SEE ALSO: That Make a Small Portion of the World Cry
The Beatles
"Rain,"
B-side to: "Paperback Writer"
Released: May 30, 1966
"Baby, You're a Rich Man"
B-side to: "All You Need Is Love
Released: July 7, 1967
"Don't Let Me Down" (with Billy Preston)
B-side to: "Get Back"
Released: April 11, 1969
The Boomtown Rats
"Lying Again"
B-side to: "She's So Modern"
Released: March, 1978
The Buzzcocks
Honestly, all of them. The Buzzcocks released brilliant singles with brilliant B-sides. If you need proof, go look at Singles Going Steady, a compilation of their first 7 singles and b-sides, with the a's on the a-side of a full length, and the b's on its b-side. But, for song title specificity:
"Whatever Happened to...?"
B-side to: "Orgasm Addict"
Released: October 28, 1977
"Oh Shit"
B-side to: "What Do I Get?"
Released: February 3, 1978
"Noise Annoys"
B-side to: "Love You More"
Released: June 30, 1978
"Just Lust"
B-side to: "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" -- though a different mix was released on 1978's Love Bites album two weeks later.
Released: September 8, 1977
"Lipstick"
B-side to: "Promises" (probably my favourite Buzzcocks A-side!)
Released: November 17, 1978
"Why Can't I Touch It?"
B-side to: "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"
Released: March 2, 1979
NOTE: this song is the beginnings of the Buzzcocks expansion from the "punk pop" format they were (and are) most known for. It's six and a half minutes long and downtempo, but incredibly great.
"Something's Gone Wrong Again"
B-side to: "Harmony in My Head"
Released: July 13, 1979
The Clash
"The Prisoner"
B-side to: "(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais"
Released: June 16, 1978
"1-2 Crush on You"
B-side to: "Tommy Gun"
Released: November 24, 1978
"Pressure Drop"
B-side to: "English Civil War"
Released: February 23, 1979
NOTE: I've always found it funny that the Clash were less faithful to the original Toots and the Maytals reggae than the constantly-derided Robert Palmer, who released an album titled after and including the song three years earlier.
Echo & the Bunnymen
"Do It Clean"
B-side to: "The Puppet"
Released: September 14th, 1980
Elvis Costello (sometimes with the Attractions, sometimes not, I'm not specific about this)
"Neat, Neat, Neat" [Live]
B-side to: "Stranger in the House"
Released: March 17, 1978
NOTE: yeah, it's live, yeah, it's a cover. But it's interesting because Mr. MacManus is covering former labelmates (Stiff Records) The Damned. And turning it into something...very strange, from its punk origins. Which makes sense, I guess, as EC himself was never as clearly punk.
"Brilliant Disguise"
B-side to: "It's Time"
Released: April 29, 1996
NOTE: Yeah, it's another cover. Springsteen this time. But in that Elvis way, he turns the song country without losing its essence. Good stuff.
"Big Tears"
B-side to: "Pump It Up"
Released: April 28, 1978
"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?"
B-side to: "American Squirm"
Released: November 23, 1978
NOTE: This is one of the most interesting stories around, because the single is actually Nick Lowe's, and this song, despite clearly being EC and the Attractions, is credited to "Nick Lowe and His Sound." Though the cover has him wearing Elvis' glasses and holding a guitar with "Costello" written along the fretboard.
eels
"Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas"
B-side to: "Cancer for the Cure"
Released: November 30, 1998
"Fucker"
B-side to: "Novocaine for the Soul"
Released: October 31, 1996
NOTE: "Fucker" was a pet name one of Mark "E" Oliver Everett's girlfriends gave him, and the song is a letter to her, from "Fucker."
"Vice President Fruitley"
B-side to: "Flyswatter" [Part/CD 1]
Released:June 12, 2000
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
"Stone Free"
B-side to: "Hey Joe"
Released: December 12, 1966
Hüsker Dü
"Love Is All Around"
B-side to: "Makes No Sense at All"
Released: August, 1985
NOTE: Yes. This is the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
The Kinks
"Act Nice and Gentle"
B-side to: "Waterloo Sunset"
Released: May 5, 1967
NOTE: The Black Keys actually did a great cover of this song on their third album, Rubber Factory.
"Polly"
B-side to: "Wonderboy"
Released: April 5, 1968
"King Kong"
B-side to: "Plastic Man"
Released: March 28, 1969
Nick Lowe
"Cruel to Be Kind"
B-side to: "Little Hitler"
Released: May, 1978
NOTE: This is not the most famous version Nick recorded (and, as it happens, also not the best--that one is the most famous one), but it is the original and is interesting for that
"They Called It Rock"
B-side to: "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass"
Released: February, 1978
NOTE: An alternate version of the song "Shake and Pop" from Jesus of Cool, with Nick's band Rockpile, which also contained Dave Edmunds. Interestingly, the famed version of "Cruel to Be Kind" is actually the Rockpile version, released on the Nick Lowe "solo" album (backed throughout by Rockpile) Labour of Lust.
The Misfits
"She"
B-side to: "Cough/Cool"
Released: August, 1977
"Where Eagles Dare"
B-side to: "Night of the Living Dead"
Released: October 31, 1979
Robert Palmer
"Style Kills"
B-side to: "Johnny and Mary"
Released: August, 1980
NOTE: Probably the heaviest song Palmer ever did. And backing one of his best-ever singles, which was inexplicably only a hit in the UK. And, incidentally, he wrote that hit song himself, not with someone else or as a cover. Why, yes, I think the man has a ridiculously unfair bad rap.
Talking Heads
"I Wish You Wouldn't Say That"
B-side to: "Uh-Oh Love Comes to Town"
Released:October 3, 1977
They Might Be Giants
"When It Rains It Snows"
B-side to: "Don't Let's Start"
Released: November 2, 1987
"The Famous Polka"
B-side to: "Don't Let's Start"
Released: November 2, 1987
"We're the Replacements"
B-side to: "Don't Let's Start"
Released: November 2, 1987
NOTE: Half a reference to The Replacements, half a pun on their name, referring to the way bands "replace" each other at every hotel, venue and stage they visit.
"It's Not My Birthday"
B-side to: "They'll Need a Crane"
Released: February 10, 1989
"I'll Sink Manhattan"
B-side to: "They'll Need a Crane"
Released: February 10, 1989
"The Nightgown of the Sullen Moon"
B-side to: "They'll Need a Crane"
Released: February 10, 1989
XTC
"Hang Onto the Night"
B-side to: "Statue of Liberty"
Released: January 6, 1978
"Pulsing Pulsing"
B-side to: "Making Plans for Nigel"
Released: September 14, 1979
エレファントカシマシ [The Elephant Kashmiashi]
"ハローNew York!" [Hello New York!]
B-side to: 普通の日々[Futsuu No Hibi, something like "Everyday Normality"]
Released: February 27, 2002
NOTE: Miyamoto Hiroji discusses being in NYC, and seems to find it rather like Tokyo. And then decides to crush my dreams of ever being able to understand an interview with him:
"I cannot speak English/That's why Room Service" No, really. That's it. He proves his own point. Unlike a lot of Japanese bands, he rarely uses English. And that's because he's aware he doesn't know English. Smart man.
