← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade: The B-Sides Edition
01:22:28
Live from the Bell House, in Brooklyn New York, it’s a very special Hit Parade about B-sides that improbably became classics, or even No. 1 hits. Plus special guest Ted Leo!
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- [00:00]
Chris Melanfi
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Here is Chris Melanfi with Hit Parade. Is that a great song? Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history about the hits from coast to coast from Slate Magazine, coming to you live from the Bell House in Brooklyn, New York, the greatest city in the world. And I do mean Brooklyn. I am Chris Melanfy, a native son of the county of Kings and also a chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series. As you can hopefully hear out there in podcast land, we're recording a podcast tonight. I am being joined tonight by a few hundred of my newest friends, a boisterous gang of fellow chart nerds. Say hello, everybody. I must say I am relieved to feel so much love and support in this room because frankly, all of you are guinea pigs. Not just for me, but in the more than dozen year history of Slate podcasts. Because, fun, funny story, we've never really done anything like this before. When the Slate Live team approached me last summer and asked flatteringly if I wanted to try a live edition of Hit Parade, I played it cool. But on the inside, my first reaction was to cheer silently. I've long dreamed of hosting not just a Slate podcast, but a live podcast. But my jubilation was followed seconds later by total panic. What the hell would we do? So I asked the Slate brain trust meekly, so has anyone ever done a solo live podcast? Because you know how these live podcasts normally work. Three stools or maybe two couches. A trio of hosts walks out or maybe one MC plus a cavalcade of guests. And you all observe as the gabbing is gabbed or the chatter is cocktailed or whatever it is, the hang up and listen guys, do you? The fact is, there aren't that many Slate podcasts with only one mc, one storyteller. I asked whether John Dickerson had ever done a solo live whistle stop, and the answer was, well, no, not exactly. He's done a whistle stop book tour. And of course a book gives you an instant icebreaker with an audience, a thing to read, a thing to do. Even my dear friend, the mighty Mike Pesca, solo host of the daily podcast the Gist. Does live shows that resemble late night talk shows. We with a dozen or more guests. So I joked with my producers, hey, no problem. We'll just swim into Cambodia. This thing. Set up one chair, one table, stick the table with Billboard chart books. I come out like Spalding Gray and I just monologue at these people for 90 minutes. It'll be great.
- [02:51]
Audience/Contestants
Boom.
- [02:52]
Chris Melanfi
Instant show. Needless to say, this idea set no one's heart aflutter, least of all mine. And then I must give credit to my girlfriend Liz, who lit this spark. What about trivia? I mean, the show itself, Hit Parade is all trivia. Trivia is the fossil fuel that runs our engine. And then I realized we're going to be at the Bell House. This place is a goddamn trivia institution. I mean, I myself have taken part in at least four nights of Trivworks Trivia right here, hosted by the Canadian sex symbol of New York, one Pat Kiernan. I've attended tapings of three other of NPR's show Ask Me Another taped right here. Hell, this hallowed stage might well be the Grand Ole Opry of trivia. Plus, can I share a pet peeve? And I'm looking at you, Pat Kiernan. But also most of the pub trivia nights I've ever attended, whether I won or I lost. When they reveal the answers and you mark the ballots, is it just me or the you want to know more? Maybe you want some backstory so you can debate the answer. Like, for instance, was that really the studio version they played of Sunday Bloody Sunday, which is from U2's War album? Wasn't it really the live version from Under a Blood Red sky, the one where Bono says this is not a rebel song? And if they did play the studio version, what the hell were they thinking? Because the live version of Sunday Bloody Sunday is the version of Sunday Bloody Sunday. Everybody knows this. So tonight we will redress decades of pub trivia malpractice. I have nine questions for you guys, and we are going to give you all here with us tonight at the Bell House a chance to compete for fabulous prizes. We have all new slate tumblers and tote bags, complete with the magazine's brand spanking new logo, as well as that cheaper but much more precious commodity hit parade bragging rights. But here's the catch. After the questions, I will be providing the factoids, the details, the little stories that make our charmingly verbose chart history show what it is. Get psyched, people, because it's going to be the slowest Logius trivia game you've ever played.
- [05:19]
Audience/Contestants
Let yourself go. So I low that is the tempo.
- [05:25]
Chris Melanfi
As if all that wasn't enough, and because at the end of the day, a live podcast does need more than one human being, preferably one with some actual talent on a musical instrument, I am deeply honored and frankly, humbled to have as my guest the multi hyphenate rock genius Ted Leo. He'll be chatting with me and playing us a couple of songs from the Hanged man, his first ever official official actually, under his own name. Not the pharmacist, not Amy man, and nobody else. Solo. Deb, Ted is my special guest, but honestly, everyone in this room is my guest tonight. I couldn't be more honored to welcome you to this experiment you didn't know you were signing up for. And by the way, no fair going to the bathrooms now and never coming back. So now that I've spent five minutes doing exactly what I swore I wouldn't do, monologuing, let's get this dog and pony show started. By the way, I am the dog. The trivia is the pony. I believe the Slate Live team have preselected some victim contestants for our questions, and while the first victim is getting ready to come up to the stage, I will offer a quick introduction to our theme today. B Sides I write the B sides that make a small portion of the.
- [06:36]
Audience/Contestants
World cry.
- [06:39]
Chris Melanfi
On Today's show. The 21st century passage from the physical era to the digital era in music meant the loss of a lot of things we pop fans used to take for granted. The communal joys of the record store, the education provided by liner notes, the satisfaction of amassing a collection of LP jackets or CD jewel cases, spines out like hunting trophies on the music nerd's wall. But one of the biggest losses, not just as collector's items but also conceptually as a way of framing how and why songs become hits, was the loss of the B side. Regular hit parade listeners may recall back in September, in our great war against the single episode, I had to take a minute and define what is a single? Well, for anyone listening tonight who came of age in the last 15 years, you might well ask, what is a B side? I doubt I need to explain how all vinyl records and audio cassettes come with two sides. Compact discs famously have only one playable side, but even the music on CDs is sometimes categorized along an A side B side rubric. For a vinyl long playing album, two sides simply means more real estate. For more songs, side A plays the needle hits that run out groove. You walk to the turntable, flip it over and play the rest of the album. In the case of the single, however, the B side had particular cultural cachet. Or you could say a lack of cachet. On the 7 inch 45 RPM single, the A side was where the primetime product went. The song you were pushing, the big radio hit The B side was supposedly filler, a throwaway, an afterthought. The record has two sides. Something's gotta go on the flip. Throughout rock and pop history, artists and producers have spent days, weeks laboring over a planned A side and then recording a B side in minutes just to fill space. Yet it is remarkable how often throughout chart history the music business got this wrong. How often a fun, maybe silly, but probably very catchy throwaway song relegated to the B side of a single waste would wind up being the hit. Tonight, we are giving the B side its due. We will march our hit parade to nine different weeks of the rock era and test your knowledge of famous A sides and more important B sides. In the process, we will catch the music business off guard. The moments when the artists, the producers or the promoters didn't realize they were sitting on a gold mine. Let's get right to our first question in which the status of which song was the A side and which the B side was a little murky. Do I have contestant number one? Let's hear it for. How about a big welcome for our first contestant?
