Was 'Act Naturally' the A-side over 'Yesterday' ???

It goes without saying that when "Yesterday" was released as a single in the U.S., it was infintely more successful on the charts than the flip side, "Act Naturally."

But it seems to me that in 1965 Capitol may have been thinking that "Act Naturally" would be treated as the A-side by the company, radio and the fans. (Author Bruce Spizer, in fact, states that "Capitol initially designated Ringo's Act Naturally as the A-sde.")

The trade ad below, from 1965, seems to verify this as it promotes "Act Naturally" over "Yesterday;" the two songs received equal promotion on "The Ed Sullivan Show," which was broadcast the day before this single's release; and the subsequent Apple-label pressing of the single, with "Yesterday" relegated to the sliced-apple side -- traditionally the home of all the B-sides -- would seem to confirm all this. (Capitol was never shy about promoting Ringo's vocal efforts. "Boys," "What Goes On" and "Matchbox" all appeared on singles in 1964-65, and "Honey Don't" was the lead-off track on the EP "4 By The Beatles.")

The reason I pose the question about this particular single is because if Capitol really did believe "Act Naturally" had more commercial potential than "Yesterday," it must stand as one of the biggest miscalculations a record company has ever made with regard to the selection of an A-side and a B-side...

 

Maybe it was a miscalculation, but you GOTTA give credit to capitol for presaging the future apple logo and 7-inch design!


just kidding

 

Hi Clark,

I don't think it really mattered when it came to Beatles singles. They were pretty much regarded as 'double a-sided' singles to radio stations and fans alike, anyway.

I always found it odd that "Eleanor Rigby" would be the b-side to "Yellow Submarine." But, when it came to the Beatles, did it really matter?

 

They may have still been nervous about Paul's solo and orchestrated debut and hedged their bets. Ringo certainly isn't "solo" (Paul even joins in on harmony). Since it was unchartered territory (Goerge Martin wondered if it should be credited to the Beatles at all) I suppose they were going to toss it out there and just see what stuck.

 

I don't have Spizer's book at hand at the moment, but I remember reading that when the apple label versions of the singles were prepared, the A-side was assigned to the lower matrix number. This led to a few odd looking A-sides, like "Act Naturally" and "Baby You're a Rich Man".

 

I'm not sure Spizer stated exactly what the original post quoted above. Spizer on the subject:

(personally, I think Spizer more specifically is referring to "American" or "US" Beatlemania here.)

 

I would think so since he did refer to Capitol and Spizer is an American author, unless I missed something.

 

In Spizer's book, look at the caption to the promotional ad pictured above in the original post. It's there that he makes the quoted statement about "Act Naturally" being treated as the A-side, initially, by Capitol.

 

You're right. Since you didn't designate with ellipses that you hadn't quoted the entire sentence I didn't notice right away. The quote I posted was from a different caption.

 

Was that the case in the US?. It was a double A side in the UK.

 

I am confused 'Apple' didn't exist until 1968 is this a 1970's release?

 

Eeeyep, that's what I get for posting without checking the book. Sorry about that...

 

Act Naturally was definitely the A-side. When the 45 was released, NY radio originally played AN & flipped it over for Yesterday a couple of weeks later. All early US Beatle 45s were NOT considered double A-sides. For example, What Goes On got zero airplay and did not chart on its' own.

 

I am still confused about the Apple label when was it released, because the trade ad is 1965, Apple didn't exist then, is this a counterfit etc?

 

It's a 1971 re-pressing. All the Capitol singles were re-pressed with Apple labels that year, and they remained in print that way until 1976.

With the basic design of the Apple label the way it was, something had to be designated as the A-side and something else as the B-side. They did it in order of the American master numbers.

 

Great thanks for that, some of us here are not from the USA!