This week, the week of January 11-15, 2016, we will be reviewing "B" sides that were bigger hits than their "A" side counterparts!

We call it:  "See you on the flip side!"

January 12, 2016

I am not naive enough to believe that anyone who is reading this isn't old enough to remember when you could buy a 45 rpm record...or that they don't know what a "B" side is.  But lets review anyway!

In the history of recorded music the various formats have all held time as the most popular.  Today a generation of people would rather buy a digital copy that never wears out than invest in a solid piece of vinyl with a groove it that you have to physically restart every time it ends!

But the 45 was an integral part of the music scene for decades.

The beauty of the 45 was you got two songs (usually) for the price of one...without buying the entire album.

Many times the "B" side was a throw away song or a novelty or even just an instrumental version of the "A" side.

On occasion, however, the second song actually became more popular than the song everyone was trying to push on the other side!  And that could happen for a variety of reasons.

Many times a "B" side simply got more radio air play because the DJ's liked it better and that would be all it took to get the song into the ears of listeners and consumers.

In 1958 The Champs, on a record label owned by Gene Autry, released a song off their first album called "A Train to Nowhere"

Receiving little airplay, a DJ in Cleveland flipped the 45 over and started playing the little jam session song The Champs had recorded to fill out the album.

"Tequila" hit the top of the charts and sat there for five weeks.

Used often in television and movies it received a big boost and a return to the charts thanks to the film "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" in 1985.

Tomorrow: Censorship makes a song a hit!

~ Glenn