- [09:14]
Audience/Contestants
Ha. Hi.
- [09:15]
Chris Melanfi
Nice scarf. Thank you. What is your name? My name is Mike. Mike, thank you so much for joining us for this wild experiment. Away we go. Your hit parade marches to the week ending August 18, 1956, a time when Billboard didn't even have a Hot 100 yet. But the king of Rock and roll was dominating what was then called the best sellers in stores chart. On the COVID of Elvis Presley's third number one single. The B side was more prominent than the A side. What was the B side? A Don't be cruel. B Love Me Tender. C Hound Dog. Or D. I want you, I need you, I love you. C Hound Dog. That is correct. Congratulations, Mike. Our first trivia contestant and our first winner. That is so exciting.
- [10:05]
Audience/Contestants
You ain't nothing but a hound dogger. You're crying all the time. You ain't nothing. Crying all the time. Where are you? In the corner Rabbit at your.
- [10:20]
Chris Melanfi
So before I leave these choices, the first choice above Don't Be Cruel was actually the singles A side. At least Don't Be Cruel was the A side when the single was first released. Both sides of this 1956 single are now considered legendary. Rolling Stone ranks Don't Be cruel among the 200 greatest singles in rock and roll.
- [10:40]
Audience/Contestants
Don't Be Cruel to who? Hard, it's true.
- [10:48]
Chris Melanfi
And Presley's cover of Hound Dog is enshrined at the Rock and Roll hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shape rock and roll. Of course, I just said a key word a second ago. Cover. The main difference between Don't Be Cruel and Hound Dog was that Presley was presented with Cruel in the studio as a new song, one furnished to him by his publishers and Brooklyn songwriter Otis Blackwell. Whereas Hound Dog had already existed for more than three years and gone through several iterations before Presley recorded his version, Written by celebrated songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoler in 1952, Hound Dog would already rank among the greatest songs in rock history if Elvis Aaron Presley had never touched it.
- [11:28]
Audience/Contestants
You ain't nothing but a hound dog been snooping around my door. You ain't nothing but a hound dog been snooping around my door.
- [11:43]
Chris Melanfi
You can wag your that friends is blues singer Big Mama Thornton with her immortal 1953 version of Hound Dog, A raw, racy precursor to rock and roll. Written by two white Jews and made famous by a black woman, it was also a national hit. Thornton's Hound dog spent nearly two months as the number one song on Billboard's rhythm and blues chart in 1953. In fact, legend had it that Hound Dog was selling so fast in 1953 that Peacock Records had three pressing plants running full time to keep up with. But Presley's Hound Dog was not even really a direct cover of the original. Thornton's record was re recorded several times between 1953 and 1955. And in one of the classic rock and roll stories of how songs cross barriers of race and genre, Presley began performing the song live only after he saw an in between cover by white Las Vegas lounge act Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. They're the ones who replaced the racy with the ridiculous, turning Lieber and Stoller's thinly veiled metaphorical lyrics like you can wag your tail but I ain to feed you no more into a complaint to a literal canine. Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine. Freddy Bell's version even featured arf arf sounds.
- [13:01]
Audience/Contestants
You ain't nothing but a hound dog. Hound dog crying all the time you ain't all.
- [13:12]
Chris Melanfi
This goofy 1955 version of Hound Dog is what Presley began performing live on stage in 1956. He was familiar with the Big Mama Thornton original, but he loved the Freddie Bell version's burlesque qualities, and he inserted it into his show literally as comic relief. Of course, given Elvis's status as a national star and emerging sex symbol, his teen girl audience didn't receive the song as comedy they screamed for Presley's tales of a hound that was crying all the time. Even when Presley was trying to be funny, he had managed to put the danger back in the song. That's why Presley's management insisted in 1956 that he capture the live favorite in the studio. Reportedly, Presley never intended to record Hound Dog, though he perhaps reluctantly agreed, committing it to tape at the same session as Don't Be cruel. When the two songs were pressed onto both sides of a 45 in the summer of 1956, Don't Be Cruel was positioned as the A side. But it quickly became clear that Hound Dog was, to borrow a 21st century term, the more viral song. When Elvis was invited onto TV variety shows, he was asked to do Hound Dog. Performing that hit on the Milton Berle Show. A month later on the Steve Allen Show, Elvis literally sang to a droopy basset hound.
- [14:23]
Audience/Contestants
You ain't nothing but a hound dog. You ain't nothing but a hound dog.
- [14:41]
Chris Melanfi
So popular was this TV version that when the single was pressed in the summer of 56, the single cover featured a still of Elvis singing to his new canine friend. And it listed Hound Dog more prominently than Don't Be Cruel. From August through October 1956, Elvis's two sided single commanded the Billboard charts. In 1956, there was no all encompassing Hot 100, but rather separate charts tracking bestsellers and stores, most played in jukeboxes and most played by jockeys. Among the radio DJs, don't be cruel was the more popular record topping the jockeys list for most of that period, several notches higher than Hound Dog. But on the jukeboxes and the best sellers chart, Hound Dog was listed first. The two sided hit spent 11 weeks on top of bestsellers, the flagship chart before the Hot 100 was launched in 58. And that 11 weeks on top was a record one. It held for 36 years until Boyz II Men's 1992 smash End of the Road lasted a then record 13 weeks. All right, let's move on to question two. Can I get my question two contestant? Here she comes. Let's hear it for her. Hello and welcome. Hi, what is your name?
- [16:05]
Audience/Contestants
Kelly.
- [16:05]
Chris Melanfi
Kelly, thank you so much for taking part in our little trivia quiz. Are you ready? Yeah. All right. Ready to be. That's kind of how I feel. Let's jump a decade. Your hit parade marches to the week ending May 28, 1966, when the beach Boys greatest album landed and began spinning off multiple hits, including one under performer. What Beach Boys song ranked by Rolling stone as the 25th greatest song of all time was a US B side peaking at number 39. A, wouldn't it Be Nice? B, Good Vibrations C, Sloop John B or D, God Only Knows. I'm gonna go with D. God Only Knows. That is correct. God Only Knows. Congratulations, Kelly. Thank you. Two questions, two winners. So among the four choices I provided in this question, there's one trick answer and an outlier, the classic Good Vibrations. Now, while it was a 1966 recording, Vibrations was not on Pet Sounds. It was issued as a standalone single later that year. It was also the only number one hit of this bunch. Although two of the other songs were top ten hits, both of those were from Pet Sounds. The first single from the album, the number three hit, Sloop John B.
- [17:50]
Audience/Contestants
We Come on this Loop, John B. My Grandfather and me Around NASA Time we do roll.
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Chris Melanfi
Drinking All Night and the second single from the album, the number eight hit Wouldn't It Be Nice?
