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Mongoose
This thread will be most enjoyed by those of you over 40, who remember those days of going to the local Woolworth's, Rose's, or J.C. Penney's to buy singles in the 60s, that always cost a dollar or less. You always hoped that they still had a few of the copies with the picture sleeves instead of just the plain white sleeve.

A lot of "B" sides of hit singles were just OK. You played them three or four times, and then from that point on only played the hit on the "A" side.

However, in my life there were major exceptions, where both songs were so fantastic that you pretty much had a single with TWO "A" sides. Those 45s where you played each side one right after the other, and never one without the other.

Obvious example of the Stones: "She's a Rainbow" b/w "2000 Light Years from Home"
Doors: "Light My Fire" b/w "Crystal Ship"
Beatles: Too many to name, almost all of them, but especially:
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" b/w "I Saw Her Standing There"
"A Hard Day's Night" b/w "I Should Have Known Better"
"Penny Lane" b/w "Strawberry Fields Forever"
"Hey Jude" b/w "Revolution

And, almost ashamed to admit it, but:
Monkees: "I'm a Believer" b/w "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone"

All leading up to my question:

What was a 45 that you enjoyed back then that had a "B" side that was just as important as the "hit" song on the other side?

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Mongoose
And, almost ashamed to admit it, but:
Monkees: "I'm a Believer" b/w "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone"

I've never understood people's aversion to owning Monkees records.
I'm a huge fan. Great records, great TV show, way ahead of its time. A few clunkers here and there, but who hasn't had some of those?
There's so much more to the Monkees music and story than meets the eye an ear.
I'm a huge Nesmith fan (so perhaps I'm biased), but he's certainly one of
the true founders of the country-rock genre, much more so than Gram Parsons,
and I'm a a Parsons fan, so no letters, please. It's Parsons' death
and hanging out with Keith that gets him the headlines.
AS for B-sides, the big Monkees B-side is Goin' Down,
the flip side of Daydream Believer (Plas Johnson on sax).

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Mongoose
I was born in 1955. My parents tell me that when I was very little I used to stand in front of a mirror with a little plastic toy Roy Rogers guitar and sing "Hound Dog."

This is worse:

When I the Beatles and Stones came out in 1964 (I was nine years old), I would spread small pillows out on the floor and "play" them, pretending they were drums and cymbals. Probably also pretended that the girls that I was sweet on in the 3rd grade were also in the room (the chair, the table, the lamp, etc.)

Now if THAT ain't weird......


Trust me it Ain't!

By the way...Best B - side ever? Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man!...by far!
Why?....Because my band plays abour 11 different versions of the song and 95% of our crowd doesn't realize it's a cover song.

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Glam Descendant
It wasn't the 60s but Prince had a string of fantastic b-sides in the 80s.

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"1999" b/w "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore" was a killer single.

My two favorite double-sided 45s from the 60s are "Mother's Little Helper" b/w "Lady Jane", and the Beatles "Rain" b/w "Paperback Writer"

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Glam Descendant
My favorite Beatles song was a b-side: "Don't Let Me Down". (And I'd rather hear "The Inner Light" over "Lady Madonna" any day of the week; ditto "Rain" over "Paperback Writer".)

Agree, and even though I like The Ballad of John & Yoko I think Harrison´s Old Brown Shoe is a very good b-side.