 1973 when I was in high school, that's when I noticed the completely different B-side.
Roxy Music did that (put out goofy instrumental B-Sides) to spread the wealth around, since Ferry wrote all the band's "songs" and he encouraged the others to come up with the B-Sides - and make some publishing money, since on physical sales of singles, the B-Side makes the SAME publishing royalties as the A-Side. This would also explain why (though his earliest solo albums were ALL cover songs, since presumably he was saving his originals for the next Roxy Music album) he nearly always re-recorded a solo version of a song he wrote that had appeared on a previous Roxy Music album, so that he'd make some "B-Side money" from his cover song A-Sides.