- [18:13]
Audience/Contestants
Wouldn't It Be Nice if we were older then we wouldn't have to wa.
- [18:31]
Chris Melanfi
All of these songs are now rightfully regarded as classics, but as time has gone on, God Only Knows has emerged as to many critics, Brian Wilson's greatest composition, no less than Paul McCartney has claimed that God Only Knows is his favorite song of all time. Pitchfork magazine, in its recent survey of the greatest songs of the 1960s, placed God Only Knows at number one. Sung by Brian's younger brother Carl Wilson, and arranged by Brian using a rococo array of instruments, including French horn, sleigh, bell, harpsichord and a string quartet playing in counterpoint, God Only Knows is unusual and exceptional among Beach Boys songs, let alone 60s hits.
- [19:10]
Audience/Contestants
And God Only Knows what I'd be without God Only Knows what I'd be without God Only Knows what I.
- [19:23]
Chris Melanfi
Whatever your opinion, and several people dear to me totally prefer Sloop John B. What is interesting from a charts perspective is this most beautiful of songs. With such a relatively small hit, at least in the United States, it's tempting to call the combination of Wouldn't It Be Nice and God Only Knows a double A side, given how great both songs are. Hold that thought, we're going to talk about actual double AA sides in a minute. But in America, God Only Knows was presented as a B side. In various countries, Wouldn't It Be Nice was the B side and God Only Knows the A. Including the United Kingdom, where God Only Knows peaked at number two in the summer of 1966. Here in America, where we are a God fearing country with a funny relationship to our Religiosity. It was the song's title that gave the music industry pause. Lyricist Tony Asher, who co wrote most of Pet Sounds with Brian Wilson, including God Only Knows, said, quote, unless you were Kate Smith and you were singing God Bless America, no one thought you could say God in a song then. American historian Dominic Priore even claims that in some parts of the United States, God Only Knows was banned from the radio for blasphemy. Surely someone was playing it. The song did scrape the top 40, after all, on the Billboard Hot 100. As of the mid-60s, the rule was that A sides and B sides of singles charted in tandem, but separately. If a B side was reported by enough radio programmers, it would chart in its own slot. Hold that thought, too, because that rule is going to change more than once. Wouldn't It Be Nice debuted on the Hot 100 in mid July 1966 and began its climb two weeks later. When Nice was halfway up the chart, God Only Knows made its belated debut at number 80. By late September, Wouldn't It Be Nice had reached its number 8 peak and God Only Knows had reached number 39. By October, both songs had fallen off the Hot 100. Not unusual given the short chart runs back in the day, but especially brief in the case of God Only Knows, which was on and off the chart in just eight weeks. The song's legacy, you might say, has been of a greater duration. All right, our next question takes place just a year later in 1967, which must rank as some kind of high watermark for the music business having bad ears for a hit. Can we bring up contestant number three? Oh, I think I know this contestant. Yes, this contest contestant is familiar to me. My name is dad. Hi, dad. Frank. Melanie, ladies and gentlemen. Watch me get it wrong. I have faith in you, dad. Your hit parade, dad, marches to the week ending July 29, 1967, when the correct answer to this next question hit the top spot. Which of these 1967 number one hits did not start out as the B side to another song? A Lulu To Sir With Love, B the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Incense and Peppermints, C the Doors Light My Fire, or D, Bobby Gentry, Ode to Billy Joe, See the Doors, Light My Fire. He got it, everybody. The correct answer is C. Light My Fire. Way to go, dad. Dad, get your swag. Don't forget your swag. Okay, did not plan that. Swear.
- [23:20]
Audience/Contestants
Try to set the night on fire.
- [23:26]
Chris Melanfi
So I'll be brief about this door smash, since there's not much of a B side story here. The quirk of Light My Fire is in the original recording on the Doors debut album. It was nearly seven minutes long, too long to fit on one side of a 45 or it was thought to be played on pop radio. So Electra record sliced out Ray Manzarek's long keyboard freakout and cut Light My Fire to a trim 2 minutes 52 seconds. Ironically, by the time the song topped the Hot 100 in July 1967, many radio stations were playing the full length album cut anyway. But what about the other three choices in this question? What the heck happened?
- [24:02]
Audience/Contestants
If you wanted the sky I would ride across the sky and letters that would surpass feet high to serve With Love.
- [24:20]
Chris Melanfi
To Sir with love British superstar Lulu's only American top 10 hit was a huge one. Not only a chart topper in the fall of 1967, but the number one song of the year according to Billboard. To Sir With Love was the title song of the 1967 movie of the same name, starring Sidney Poitier and co starring Lulu herself, a film that took place in a British inner city school, basically the dangerous minds of its day. The producers wanted Lulu to sing some kind of theme song to the film, and she hated all of the candidates they were proposing, according to Fred Bronson's Billboard book of number one hits. So Lulu proposed her friend songwriter Mark London for the job and he penned the melody to the song in five minutes. His colleague Don Black wrote the lyrics. The next day Lulu ecstatically recorded the track, but her label, Epic Records, was was not a big believer in the conversational loping song. When they issued Lulu's next single in the summer of 67, even with a big movie coming out, they stuck to Sir With Love on the B side. The A side Lulu's cover of the Neil diamond song the boat that I row the boat that I row Won't.
- [25:24]
Audience/Contestants
Cross the ocean the boat that I row Won't get there soon But I got the love if you got the notion the boat that I rose.
- [25:35]
Chris Melanfi
Remember our hit Parade pilot about red red wine? In the mid-60s, Neil diamond songs were everywhere. But according to Bronson, DJs preferred the flip side and by October to Sir With Love was commanding the Hot 100 for five weeks. And what about this diddy Good sense.
- [25:51]
Audience/Contestants
Innocence, crippling mankind Dead kings, many things I can define Kitchen spots, weddings flutter your mind.
- [26:04]
Chris Melanfi
The Strawberry Alarm Clock was barely even a band when college student John Carter provided lyrics to an instrumental track for a new psychedelic pop band called the Sixpence. He wasn't part of the group at all. It was a freelance gig, and when Carter met the rest of the band, they resented that their producer had sent their instrumental track to an outside writer. By the way, that instrumental track was originally devised by a guy named Ed King, who went on to become a guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd and co wrote Sweet Home Alabama. Carter penned the lyrics I know, it's true. Carter penned the lyrics to what became Incense and Peppermints. The band who figured the track would be a B side thought so little of the song they didn't even mind when Carter recruited a vocalist on the track who wasn't actually part of the sixpence, a friend of the band's who was hanging around the studio and was never seen again. Incense and Peppermints initially appeared on the B side of the Sixpence's single, the Birdman of Alcatraz. Hitbound, I'm sure. However, local radio stations in Los Angeles began playing Incense and Peppermints instead of the A side, leading to changes in both the promotional focus and the name of the band. It turned out that in 1967 several Baroque rock bands had the word sixpence in their names. Strawberry Alarm Clock was chosen at random, adapted from the Beatles song Strawberry Fields Forever. The band scored one more top 40 hit and disbanded by 1969. And finally, this legendary Diddy today Billy.
