In 1981, Kraftwerk were on a high. They had won friends and influenced people with their electronic sound, including David Bowie, and were revered. They had upgraded their sound. Computer World was sleek and smooth and, frankly, gorgeous. In a market packed with records paying homage to them, records like Soft Cell’s Tainted Love, Ultravox’s Vienna, Spandau Ballet’s Chant No. 1, Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough, Duran Duran’s Girls On Film, The Human League’s Love Action, Imagination’s Body Talk and, even, Laurie Anderson’s O Superman, they pitched their new single, Computer Love. It is a warm, gentle love song that sounded more modern, more futuristic and, yet, more human than any of the competition at the time. All those great singles seemed amateurish in comparison. No doubt, quietly confident of a smash, they sat back ready to light their cigar.
It stalled at number 36.
Then, some DJs noticed the B side, The Model, an old song from a three year old album, which was a long time in the Pop world of 1981. The record company decided to re-release the single but, this time, as a double A side. Kraftwerk objected. After all, The Model is jerky and primitive compared to Computer Love. They probably feared all that time and effort lavished on their lovely new album might go to waste.
Unfortunately for Computer Love, The Model chimed better with the times, a time when Margaret Thatcher was doing battle with Arthur Scargill. Its austerity was more appealing, with a little help from an ear-worm melody and an imaginative video, featuring vintage clips of fashion models. By February 1982 it was number one, Kraftwerk’s biggest hit.
Any more examples of an unexpected hit?
Wasn’t Maggie May one of these “promoted b-sides”? I think Bad Moon Rising might also be one…
I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor is another recovered b side.
It appears the boys learned their lesson: The Model was followed into the hit parade by reissued Showroom Dummies rather than putting out a cash in single such as Computer World from the then-current album.
‘Kung Fu Fighting’ is always my go-to reference in the flipped-single stakes.
I hate Kung Fu fighting. Always have & always will.
Complete & utter shite IMHO.
The proposed A side, I Want To Give You My Everything, is a Northern Soul classic.
http://youtu.be/WifOs7VG_3I
Now that is a tune!
The Guy who arranged Kung Fu Fighting was working as a copyist at the time, but was an aspiring arranger.
Someone came in to the office at the last minute needing an arrangement done immediately for this Kung Fu track.
Nobody else was available/interested so he got the gig.
Huge hit and suddenly he was a much in demand arranger.
Well it was a little but frightening…
But they did it with expert timing
( sorry, I’ll get me coat)
Showroom Dummies had been released in 1977 with Europe Endless as its B side. In 1982, Numbers from Computer World was the B side.
As I recall Maggie May was always a double A side. It was a long time after first hearing MM before I ever heard Reason To Believe played on the radio.
Early pressings of Maggie May show it as the B-Side. It seems DJs in America started playing it on air and demand took off, so that’s when they made it a nominal double A-Side.
Although I don’t recall much airplay for Reason To Believe my copy definitely showed it as side A with Maggie as Side B.
Here’s one I made earlier
http://i.imgur.com/l0sPxFS.jpg
Astonishing as it seems, I believe that this was recorded as a throwaway b-side….
They thought was better!
http://youtu.be/sfQgKcv7V-g
Behave Yourself
*this*
Well, to be fair, it’s hardly a dog. Some of those early Stax singles were pretty dire. Then, thank Goddess, they figured out who and what they were….
While we’re here. I always wondered, in the days before promo videos whether the A/B thing was just about indicating to radio stations which side to play. In other words, if Mull Of Kintyre is on the A side and my rap version of Orson Welles’ cuckoo clock speech is on the B side of the same single, do I get as much money as Macca for unit sales (allowing for the fact he will cream it for radio play) or is there an A side/B side wedge distribution ratio?
As I understand it this is precisely the case. Hence Roger Taylor’s personal joy with the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, what with him having written the b-side. I should watch out for that Orson Welles though – he’s extraordinarily litigious and you’ll probably find yourself up in court being stripped of even those royalties.
And a big mistake by Soft Cell, who put another cover version (Where did our love go?) on the B side of multi million selling Tainted Love.
Denny Laine co-wrote Mull Of Kintyre. That was actually a double A with Girls School but the bagpipes and the sentimentality made Mull catnip for punters in the run up to Christmas. Not in the US and Canada where Girls School fared better.
Mull Of Kintyre is still the best selling non-charity single in the UK.
