B-Sides/Non-album tracks
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What are some of your favorite b-sides and non-album tracks. What bands had the strongest b-sides/non-album tracks. I've been really into b-sides recently, buying a lot of vinyl singles and Cd singles just for 1-2 new songs. Sad that it's a lost art now. Your Thoughts?
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This doesn't seem to happen much these days, sadly, but b-sides used to be 1/2 the fun of buying a record/cassette single. You knew you were getting a song you wanted on the a-side, and you got to check out what was on the b-side as an added bonus.
I used to like when the b-side of a single got more popular than the a-side. The best example of this from when I was a teenager was "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. Not a good/great song by any stretch of the imagination, but it was amazing how quickly that b-side took off! 
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walliebaby:
This doesn't seem to happen much these days, sadly, but b-sides used to be 1/2 the fun of buying a record/cassette single. You knew you were getting a song you wanted on the a-side, and you got to check out what was on the b-side as an added bonus.
I used to like when the b-side of a single got more popular than the a-side. The best example of this from when I was a teenager was "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. Not a good/great song by any stretch of the imagination, but it was amazing how quickly that b-side took off! Sadly there will be future generations who will not know what we are speaking about. Walliebaby, I think we are about the same age because I remember that song. Although Bowie and Queen did end up getting proper credit, since they wrote it 10 years before.....
Fave b side? I Think I'm Going Mad by the Rolling Stones. Release in 1984 as the b side to the She Was Hot single which was taken off of Undercover. There's probably others but that is one right there that I truly enjoy. -
edcrawf:
Sadly there will be future generations who will not know what we are speaking about. Walliebaby, I think we are about the same age because I remember that song. Although Bowie and Queen did end up getting proper credit, since they wrote it 10 years before.....
I think we might be around the same age, Ed, and yes, Bowie and Queen did it better in SO many ways.
It really is a tragedy that b-sides are a thing of the past these days. At best you got an extra song. At worst you got a remix or different version of the single you were interested in buying. 
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B-sides are great. The band with the best B-Sides (apart from the Beatles) is Oasis. Some of their b-sides are even better than the singles. Some of their best b-sides are 'Talk Tonight', 'Those Swollen Hand Blues', 'The Masterplan', 'Going Nowhere' and '(You've Got) The Heart of A Star'. They even had an whole b-sides album with their best b-sides (called 'The Masterplan').
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A band that I really like, Guster, has a slew of good songs, but they haven't yet broken into the big time. They release special CD's to their fan club members, and have also released an EP or two of songs that they haven't included on their albums. The funny thing is that these songs are often better than the ones they choose to release on their albums, much to my chagrin.
Rise and Shine
Here are two that I rather enjoy: Timothy Leary (played for one of the first times, and you can tell as they fumble a bit before playing it ) -
Macca has so many amazing B-sides! Other bands I'm not so sure. I have both U2 "B-sides" editions of their "best of" albums and by far my favourite of those is "Summer Rain".
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illwobble:
Macca has so many amazing B-sides! Other bands I'm not so sure. I have both U2 "B-sides" editions of their "best of" albums and by far my favourite of those is "Summer Rain".
You know I agree with you there.
Being a 90's U2 junkie, they had the best b-sides then, the bonus disc on the greatest hits doesn't even touch the surface of the great b-sides from that era. I think Elvis also had great b-sides, Hoover Factory (maybe my favorite song of his), Wednesday Week, and Black Sails in the Sunset are all outstanding. -
Here's a song that when it first came out (when I was on the younger side of my teen years back in 77/78...), it was a tucked away, mostly overlooked album cut which was brushed aside by other hits from the same album, such as She's Always A Woman, Moving Out, and Just the Way You Are...but nowadays, the tables have turned 180 degrees and this song is more 'mainstream' than the other songs I mentioned...LOL
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edcrawf:
walliebaby:
This doesn't seem to happen much these days, sadly, but b-sides used to be 1/2 the fun of buying a record/cassette single. You knew you were getting a song you wanted on the a-side, and you got to check out what was on the b-side as an added bonus.
I used to like when the b-side of a single got more popular than the a-side. The best example of this from when I was a teenager was "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. Not a good/great song by any stretch of the imagination, but it was amazing how quickly that b-side took off! Sadly there will be future generations who will not know what we are speaking about.
And Jasper Carrot's "Magic Roundabout" was the B side of "Funky Moped"!
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They Might Be Giants - "Birds Fly" I've been hunting high and low for that one. One of my favorite tracks ever.
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audi:
They Might Be Giants - "Birds Fly" I've been hunting high and low for that one. One of my favorite tracks ever.
Well, I'll be damned...