- [27:35]
Audience/Contestants
Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
- [27:44]
Chris Melanfi
Bobby Gentry is virtually a one hit wonder on the pop charts, placing only one single in the top 25. But what a hit. Ode to Billy Joe was a massive Southern gothic story song with a sense of profound mystery baked into its lyrics. What did Billie Joe and his girlfriend throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge? And why did Billy Joe throw himself off that bridge the next day? Of course, Gentry, the song's sole writer, will tell you these plot details are MacGuffins and that what the song is really about is the nonchalant cruelty of American families. But the lyrics, so operatic mysteries, are what caused the song to be flipped from a B side to an A. Signed to capitol records in 1966 on the strength of her song Mississippi Delta Gentry recorded Ode to Billy Joe in the summer of 67 to accompany that track, according to Bronson's book of number one hits, the Song took less than an hour to record, even though the finished product was seven minutes long. Capitol's producers cut Ode to Billy Jo to under four minutes and stuck it on the B side of Mississippi Delta, as with to sir with love and incense and peppermints. It was DJs to the rescue. Radio stations around the country and around the world were captivated by the dark fable Ode to Billy Joe even charted in England, more than an ocean away from Chickasaw County, Mississippi. All right, next question. Can I have my contestant for question four?
- [29:17]
Ted Leo
Hi.
- [29:17]
Chris Melanfi
Hello. Thank you for joining us. What is your name? Juliana. Joanna. Thank you so much. Juliana. Juliana. I'm sorry. No problem. Juliana. Welcome. And let's move on to question four. In case you were wondering if I would escape the 60s without mentioning the biggest rock group of all time, your hit parade marches to the week ending November 29, 1969. Here's the question and a Fab Four choices. What Beatles single was the first double A side to reach number one? A single that needed both sides to top the chart? A, We Can Work it out backed with Day Tripper, B, Come Together backed with something. C, Penny Lane backed with Strawberry Fields Forever, or D. Hey Jude backed with Revolution. D, you said I'm sorry. D, oh, I'm sorry. The correct answer is B, come Together backed with something. Thank you so much for participating, Julian. I really appreciate it. By 1965, the Beatles had invented the idea of the double A sided single effectively. EMI Records in England was acknowledging that for certain superstars like Elvis Presley in 1956, there was no point pre anointing which of two tracks might wind up being the bigger hit. The first 45 to be issued by EMI explicitly this way was the 1965 single We Can Work It Out.
- [30:51]
Audience/Contestants
We Can Work It Out We Can Work It Out. Think of what you're saying you can get it wrong and still you think that it's all right.
- [31:02]
Chris Melanfi
Backed with Day Trippers. In England, where the pop charts were based entirely on sales of 45s, both songs went to number one together and Daytripper was listed first in America. We Can Work it out was regarded as the A side and reached number one. And Daytripper was an effective B side and hit number five. The Beatles continued to issue double A sides for the next few years, and in America, this was how they charted separately. Penny Lane reached number one, while its classic flip side, Strawberry Fields Forever hit number eight. Hey Jude reached number one, while the smoldering Rocker Revolution hit number 12. Now let's take a minute and talk chart policy. Excuse me while we nerd out as regular readers of my series. Why is this song number one? Are aware the secret sauce of Billboard's Hot 100 is that it has always measured at least two radio airplay and sales of singles. Billboard averages these two pools of data to rank the biggest hits in the usa. And most of the time, the biggest sellers and the most played records are aligned with each other. One Play it. Radio is parallel to one sale of a song. But there's a definitional problem with B sides. When a record buyer from the 50s through the 90s purchased a single, what was she buying it for? The A side or the B side? And if you're Billboard, how do you track that? Radio can only play one song at a time, but the record buyer is purchasing two songs at a time. Do you combine the two songs into a single chart position UK style, or do you track them separately the way they appear on radio playlists? Is the Hot 100A singles chart or a songs chart? Confused? Don't feel bad. Billboard couldn't make up its mind either. The magazine changed its B side policy roughly every decade or two, sometimes quietly. But the change in policy Billboard made in late 1969 was not quiet. It gave the Beatles a number one single they wouldn't have had without the rule change. It is perhaps appropriate that this artificially boosted hit was unusual even for the Beatles because it included a George Harrison song as an A side.
- [33:16]
Audience/Contestants
Something in the Way She Moves.
- [33:22]
Chris Melanfi
Something from the Beatles swan song album. Abbey Road is Harrison's pop standard. It has been recorded by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Ray Charles to Elvis Presley. It was an obvious enough hit that for once the group agreed to place a Harrison song on a double A sided style single with a Lennon McCartney song on the flip. In this case the John Lennon composition Come Together, the opening track of Abbey Road. For reasons that are lost to history, Billboard decided at the end of the 1969 chart year to begin combining A and B sides of 45s into a single Hot 100 position. This would have gone unremarked if it didn't directly benefit the Beatles. The very first week the new system went into effect, Come Together and Something instantly rose to number one. As Fred Bronson chronicles in his Billboard book of number one hits, the week before the rule change, it looked like neither side had enough strength to go to number one. Come Together had gone as high as number two before dropping back and something was stalled at number three. Billboard essentially gave the Beatles a bonus number one hit, Two at Once. In fact, once the music business saw that both sides of a single could boost a song's fortune on the charts, there was a flurry of two sided hits from Sly and the Family Stone's two sided hit thank you and Everybody is a star. So the guess who's double whammy of American Woman and no sugar tonight. All right, let's do one more question before we take a break to speak to our guest. Can I welcome question number five, our contestant. Hello. Hello. What is your name? Susan. Susan, thank you so much for participating. Are you ready? I think so. Okay, good question. Five is from very early in the disco era. We're gonna move into the 70s now. It contains a couple more one hit wonders. We will march your hit parade to the week ending December 7, 1974. What 1974 number one hit was recorded in 10 minutes of studio time after its forgotten A side took hours. A, George McCrae, Rock youk Baby. B Billy Preston, nothing From Nothing. C Bachman Turner, Overdrive. You ain't seen nothing yet. Or D Carl Douglas, Kung Fu Fighting. I'm gonna say D, Carl Douglas, Kung Fu Fighting. That is correct. Kung Fu Fighting. Thank you, Susan. Congratulations.
- [36:08]
Audience/Contestants
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting. Those kids were fast, fastest, lightning. In fact, it was a little bit frightening.
- [36:20]
Chris Melanfi
Now truthfully, all four of these 1974 chart toppers were somewhat accidental smashes. George McCrae, for example, was a near defunct vocalist who lucked into singing Rock youk Baby for Harry Wayne Casey of Casey and the Sunshine Band fame. You can hear it right? Totally sounds like Casey in the Sunshine Band. Nothing From Nothing was a sketch of a song that one time Beatles collaborator Billy Preston stumbled onto while playing a piano in his dressing room at an Atlanta nightclub.
