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Re: 20 Killer B-Sides
They were throwaways, afterthoughts and also-rans -- songs the original artists relegated to B-sides. Looking back, they make a pretty killer A-list from a half century of rock and pop.
'Into the Groove'
--Madonna (1985)
A leftover from the sessions for Madge's debut album, this song was released as the B-side of the 12-inch mix of 'Angel.' Though it became a smash, partly due to its appearance in 'Desperately Seeking Susan,' the song did not officially chart in the U.S.
'I'm Free'
--Rolling Stones (1965)
Introduced as the flip side to 'Get Off of My Cloud,' this typically Stones-y declaration of independence has since taken on quite the afterlife, having been revived in a massive U.K. version by the Soup Dragons and, more recently, a U.S. credit card commercial.
'Murder by Numbers'
--Police (1983)
This noir-ish non-album B-side was smuggled into quite a few homes on the back of a little ditty called 'Every Breath You Take.' The diabolical Sting imagines reaching "the top of your profession" -- as a killer. Deservedly appended to the tail end of cassette (and later CD) editions of 'Synchronicity.'
'Hit 'Em Up'
--2Pac featuring the Outlawz (1996)
The brutal diss record that irreversibly cranked up Tupac's feud with Biggie and Puffy, 'Hit 'Em Up' slipped into the market on the back of his 'How Do U Want It' single. Not that the rapper intended to bury the song: No way Biggie was going to miss the bit about his archrival, uh, making nice with his wife.
'Pink Cadillac'
--Bruce Springsteen (1984)
Nosed off the 'Born in the USA' album by 'I'm Going Down,' this stomping ode to -- what else? -- a muscle car was the B-side to 'Dancing in the Dark.' Four years later Natalie Cole had a huge hit with her version. Springsteen's original eventually came out on the outtakes box 'Tracks.'
'The Sweetest Thing'
--U2 (1987)
Written as an apology from Bono for forgetting his wife's birthday, this song was itself an afterthought. Issued as the flip side of U2's 'Where the Streets Have No Name' single, it was such an unexpected fan favorite that the band remade it for its 1998 best-of compilation. Promotional 'Sweetest Thing' candy bars are now collectors' items.
'Be-Bop-A-Lula'
--Gene Vincent (1956)
Capitol's answer to a new RCA property named Elvis, this tough-guy rocker scored his breakout hit on his very first single -- with the B-side. The A-side, 'Woman Love,' was deemed too suggestive for radio play, but DJs flipped for the flip. So familiar-sounding that when Gladys Presley first heard it, she called her son to congratulate him.
'Hey Hey What Can I Do'
--Led Zeppelin (1990)
Famously protective of the integrity of their albums, the hard-rock pioneers released a scant amount of music outside their official LPs. This rarity, the B-side of the 'Immigrant Song' single, was later tacked onto the post-breakup grab bag 'Coda' when that album was reissued on CD for the 'Complete Studio Recordings' box.
'Hip-Hop vs. Rap'
--KRS-One (1993)
Rap's most tenured professor offered the definitive solution to the style's ongoing semantics problem on this classic joint: "Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live." Leaving it for future scholars to unearth, he buried this bit of wisdom on the B-side of the second single from his solo debut, 'Return of the Boom Bap.'
'Rain'
--Beatles (1966)
Arguably the song that set off the Fab Four's psychedelic deluge, this mind-warping droner -- the first song to feature backward vocals -- was the B-side to 'Paperback Writer.' It didn't appear on an album until the 1970 catch-all LP 'Hey Jude.'
'Erotic City'
--Prince (1984)
This song's overt similarity to the club hit 'White Horse' might have contributed to its low-key release, as the B-side of 'Let's Go Crazy.' In spite of itself, the cut that introduced Sheila E. to the world remains one of the funk Napoleon's major coups.
'Dear God'
--XTC (1987)
If Andy Partridge was unsure of the existence of God, he might have changed his mind after the out-of-nowhere success of this outtake from the 'Skylarking' album. The track's popularity on alternative radio persuaded Geffen Records to re-press the album with the song in place of another tune about the supernatural, 'Mermaid Smiles.'
'Don't Worry Baby'
--Beach Boys (1964)
Brian Wilson's melancholy masterpiece was not unlike almost every other early Beach Boys song in that it was written about a car. What was, however, different was that the song skipped the fun and frivolity in favor of a heartbreaking vulnerability that would come to define Brian's work. B-side to 'I Get Around,' the group's first No. 1 single.
'Yellow Ledbetter'
--Pearl Jam (1992)
Literally a showstopper, this Pearl Jam perennial -- one of two B-sides from the 'Jeremy' single -- has closed dozens of shows over the years. One of the first tunes written by the band, this improvisational anthem always gets the full mumble treatment from singer Eddie Vedder, leaving fans to ponder the cosmic significance of it all.
'Unchained Melody'
--Righteous Brothers (1965)
Producer Phil Spector saw 'Hung on You' as the song that might re-create the chart success of 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.' But it was the backing side, a melodramatic cover of the well-traveled 'Unchained Melody,' that became the duo's follow-up smash. Oddly, at the time the song was revived years later in the movie 'Ghost,' the Brothers' version was available only on cassette.
'I Will Survive'
--Gloria Gaynor (1978)
The disco era's definitive anthem of longevity was originally pegged with a short lifespan when Polydor relegated it to the B-side of the lead single from the album 'Love Tracks.' In hindsight, the A-side was aptly named: 'Substitute.'
'How Soon Is Now?'
--Smiths (1984)
One of two B-sides on the 12-inch release of 'William, It Was Really Nothing,' the song that Sire Records honcho Seymour Stein would call "the 'Stairway to Heaven' of the '80s" was belatedly released on a single of its own when fans declared it an epic. U.S. audiences were introduced to it on the 'Meat Is Murder' album.
'Maggie May'
--Rod Stewart (1971)
Selected as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll," this oldies staple was originally expected to shape little more than the back side of 'Reason to Believe,' the lead single from Rod the Mod's breakthrough album, 'Every Picture Tells a Story.' When the B-side became the hit, the single was hastily repackaged.
'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry'
--Hank Williams (1949)
The song that makes the most profound case for Hank Sr. as "the hillbilly Shakespeare," this prototypical country lament first appeared as the flip side to the decidedly less canonical 'My Bucket's Got a Hole in It.' A midnight train, a bird that's lost its will to live -- heck, even the moon ducks behind a cloud to cry. No, this yodeling poet wasn't long for this world.
'Groove Is in the Heart'
--Deee-Lite (1990)
Despite the presence of Q-Tip and Bootsy Collins, this all-time shagalicious party tune was considered only B-side material when it first came out, on the flip side of 'What Is Love?,' the single that introduced the band. "No, I couldn't ask for another," sang Lady Miss Kier, and while Deee-Lite hung on for two more albums, she really couldn't have asked for a bigger -- unforeseen -- signature song.
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