And “allegedly” Laine got a straight payment for his writing share and subsequent royalties went to Sir Thumbs-a-loft
‘Allegedly’ indeed. I heard that Denny asked Paul to buy him out of his share. Denny was well paid in Wings. I believe £100k annual wage before royalties etc. Not bad for the seventies. Sadly, he blew his money. After Wings split, following Paul’s Japanese drug bust, Denny sold stories to the press and a biographer. Paul and Linda were not pleased. Still, he was soon broke again and that’s when the Mull Of Kintyre deal was struck.
All this is very alleged.
They would have been pissed off. I know someone who was part of the crew for the Japanese shows. They all got paid for the cancelled gigs on the condition that no one spoke to the press.
Yes, the writer of the B-side gets the same royalties as the writer of the A-side. This is brought into sharp focus in Mark Lewisohn’s book Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years.
It seems Norrie Paramor, the producer and label boss at Columbia records and George Martin’s main rival within EMI, was writing songs under pseudonyms and placing them on the B-sides of his artists hit records. This broke every rule in the book since Paramor received the same royalty as the writer of the A-side.
Martin blew the whistle on Paramor during an interview with David Frost, much to EMI’s embarrassment and displeasure. For a while it looked like Martin’s contract wouldn’t be renewed and he was, by way of atonement, dragged against his will into auditioning a new band from Liverpool. We all know what happened next.
That is a staggering fact. OK, it’s not so violently objectionable. But best selling ever in the UK?
Perfidious Albion!
Yes. I believe that’s right.
Bohemian Rhapsody had two separate runs at the chart and out-sold it in total. However, the second release was for charity.
1 SOMETHING ABOUT THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT/CANDLE IN THE WIND 97 ELTON JOHN 1997 4.9
2 DO THEY KNOW IT’S CHRISTMAS? BAND AID 1984 3.69
3 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY QUEEN 1975 2.36
4 MULL OF KINTYRE/GIRLS’ SCHOOL WINGS 1977 2
5 YOU’RE THE ONE THAT I WANT JOHN TRAVOLTA & OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN 1978 2
6 RIVERS OF BABYLON/BROWN GIRL IN THE RING BONEY M 1978 2
7 RELAX FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD 1983 2
8 SHE LOVES YOU THE BEATLES 1963 1.9
9 UNCHAINED MELODY/(THERE’LL BE BLUEBIRDS OVER) THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER ROBSON GREEN & JEROME FLYNN 1995 1.86
10 LOVE IS ALL AROUND WET WET WET 1994 1.85
11 MARY’S BOY CHILD/OH MY LORD BONEY M 1978 1.85
12 I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU STEVIE WONDER 1984 1.83
13 BARBIE GIRL AQUA 1997 1.79
14 ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE/EVERGREEN WILL YOUNG 2002 1.79
15 I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND THE BEATLES 1963 1.77
16 BELIEVE CHER 1998 1.74
17 (EVERYTHING I DO) I DO IT FOR YOU BRYAN ADAMS 1991 1.72
18 LAST CHRISTMAS/EVERYTHING SHE WANTS WHAM! 1984 1.6
19 IMAGINE JOHN LENNON 1975 1.6
20 SUMMER NIGHTS JOHN TRAVOLTA & OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN 1978 1.59
Some real shite there. Interestingly it’s showing Imagine as 1975. That is correct for the first UK release (it appeared in 1971 in the US and elsewhere) but 99% of those sales were for the 1980 post-killing re-release.
99%? Really?
The original 1975 UK release of Imagine got to no.6 in the singles charts, which was a pretty respectable position.
Maybe 99% is an exaggeration, but the 1980 re-release was certified 12 x platinum while the 1975 version didn’t even go gold, so let’s say 75% to 25%
One amusing thing about the UK pressing of Imagine was the inclusion of Working Class Hero as the B-Side, taken from the Plastic Ono Band LP.
It passed almost unnoticed in 1975, but following the Lennon shooting, every civilian record buyer in the land felt moved to buy a copy (as they always do when someone dies) and mums and dads everywhere were mortified to hear the “f” word several times in their suburban living rooms.
Assassinated Beatle or not, we don’t want that kind of language here, thank you very much indeed.
It even made talkback radio and I recall LBC in London taking irate calls from people who were offended by the potty mouthed Lennon.