- [36:58]
Audience/Contestants
Nothing from nothing, leave nothing. You gotta have something if you wanna be with me.
- [37:09]
Chris Melanfi
And finally, you Ain't Seen Nothing yet with its stuttering chorus hook was a song Bachman Turner overdrives. Randy Bachman, formerly of the Guess who by the way, meant only to record for his brother with a speech impediment, never as the national hit it became. But none of these three happenstance driven songs started out as an actual B side. Probably the most accidental of all of these chart toppers. Carl Douglas, one top 40 hit, Kung Fu Fighting has likely made him quite wealthy. He wrote the song and it has sold millions and continues to be covered to this day. Most recently for the Kung Fu Panda series of films. It was produced by a gentleman named Bidoo Apaya, an Indian born England based budding music impresario who thought he had a much better song for the A side. The song Bidoo had his eye on was called I Want to Give youe My Everything. A light disco song written by the same songwriter who later penned Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy. Bidou invited Carl Douglas to sing on the track and he booked several hours at a London studio. They spent the bulk of their time with the session musicians recording Douglas on I Want To Give youe My Everything. Awesome, isn't it? A classic in the making, right? With just 10 minutes of studio time left, Bidoo asked Douglas if he had anything quick they could record as a B side. Indeed he did. Earlier that year, while leaving a night spot in Soho. That's the Soho in England, Douglas passed a pinball alley where he saw kids inside mock fighting in time with the music that was playing and he said to his friend, quote, damn, looks like everybody's Kung Fu Fighting at that moment. Douglas later recounted, I heard it all in my head melody line as well and I had to rush home and write it down. So in their last 10 minutes of studio time, Douglas, Bidoo and the session musicians whipped up Kung Fu Fighting in just two takes. Nothing was taken seriously, Bidoo said. We did a lot of who's and ha's. It was the A and R staff of UK Pie Records who heard both tracks and decided Kung Fu Fighting was the hit. Oh, it's just a fun thing, bidoo said. But the label didn't laugh. They thought it was good enough to release as the A side. The song would benefit from the 70s kung fu craze, which was then at its peak. David Carradine's TV series Kung Fu was in its third season and Bruce Lee had died the prior year, making him a legend and leading Enter the Dragon to gross tens of millions globally. In September 1974, Kung Fu Fighting reached number one in England. Picked up for US distribution, it topped the Hot 100 just before Christmas 1974 by reaching number one on the Hot 100. Douglas, who by the way was of Jamaican descent, became the first Jamaican with a US Number one hit. A quickly recorded follow up called no Kidding Dance of the Kung Fu peaked just outside the top 40, making Douglas an official US one hit wonder. By the way, Chris Berube completely insisted that we include that song. And as that classic non hit fades out, it's now time to bring out our special guest and I am so excited to have him here tonight. And let me give him a brief introduction. Ted Leo, the publicist bio says, and I am inclined to agree, is one of the finest songwriters of our generation, even if it's not entirely clear what generation that is, unquote. That's because Ted's work has spanned several waves of rock and multiple configurations. Raised in Bloomfield, New Jersey, Leo cut his teeth in the New York hardcore scene with turn of the 90s Punk band citizens Arrest. He went on to form Chisel, a mod slash indie post punk band that Leo co founded while attending the University of Notre Dame. After just shy of a decade with Chisel and after relocating to Washington D.C. at the turn of the 2000s, he began recording as Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, a solo plus band project with a cast of musicians and a bracing, critically acclaimed catalog of indie punk gems that were both personal and fearlessly political. After a half dozen albums and scores of live gigs, Ted put the Pharmacists on hold and found himself recording and touring in 2013 with Amy Mann as the duo the Both. I was lucky enough to see Ted and Amy in this configuration live twice and they were superb together. Called the Nicest Guy in Punk in a recent Stereo Gum profile, I can affirm that too. Leo has returned in late 2017 with his first ever album as just Ted Leo the Hanged Man, A wonderful, highly varied collection touching on every facet of his career. Would you please help me welcome to the stage Ted Leo.
- [42:51]
Ted Leo
Yeah, so I thought I would play one of the B sides and one of the A sides. The the album was crowdfunded and.
- [43:06]
Chris Melanfi
These.
- [43:06]
Ted Leo
Are officially B sides because one of the one of the tiers at which people could pledge to the album was to get the album as a as a series of 7 inch a sides with non album B sides. So they they do actually exist as B sides and they're still in production and no one has gotten them yet. We'll do the B side first in the spirit of the.
- [43:49]
Audience/Contestants
Andy Stay out. Please don't go home. Many many empty streets you know, Walk around the traffic cones We've been out here for a while we need to believe I'll see you smile There can't be more than one moment I see the vision of lamb tongues come from the ceiling where one time could send you really but you can't explain just why they're open is so and then come at it as yourself see Cause you believe in something else. And if you ever crack your shell See it as being free as well oh all those walls can make us out Remember always when you came in from the hallway and I said fall you should hold it but you laid your head back down on my shoulder so Andy the night is going to end all cause of the morning creeping but dance it.
- [46:17]
Ted Leo
This is a more turgid workout.
- [46:25]
Audience/Contestants
William when sees the 20th century fading away in the night. The curtain fell on this Old noble Ventressi Waits in the lane for his fly. Doesn't bend as he walks down the check with banging ha don't pretend he won't be profound regardless with that when he land. William felt he could save his country he gave it away without a fight. William held to his quiet dignity who wouldn't think to admire. Holy Trinity who wouldn't think to inspire. But there's a real fail of the temple he can hide he can mend worthy or disassemble what's inside. Under the spell of stead respect to be we are getting near to the fire. All the men knew better. When they. They'll be. They ain't apologize yet for what they been they apologize yeah for what they won't turn around they won't let you.
- [49:53]
Chris Melanfi
Down.
- [49:55]
Audience/Contestants
Well, they won't turn around they're going to let you down they won't turn around they're going to let you down well, they won't turn around they always let you down Town men of breeding and men of sanity Men serving man out of time. Men in need of a shaking of van. Thank you.
- [51:03]
Chris Melanfi
Ted, Leo, everybody. So when Ted and I were talking a week ago before the show, and I was describing from what we were doing tonight with the trivia, he was very game and he said, hey, if I can get in on this trivia thing, I'd be happy to take part in it. And he's now nodding as if he regrets this decision. We're going to move back to the trivia right now. And I thought I would throw Ted a question, so why not, right? So I think we know your name, but your name is Ted.
- [51:44]
Ted Leo
That's right. That's correct, Ted. Yes.
- [51:46]
Chris Melanfi
All right, Ted, so your hit parade marches to the week ending March 10, 1979, when the correct answer to this question reached the top. What classic disco chart topper began as a B side until DJs flipped it over and discovered a buried tree treasure? A, Thelma Houston, don't leave me this way B Donna Summer, Love to love you, baby C Blondie, Heart of Glass. Or D Gloria Gaynor, I will survive.
