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One 12 Inch, 4 Bangers…

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Scrabbling around on the floor of the local Age Concern looking for something suitable for this year’s #VinylSanta I came across a 12 inch single. Jet black with gold and white writing. It was ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” the other 3 tracks were”Lay All Your Love On Me”, “Eagle” and “The Day Before You Came “. Now this IS NOT another ABBA thread they need never be mentioned again. My challenge for this bleak Monday morning is to come up with your favourite all hits 12″. The Clash must have loads…

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  3. Having a quick flick through my collection I give you:

    2 killer tracks
    Rolling Stones – Miss You – extended disco version/Faraway Eyes
    Patti Smith – Gloria/My Generation

    3 killer tracks
    Dr Feelgood – Baby Jane/Looking Back/You Upset Me Baby
    Black Lace – Agadoo/Superman X Rated Version/Fiddlin – – Discusion point – 9 songwriters on these 3 tracks – were Black Lace pioneers of Max Martin/Adele/Ed Sheeran multiple songwriter approach.

    4 killers
    Birthday Party – Bad Seed ep
    Steely Dan – Do it Again/Dallas/Haitian Divorce/Sail the Waterway . Quote from the sleevenotes “If you know the work of Steely Dan you’ll agree that any four tracks from their sic ABC/Anchor albums would make a great E.P. – are you up for the challenge Afterword pop pickers?

    5 killers
    Cramps- Gravest Hits
    Pere Ubu – Datapanik in the Year Zero

    I wasn’t sure if these last two strayed into mini-LP territory but both play at 45 rpm which I reckon qualifies them.

    • Those Dan sleevenotes are carelessly inaccurate! Dallas isn’t actually on any album of theirs; as far as I know it only turns up on the Probe sampler LP called ‘Free Spirit’.

      • Sleevenotes in full with original punctuation. I find them quite funny. Unintentionally they seem to reach Fagenesque levels of ironic snark

        “Since 1972 when producer Gary Katz brought WB and DF to ABC records as staff writers, the phenomena of Steely Dan has grown beyond all expectations. Today they are regarded by most as the masters of lyrical and music creativity, combining commercialism with style better than anyone else.

        In 1974 Steely Dan played as an 8-piece in London. Since then Becker and Fagen have returned only once to promote their great L.P. ‘ROYAL SCAM’

        At the time of their third L.P. ‘ ‘PRETZEL LOGIC’ Becker & Fagen began to go away from a band format and moved towards working with America’s finest session musiciaons like Larry Carlton, Rick Derringer, Elliot Randall and Jeff Pocaro who was one of a pair of drummers who toured England with Steely Dan in 1974.

        When they find the time to tour again, I hope that they perform the tracks of this E.P. It includes two marvellous chart successes – ‘DO IT AGAIN’ and ‘HAITIAN DIVORCE’ and two tracks ‘DALLAS’ and ‘SAIL THE WATERWAY’ which were recorded in 1972 but never included on any Steely Dan L. P. and therefore collector’s items.

        If you know the work of Steely Dan you’ll agree that any four tracks from their six ABC/Anchor albums would make a great E.P. – If you are new to them – you don’t know what you are missing!

    • The Birthday Party’s Mutiny! EP, which came out a few months after The Bad Seed mentioned above by @Stan Deely, was an absolute belter too.

      My favourite though is Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit, Holger Czukay’s ‎How Much Are They?

  6. I’ll have a look tonight but off the top of me head

    Happy Mondays Hallelujah b/w Rave On is pretty good.
    Suede – Stay Together non-album epic 12″
    and Echo and the Bunnymen who always did a great 12″ – Never Stop Discoteque, Killing Moon and Silver all great 12″ extended versions.

    I realise they are not ‘all hits’ but all have excellent all round twelve-inchness.

  7. One 12 inch with four bangers?

    There’s one absolutely obvious champ here from The Lovin’ Spoonful, gathering together across two 45 rpm sides on a slab of unequalled vinyl joy the following teenage symphonies:

    Daydream/Do You Believe In Magic/Summer In The City/Nashville Cats

    Four stone cold solid gold absolute pop bangers from the motherlode of one of the most overlooked pop bands of all time.

    https://www.discogs.com/release/466103-The-Lovin-Spoonful-Daydream

  9. One immediate candidate that springs to mind is DJ Shadow’s 1995 EP “What Does Your Soul Look Like?” Parts I – IV. “Bangers” doesn’t even begin to describe this glorious musical epiphany which opened up the whole “trip hop” (ugh, hate that term) genre for me in the mid 90s.

  10. My favourite 12” single is Rebel Without a Pause by Public Enemy. I think it’s their peak, right between their first two albums. Anyway, you get Rebel (vocal plus instrumental), Sophisticated Bitch and Terminator X Speaks With His Hands.

    Soul, rock & roll, coming like a rhino!

    • …. respectfully disagree. It’s You’re Gonna Get Yours for me -which also features Miuzi, a bonkers remix of Yours and the first appearance of Rebel.

