The Death of the B-Side Edition

On Oasis, Taylor, experimentation (and featuring a Spotify playlist!)

Kevin Maguire (KM) writes The New Fatherhood. When he isn’t hunting down B-sides, he is working as a coach and procrastinating on the book he should be writing right now. He previously wrote editions on the rickshaw, FC Barcelona, Bluey and voice memos.

Kevin here. When I was a teenager, it felt like Manchester was the centre of the U.K., if not the world. (What’s The Story) Morning Glory reigned supreme. “Wonderwall” blared out of car and bedroom windows alike. Teenage boys across the city recast themselves in the mould of Liam Gallagher—the parka, flicking two fingers to all and sundry, his attitude and swagger, that iconic haircut. They’d strut down the street just like a hero of Liam’s, Richard Ashcroft, did in the music video for "Bitter Sweet Symphony”, their green fishtail parkas flying in the wind.

Some of my most treasured teenage possessions from this time are my collector's editions of the Oasis B-Side boxes. Released in 1996, the plastic packaging resembled a Benson & Hedges cigarette packet, each containing five CD singles with their accompanying B-sides (and also available as an empty box for the superfans who already owned them). Some of Oasis' finest songs were B-sides, never released on an album—until the inevitable compilation The Masterplan came out in 1998 (Noel and Liam probably needed their bank balances topping up after the flop of Be Here Now). “Whatever," "Talk Tonight," “Fade Away,” "Acquiesce," … these weren't throwaway demos, but fully realised songs that just happened to live on the flip side of best-selling singles.

Much ink has been spilled about the death of the album. But, like Mark Twain, the reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. Taylor Swift had the highest-selling vinyl record for the last three years and "1989 (Taylor's Version)" sold more vinyl copies in a week than any album since 1991. Even in streaming, the album format shows resilience—taking Floating Points and Pharaoh Sanders' Promises, the album that plays on Spotify as I’m writing this essay, where roughly a third of people who start the album listen through to completion.

The album is alive and kicking. But what was lost was something more subtle: the B-side.

Why is this interesting?

Whilst the remix, hipster cousin to the B-side, still maintains its cultural cachet in dance and electronica, the B-side itself has virtually disappeared. It represented something increasingly rare in our algorithmic age: intentional serendipity. These songs weren't positioned as hits or given prime placement by a streaming algorithm—they were discoveries waiting to be made. I don’t even need to leave the grey skies of Manchester to provide a handful of stone cold killers. Oasis wore their influences on their sleeve, but it was the B-side to “Cigarettes and Alcohol” that saw their cover of The Beatles “I Am The Walrus.” (The Beatles version was a B-side back in the day, on the flip of “Hello, Goodbye” back in 1967. Coo-coo-ca-cho indeed.) New Order's "Blue Monday," the best-selling 12-inch single of all time, with an intricate cover designed by Peter Saville that actually lost money on every copy, started as a B-side before becoming a club anthem. The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?" languished on the B-side of "William, It Was Really Nothing" before Marr’s jangly riff became the harbinger of a signature song, whilst The Stone Roses' "Fools Gold" began life as a B-side before capturing the zeitgeist of the Madchester era, the song that launched a thousand Kangol bucket hats.

Leaving the greatest musical city in the world—please direct all complaints to the comments—the world was introduced to The Rolling Stones classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” on the flip of “Honkey Tonk Woman,” and David Bowie’s “Suffragette City” first came to light in 1972 as the B-side to “Starman.” “Hound Dog” is one of the first songs that comes to mind when you think of Elvis Presley, and it was originally the B-side to “Don’t Be Cruel.” The record company quickly realised the error of their ways and demanded a slightly amended repress after the first batch sold out, with the B becoming the A.

What we lose in the streaming era isn't just the physical artefact but a type of musical exploration. Today's algorithms promise discovery but are designed to give us more of what we already like. The B-side offered something different: a space for experimentation, for artists to test ideas that didn’t fit neatly into an album narrative, songs that weren’t perfectly tuned for radio. It was a sandbox for creativity, existing outside of commercial pressures. It could represent the other side of an artist, id versus ego—and there’s always a healthy amount of ego—in a juxtaposition that was a carefully considered artistic choice. Today's smart shuffles and algorithmic playlists might be more convenient, but what we gain in ease we lose in soul.

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I asked the WITI Slack for their favourite B-sides and was not disappointed. All the ones that I could find on Spotify are in this playlist.

Jesus and Mary Chain: “Everything's All Right When You're Down,” “Shimmer,” “Terminal Beach,” plus the covers... “My Girl,” “Tower of Song.” Just masters of the B-Side.” Rick

"Marigold," the B-side to "Heart-shaped Box" was originally recorded by Dave Grohl as "Color Pictures of a Marigold" after the success of Nevermind and released on the cassette-only album Pocketwatch under the pseudonym "Late!" In 2006, the Foo Fighters released a live version on Skin and Bones, making it the only song released by both bands. Erickson

UB40's “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You” cassingle had “Jungle Love,” a banger jungle song on the B-side, which messed my 12-year-old head right up. Nick

Is “This Twilight Garden” by The Cure the greatest B-side of all time? Quite possibly the kings of the B-side? How many HOURS of banger (actual) b-sides (and not just "rarities") are on this? Erickson

“10:15 Saturday Night” by The Cure. Anita

Bloc Party “Skeleton.” Ryan

Simon & Garfunkel’s "The Only Living Boy in New York." Originally the B-side of “Cecilia” Todd

Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac.” Oasis “Acquiesce.” Red Hot Chilli Peppers “Soul to Squeeze.” Michael

Actually, just remembered that Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger” was a B-side. That’s my number one. Erickson

Please fill the comments with favourite B-sides and futile attempts to convince me that Manchester isn’t the world’s greatest musical city. (KM)