- [52:16]
Ted Leo
I'm gonna say Heart of Glass. Blondie.
- [52:18]
Audience/Contestants
Heart of Glass. D.
- [52:21]
Chris Melanfi
I am so sorry. The correct answer is D I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. Fortunately, you're gonna walk away with Slate swag tonight, so it's fuck, no harm, no fuck.
- [52:32]
Audience/Contestants
Okay. At first I was afraid I was petrified Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side but then I spent so many nights Thinking how you did me Wrong. And I grew strong and I learned how to get along and st up.
- [52:55]
Chris Melanfi
Back from out of space so three of these disco classics were actually number one hits. All But Love To Love youe Baby, the Sexy, heavy breathing 1976 number two hit, which I talked about in my November episode about Donna Summer. Okay, yeah, let's cut that off. My Parents Are Here. And Thelma Houston's disco cover of Harold Melvin in the Blue Notes, Don't Leave Me this Way was a chart topper in 1977.
- [53:28]
Audience/Contestants
Don't leave me this way Baby My heart is full of love and desire for you.
- [53:41]
Chris Melanfi
The last two of these songs topped the Hot 100 in 1979. Blondie's Rock Disco hybrid, Heart of Glass, And of course, Gloria Gaynor's immortal, verbose disco classic, I Will Survive. By the time it topped the chart in the late winter of 1979, it was actually something of a comeback for Gloria Gaynor. Gloria Gaynor was, by acclamation, the first queen of disco. She earned the title via a pair of widely circulated clothes club hits. Her debut single in 1974, Honeybee, did not make a huge dent on the pop charts. It was too early in disco's emergence for that to happen. But it was a major club record. Just a few months later, Gaynor scored a smash with a disco remake of the Jackson and Five's 1971 hit, never can say Goodbye. Gaynor's cover was not only a club hit in early 75, it actually made the top 10 of the Hot 100, peaking at number nine. Based on this success, in the spring of 1975, Gaynor was named Queen of the Discos by the national association of Discotheque disc jockeys. Bet you didn't know that was a thing. But her reign lasted only a year. By 1976, the title was given to no surprise, Donna Summer, who by then had broken with her smash Love To Love youe Baby and her string of gold disco albums for three years. None of Gaynor's singles came close to the top 40, and she even underwent spinal surgery after an onstage collapse. Talk about survival. The song that will make the first paragraph of Gaynor's obituary someday wasn't just a club anthem or a defiant declaration of independence from a heartless lover. For Gaynor, it was a personal declaration. But it would have to be uncovered by DJs first. I will Survive, co written by veteran songwriter Freddy Perrin. The man behind the Jackson 5's I Want yout Back, among many hits, was unusual for the time, even among disco Songs for featuring no background vocalists and being so relentlessly wordy. Perhaps given its oddness and loquaciousness, Gaynor's label, Polydor, underestimated it. They placed I Will Survive on the flip side of the late 1978 single substitute, a more traditional club track. It's not a bad record. Substitute, however, never even breached the Hot 100. But over the course of several months, discos and radio programmers discovered the garrulous anthem on the B side. Debuting on the Hot 100 just before Christmas 1978, I Will Survive took three months to reach the top of the chart. It spent three weeks at number one. The single went platinum and it is going to be played at about 1,000 weddings this weekend. All right, let's move another half decade to the middle of the 1980s and I'm going to get some help on this one from Ted, who again said he was game. And if There is a question 7 contestant out in the audience, now would be the time to step forward. I see somebody walking to the mic right now. Hello.
- [57:33]
Audience/Contestants
Hi.
- [57:34]
Chris Melanfi
What is your name? Hillary.
- [57:36]
Audience/Contestants
Hillary. Hillary.
- [57:37]
Chris Melanfi
Hillary. It's lovely to meet you. So, Hillary, your hit parade marches to the week ending January 28, 1984, when only one of these flip sides was on the chart. What infamous B side appeared on the Hot 100 in 1984? Listed alongside its A side? A. Prince, Erotic City, the Bayside of Let's Go Crazy. B. Bruce Springsteen, Pink Cadillac, the B side of Dancing in the Dark. C. Madonna into the Groove, the B side of angel or D, Prince Irresistible Bitch, the B side of let's Pretend We're Married. Can I go with B? Bruce Springsteen, Pink Cadillac. Oh, I'm sorry. The correct answer was D. Prince's Irresistible Bitch, the B side of let's Pretend We're Married. Thank you so much for playing, Hilary. Unless you are a die hard Prince fan, Irresistible Bitch does not. And I know you're here, Mike. Irresistible Bitch does not rank high among his classics, even among Prince B sides. It's very good, but it's not the best. But together. Irresistible Bitch and Let's Pretend We're Married rank as the most lascivious pairing of Prince songs ever to make the Hot 100. And that's saying something. Briefly, Briefly. Let's Pretend We're Married, a number 52 hit in early 1984, was the last US single from Prince's breakthrough double album, 1999, the one that generated such 1983 hits as Little Red Corvette and Delirious, and set him up for his purple Rain Explosion. One album later, it's quite raunchy. It's the one where on the uncensored album cut, the Purple one articulates what he'd like to do with the taste of your mouth. And it is doubtful that it received much airplay. Neither probably did its B side, whose title alone was potty mouthed. For 1984, irresistible bitch was a big club hit for Prince, which spurred some urban radio stations to spin it in the wee hours. Likely the two songs charted together because neither one was a big radio priority and each was contributing to the song's meager chart points. The reason I bring up this song is this was the last B side that would appear on the Hot 100 for about three years. When B sides came back into the chart around 1987, Billboard reverted to charting them in separate chart positions again, like I said, in decisiveness. In the interim, B sides were essentially barred from the chart, not out of any explicit policy, but because payola fueled 80s pop radio stations were not reporting them to the charts, no matter how massive those B sides were. If a label told them this is not the A side, it didn't get reported. So which brings us to the other three choices in this category, which, if you were alive in the 1980s, should be quite familiar to you. These are quite possibly the three most famous B sides of the decade, all of them garnering serious radio play, and none of them ever appeared on the Hot 100. Ted, would you like to play the first one for us? I'm still amazed I got Ted to do that. Ask any Prince fan about his all time greatest B side, and they're highly unlikely to bring up Irresistible Bitch, but they will almost surely bring up the classic Erotic City here in New York. Erotic City, the B side of the number one smash let's Go Crazy, was spun on stations like Z100 as if it was a hit. Erotic City topped Billboard's Dance Club chart in the fall of 84 because club DJs had no compunction about spinning it or reporting it to Billboard. But it never made a hot 100 appearance. You might be tempted to theorize, well, that's because the song was raunchy. But then, why would Irresistible Bitch have made the chart just nine months earlier? It was a strange time. Or how about this buried classic? Can you take us through Bruce Springsteen? I think I like the Shooby Doo lyric even better. Also garnering tons of airplane in 1984 as if it were an actual hit was Pink Cadillac, Bruce Springsteen's rockabilly flavored classic B side to his summer 84 a side. Dancing in the Dark, the lead single from the Born in the USA album, Both pop and rock station spun Pink Cadillac extensively that year at Bruce's cultural peak. The song even inspired remakes, including a dance pop cover by Natalie Cole in 1988 that was issued as a single and made the top five. The fact that Bruce's original Pink Cadillac never appeared on the Hot 100 in 84 was further evidence that Prince's raunchy lyrics was not what was keeping B sides off the chart. Clearly, radio programmers were marching in lockstep with label priorities. And finally, the most improbable missing song of all, which actually came out not in 1984, but 85.