      I do like the Baseheads/Edge of Panic 12″ too – four mind-melting remixes larded with a cacophony of squiggly noises. Schmoooove it ain’t.

      • Ooh you might be right, but then again I never owned that 12″ so it can’t be my favourite 12″ so it turns out I’m right after all.

        Actually I think we’re both right. After all, the real losers here are the folks who dont have early PE 12ers. And it is Xmas.

  11. Into Battle with The Art Of Noise has got to be mentioned on this thread. 9 tracks of mind blowing brilliance. The 10+ minute Moments In Love is worth the price of admission alone.

    ZTT were the masters of the 12″ 1983-1985ish.

  12. Well Was (not was) had a wonderful 12″ of Out come the Freaks with about 5 completely different versions – all very good.
    Which is more than can be said for about 50 versions of the Beatles Two of us which I have heard on the Get Back documentary. It is one of my favourite Beatles songs but the alternatives are pretty lame.

  13. I have mentioned before that yer Mode delivered great VFM. This was a numbered release and must be worth, ooh, at least 5 quid now.

    L12″: Mute/L12Bong4 (UK)

    Side one – “Love, in Itself • 2″ (Original 7 Inch Mix) – 4:18

    Side Two
    “Just Can’t Get Enough” (live)1 – 5:35
    “A Photograph of You” (live)1 – 3:21
    “Shout!” (live)1 – 4:39
    “Photographic” (live)1 – 3:56

  15. All hits? Not sure about that, but all bangers – absolutely – how about 18 different versions of Confusion by New Order? Not all on one 12″, admittedly, but all share a musical genome, expressed in diverse ways. I have the (1 star) UK 12″. I would love to have the (2 star) US 12″.
    *”Confusion”
    *”Confused Beats”
    *”Confusion Instrumental”
    *”Confusion” (Rough Mix)
    **”Confusion” (Alternative Mix)
    **”Confusion” (Essential Mix)
    **”Confusion” (Trip 1-Ambient Confusion)
    **”Confusion” (a cappella)
    **”Confusion” (Koma and Bones Edit)
    **”Confusion” (Ooh-Wee Dub)
    “Confusion” (Acid House Mix)
    “Confusion” (Arthur Baker 2002 Edit)
    “Confusion” (Asto Dazed Edit)
    “Confusion” (Con-om-fus-ars-ion Mix)
    “Confusion” (Electroclash Edit)
    “Confusion” (Outputs Nu-Rocktro Edit)
    “Confusion” (Pump Panel Flotation Mix)
    “Confusion” (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix)

    • I’m sure I can ‘help’ if you really need, though I have CDs rather than twelves. To be fair, the remixes were released in 2002 and 2016.

      If you really want to inflict aural torture, I have a promo CD containing well over an hour of remixes of Guilt Is A Useless Emotion, which was an awful ‘tune’ to begin with. Or there’s the recent CD single featuring 13 versions of the dreadful ‘Be A Rebel’.

      • Are you a masochist? I kind of stopped with New Order after Substance – everything since then has seemed like a pale imitation of the Holy Trinity – Perfect Kiss/SubCulture/Bizarre Love Triangle.

        Listening to the 2 songs you reference now, Be A Rebel is indeed dreadful, but Guilt Is A Useless Emotion isn’t terrible – maybe enhanced by the dancers – seems like a very New Order video as per True Faith. Not enough of Hooky’s bass in this version – any of your hour put the bass more in your face?

        • I have only a passing interest in anything beyond Republic. To be honest, anything beyond the Regret single. My Holy Trinity would be – elitist altert – much earlier.

          Anyhow, I have amassed most of the post-Regret UK CD singles second-hand for pennies, over time. And my pal Adam, a full-blown NO completist, lets me (ahem) borrow things for research purposes. My research concludes you’re not missing much.

          As for Guilt… I’ve never played more than 30 seconds of any of the *eight* doof-doof remixes on the nine-track promo single. Warners prepared artwork (featuring a nice bunny rabbit) for a 6-track consumer CD & download single, featuring the album version and five best [sic] remixes before, presumably, losing the will to live.

  16. Creation were good at giving 4 bangers on an EP, albeit they were only hits in the indie chart sense. The first 2 EPs by Ride, “Ride” and “Play,” were the best thing they ever did. Also MBV’s “Glider” and “Tremolo.”

  17. I may have missed it, but has no-one mentioned Poguetry In Motion? I remember finding both the first two Pogues albums a bit of a curate’s egg, but I thought this was when they came of age and the next two albums were better thanks to this new confidence.
    A House have been mentioned. They did a few 4 track EPs; Doodle was, IMO, worthy of this thread.:

  19. 10″ EP, and only 3 tracks – but a fine thing.
    Headgirl – St Valentines Day Massacre

    1. Lemmy and Kelly Johnson duet on Please Don’t Touch
    2. Girlschool have a crack at Motorhead’s Bomber
    3. Motorhead return the favour by covering Emergency

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