- [63:21]
Audience/Contestants
For inspiration. Get into the groove boy you got to prove Coming to me get up on your feet boy Step to the feet boy, what will it be? Want to get to know you in a special way this doesn't happen happen to me every day don't try to hide in love is no disguise.
- [64:03]
Chris Melanfi
Ted, Leo, everybody. I mean, come on, He needs to record that. I would buy that. Into the Groove was recorded for Madonna's film debut, Desperately Seeking Susan. Because a full soundtrack to Susan was never commissioned, Groove was no label's priority to promote. In countries around the world, into the Groove was an A side, including England, where it went to number one. But in America, a pile up of Madonna singles in the first half of 1985, including tracks from both her current album Like a Virgin and the Vision Quest soundtrack, meant that Groove was never issued as a US single for fear it would divert radio attention. So Warner Bros. Put Groove on the B side of a 12 inch single, making it eligible for Billboard's dance charts, but not the Hot 100. The A side of that 12 inch was like a virgin's angel. So angel is actually a fantastic single and it was a top five hit that summer. But if you were in any city in America in the summer of 85 and flipped on top 40 radio, you are guaranteed to hear into the Groove within the hour. The 12 inch of the song topped the club play chart and went gold. At the end of the 1980s, Billboard even named Groove the dance single of the decade, as if acknowledging the misstep in priorities. When Madonna issued her first greatest hits album, the Immaculate Collection, in 1990, into the groove was included, but angel was not. Let's hear it one more time.
- [65:55]
Audience/Contestants
Up to me.
- [66:00]
Chris Melanfi
These three B side classics are a reminder of how opaque the charts can be. Billboard can only chart what the Industry will report from the summer of 84 to the summer of 85. Three of the 80s best songs missed America's premier chart barometer entirely. So let's move to the 1990s, when rules for B sides changed again. And like The Beatles in 1969, one pop star wound up gaming the rules. Can I have the Contestant for question 8? Very close. Hello.
- [66:41]
Ted Leo
Hello.
- [66:42]
Chris Melanfi
Thanks for playing. What is your name?
- [66:44]
Audience/Contestants
Andy.
- [66:45]
Chris Melanfi
Andy. Thank you so much. All right, are you ready? Yeah. Here we go. Your hit parade marches to the week ending September 13, 1997, when two songs on the Hot 100 traded places. Jewel had one of the longest running singles in Hot 100 history, thanks to what B side that became an A side? A, Foolish Games, B Hands, C, who will save your soul? Or D, you were meant for me. Who will save your soul? I am sorry, the correct answer is A. Foolish Games. Thank you so much for playing. Let's hear it. Playing.
- [67:33]
Audience/Contestants
Me apart.
- [67:40]
Chris Melanfi
Folkie turned torch balladeer, Jewel succeeded beyond anyone's imaginings with her 1995 album Pieces of youf. How can you tell? For one thing, the album took about 18 months to break its first hit, who Will Save youe Soul? Which finally scraped its way to number 11 in August of 1996.
- [68:00]
Audience/Contestants
Who will save your Soul? Could explain.
- [68:13]
Chris Melanfi
For another thing, Pieces of youf was still generating top 40 hits in the final weeks of 1997, more than two and a half years after the album first dropped. The campaign to break Jewel went on for so long that all of the album's top 10 hits were remixed from their original versions to make them poppier and more radio friendly. Pity the poor CD buyer of the mid-90s, who shelled out 15 bucks for pieces of you only to discover that none of the hits sounded like their radio versions. But perhaps the surest sign that Atlantic Records and Jewel herself couldn't have imagined this mega success was the fact that a B side wound up becoming an A side and a top 10 hit in its own right, allowing Jewell to set a dubious Hot 100 chart record in the process. It all started when, in the closing weeks of 1996, Atlantic issued Juul's second single, the follow up to who Will Save your Soul, a tender ballad called you Were Meant for Me.
- [69:12]
Audience/Contestants
And I was Meant for you.
- [69:17]
Chris Melanfi
The CD single featured two tracks, the radio remix of youf Were Meant for Me and as track two, effectively the CDs B side, an even more florid ballad from Jules album entitled Foolish Games.
- [69:30]
Audience/Contestants
Foolish Games are tearing me apart at the time.
- [69:41]
Chris Melanfi
Foolish Games was filler on the single. You Were Meant For Me was the A side. For the next 41 weeks, you were meant for me rode the Hot 100 up and down. It ultimately peaked at number two in the spring of 1997, held out of the number one spot by smashes from Puff Daddy and the Notorious Bow. Even after those rap hits faded, however, Jewel's biggest hit took its sweet time, tenaciously remaining in the top 10, then the top 20. By September of 1997, you were meant for me was still at number 25 and among the most played songs at radio. But by then another Jewel song had overtaken it. Over the summer, Foolish Games appeared on the soundtrack to the would be blockbuster Batman and Robin. This by the Way, this by the Way is the one with George Clooney as Batman and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the quip spouting Mr. Freeze. The film was a flop, but its soundtrack was a platinum powerhouse. And among its tracks was Foolish Games, which again was remixed from its album version.
- [70:41]
Audience/Contestants
Foolish Games are tearing deep.
- [70:51]
Chris Melanfi
The remixed Foolish started generating heavy pop radio airplay. Chart watchers began asking Billboard, hey, wait a minute. There's a Jewel single already on the hot 100 whose B side is Foolish Games. Shouldn't that now be the A side? Billboard agreed, and on the chart dated September 13, 1997, Foolish Games became the A side of the Jewel single that had debuted 42 weeks earlier. The combined single shot up to number 12 on its way back into the top 10, number 7 by November. In effect, this A side B side flip flop combined two separate top 10 hits into one mega chart run. The combo single stayed on the chart through February 1998, finally falling off after a crazy 65 weeks, then the longest run in Hot 100 history. This is the Roger Maris asterisk of Billboard chart feats. Jewel didn't hold the record for long. She was beaten just seven months later by How Do I Live? A Leann rhymes smash that ran for 69 weeks. By the end of 1998, Billboard changed Hot 100 policies again, adding non retail hits to the pool for the first time ever, as I described in my great war against the single episode, and thus converting the Hot 100 to a chart where only one song could be in any single position at any time. This guaranteed that no one could pull a chart longevity feat like Jules ever again. Let's make one last move into the 2000s, when singles were hardly ever on physical media anymore. Your hit parade marches to the week ending November 8, 2008, when a certain pop queen hurtled into the top 10 but then hit a wall. Who is doing question nine? Hi there. How you doing? I'm good. How are you?
- [72:39]
Audience/Contestants
Good.
- [72:39]
Chris Melanfi
And you are?
- [72:40]
Audience/Contestants
Ned.
- [72:41]
Chris Melanfi
Ned. All right. Ready, Ned? Yeah, I think so. Here we go. Beyonce's number one hit single Ladies was issued alongside what number three hit that was originally treated as the A side? A Diva B if I Were a Boy C Halo or D Sweet Dreams B if I were a boy that is correct. The correct answer is B if I were a boy. We ended with a winner.
- [73:14]
Audience/Contestants
Even just for a day I'd roll out of bed in the morning and throw on what I wanted and go.
- [73:28]
Chris Melanfi
It'S not only strange, but probably inaccurate to call anything an A side or a B side in the 21st century. Not only because Billboard changed its chart rules at the end of the 20th century to ensure that forevermore only one song could occupy each chart slot, but also because the invention of downloadable music in the early aughts meant that all songs were purchasable a la carte, one song at a time. You no longer even had the option to receive a free B side with your A side, not unless you wanted to pay another 99 cents for a second track. In the digital era, all songs are singles and all singles are standalones. However, that reinvention of music delivery has not entirely changed the music business's promotional predilections. If a label decides it's got two hot singles with hit potential, they might release them together. In fact, in the dozen years since Billboard started including downloadable and later streaming songs on the Hot 100, several superstar artists from Taylor Swift to Lil Wayne, the Weeknd to Ed Sheeran have led off new albums with flotillas of early singles like a live focus group to determine which is the stickiest hit. Often two key tracks will drop together, a kind of double A side on digital steroids. This is more or less what happened in the fall of 2008 when Beyonce led off her third solo album, I Am Sasha Fierce, with a pair of songs that competed on the charts head to head. The woman later known as Queen Bey led off the new album with the tracks if I Were a Boy and Single Ladies and Gentlemen Put a ring on It. The release was indeed akin to the double A side single releases of the Beatles heyday, and chart history books and Wikipedia suggest that neither song was favored over the other. But that's not actually how they arrived at the time. While Beyonce and the Columbia label certainly had high hopes for both songs, Sony Music showed its hand repeatedly. If I Were A Boy was the implied A side. Single Ladies was at first a bit underestimated, a de facto B side, Maybe not even de facto in countries that still issued singles on physical media. If I Were A Boy it was track one in the UK and Europe were CD singles held on longer than they did in America. Single Ladies wasn't even listed on the front of the disc. Only if I Were A Boy was shown on the COVID of the two track CD single. In America, meanwhile, the tracks were issued only digitally, but even here Sony gave clues of its priorities. Only Boy was issued at itunes ahead of the album as a standalone track purchasable for a buck, whereas Single Ladies had to wait until the entire Sasha Fierce album was issued and all of its tracks made downloadable. While both songs were sent to radio programmers at the same time in the fall of 2008, Single Ladies was believed to be a stronger bid at Black radio. If I Were A Boy was the track pushed harder at top 40 radio. There is also the little matter of the two songs videos. If I Were A Boy got the more expensive, glossier music video, a high concept clip shot in dozens of urban locations in which Bay dressed as a New York City police officer, imagining herself as the macho carefree dude of the song's title and Single Ladies. I hardly need to remind you of that song's video. An homage or an inspired pillaging of the Bob Fosse Gwenverton 1969 Mexican breakfast dance. Single Ladies was shot on a single set with no backgrounds and only two backup dancers, and it became instantly iconic. Sorry folks. As rude as he was, Kanye west was right. Single Ladies deserved all of the MTV moon men. The last frontier of the competition was the Billboard charts. Sure enough, if I Were A Boy got the fast break thanks to its early digital release. As a single ahead of the album, Boy hurtled into the top 10 by October, but it hit a wall at number three. Meanwhile, as a radio only track, Single Ladies topped the R and B chart within a month and managed its way into the pop top 40 as an airplay only track around Thanksgiving. After the I Am Sasha Fierce album came out and Single Ladies was finally available for digital purchase, the song soared into the Hot 100's top 10, pushing if I Were A Boy aside and reaching number one just before Christmas. Yes, Single Ladies was a come from behind Victor. It might seem crazy now after all these years of us going to weddings and when it comes time for the bouquet toss, hearing Queen Bey ring out with her chant of all the single ladies. Now put your hands up. But at one time, nobody was quite sure how big that song would be. So now that the B side is largely a relic of the past, what wisdom can we derive from a half century of record label and Billboard chart experimentation? Is this talk of B sides just a wallow in nostalgia? Another reminder that music collection was more fun when we acquired physical goods. Certainly the whole idea of a hit song that comes with a little bonus, one that might wind up being rather a big bonus, might even be the song you prefer. That's the kind of serendipity you don't see much anymore. But to me, the story of the B side is a story of an eternal truth about the music business. Indeed, about all of popular culture with its mix of art and commerce. Even with artists as pre sold as Elvis, the Beatles, Prince, Madonna and Beyonce, so much of hit making remains guesswork. Imagine a business where over and over again the product they thought was destined for culture blanketing popularity wasn't even as good as the underestimated product in waiting they stuck on the back to fill space. Picture a best selling novel less beloved than its epilogue, a Pixar movie where everybody's more interested in the 10 minute short than the feature. Indeed, speaking of movies, it brings me back to one of my all time favorite quotes about art and commerce, that immortal line by screenwriter William Goldman in his seminal Hollywood memoir Adventures in the Screen Trade quote Nobody knows anything. Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work every time out. It's a guess and if you're lucky, an educated one. Substitute the phrase popular music for motion picture and watch the charts each week like I do as superstar singles and pre sold songs of summer crash and burn instead and you will be reminded of this weekly if the music business were a single, it would be selling your dreams on the A side, backed with dumb luck on the flip.
- [80:19]
Audience/Contestants
We're up all night to get lucky she's up all night to the sun I'm up all night to get some she's up all night for good fun.
- [80:29]
Chris Melanfi
I hope you all enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. My enormous undying gratitude to Faith Smith, Kirsten Holtz and the entire Slate Live team, as well as everyone here at the Bell House for their hospitality and support for our maiden voyage on this stage. My producer is the fearless Chris Berube and this month we had invaluable production assistance from Daniel Shradin. The Executive producer of Slate Podcasts is the intrepid Steve Lichti, who you heard from at the beginning of the show. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture Gabfest feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. And please tell your friends thanks for listening. And thanks to my friends and here at the Bell House for joining us tonight. I look forward to marching the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the One. I'm Chris Malone.
- [82:09]
Audience/Contestants
She's up all night to the sun I'm up all night to get some she's up all night for good fun I'm up all night to get lucky.