I’m pretty sure Boney M scored very highly & almost doubled their sales
when some radio DJ or other decided to play Brown Girl In The Ring. the B side of the No. 1 Rivers Of Babylon ( the nation having had its fill of the latter). Loads of pop pickers went out & bought BGINR only realising later it was the other side of the single they’d already bought. Arf!
A song that wasn’t originally a single, but became a massive hit was Diana Ross’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
Tony Blackburn started playing the album track regularly on his Radio1 show and it started growing in popularity. Eventually Tamla Motown saw the light and released it as a single and it became a Top 10 hit for her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD99c3otHDA
A colleague of mine plays that song every day. She plans to have it played at her funeral. She adores Diana Ross and once faked cerebral palsy to get her autograph.
I prefer Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s version anyway.
Brain Eno was becoming frustrated with endless takes and overdubs and general faffing around, he was moments from erasing the whole tape “by accident”.
Daniel Lanois stepped in, and Where The Streets Have No Name became the opening track on The Joshua Tree
Such is the difference between mucking about in the studio hoping something “random” happens (Eno) and knowing what you’re doing (Lanois).
I remember Chris Welch from the Melody Maker being taken to task by a record company for reviewing the wrong side of a single. He said, in his defence, that “it was delivered that way up”
Class!
Frank Sinatra had a studio and a 46 piece orchestra booked and paid for. He decided to marry Mia Farrow instead.
Jerry Ragavoy stepped in. He had a song in mind for a smaller setting and quickly got his arranger to write charts for the 46 piece.
The result is has grown with me over the years and, now, I rank it in my top ten of all time. It was recorded in one take and the orchestra, although superb, is outclassed by the vocal.
See what you think.
Lorraine Ellison – Stay With Me
Oh yes, my Mum had the single. Absolute masterpiece.
The Stone Roses intended Fool’s Gold to be the B-Side to the very inferior What the World is Waiting For. It was people around the studio who persuaded them to flip the record.
Maybe not so serendipitous, but I seem to remember reading an article (maybe in The Word?) about the Rembrandts a few years ago. They’d built a bit of a buzz as a cool College Rock band, then one afternoon quickly dashed off a theme tune for a new sitcom that was launching. After that, being the band that did the Friends theme became the albatross that killed them as a credible act. The royalties must have been good though?
I remember that the charts of 1982/83 were a bit weird. I think it was Haircut 100 whose 2nd single (Love Plus One) entered at no 32 – it was duly on TOTP but then stayed at no. 32 in the next chart, making observers like me consider the Haircuts dumper-bound because normally a TOTP appearance propels a single upwards that very weekend. A week later, when they were not on the show, the single pinged up to the top 5.
Depeche Mode had a similar experience with one of their singles that stalled and then got some kind of second wind.
Strange chart movements happened a lot in 1982/3. Computer Love/The Model, IIRC, was travelling down the charts after peaking at No. 2 – before, without any real reason, it went to back up Number One, several weeks after The Model became the song played by wunnerful Radio 1. O Superman was a mysterious No 2 hit. I maintain that this was not bought by many people, an opinion based on the piles of unsold copies at my local Woolies.
New Order tell the story of performing Blue Monday on TOTP and the single going down. Amusing though this story is, this was not unheard of in them days.
These were the days of chart return shops – a selected group of record stores whose sales counted towards the chart. They sold some records at heavily discounted prices and gave away free T shirts and the like. Richer acts like Duran Duran had picture discs too. All very rum, if you ask me.
It was number two behind Bucks Fizz (Land Of Make Believe) and dropped to number three after Shakin’ Stevens hit the top spot with Oh Julie, a song for which I have absolutely no recollection. Finally, in its fifteenth week on the chart, The Model reached number one.
Least memorable number one for me is Mungo Jerry’s Baby Jump from 1971.
I couldn’t tell you how it went for a million dollars.
That’s strange. It’s my go-to Mungo Jerry song. It’s great, raucous fun. Try it.
http://youtu.be/HR2EcetnorQ
How extraordinary that should reach number one. I can only think it was carried aloft by the momentum generated by In The Summertime and charted on the strength of that.
There’s really no song there at all, just a generic 12-bar blues which chugs along pleasantly enough without going anywhere.
There were other simplistic examples around this time – Humble Pie’s Natural Born Boogie springs to mind. That one reached #4 in 1969, but it had a lot more character than Mungo Jerry’s effort.
You don’t hear anyone play In The Summertime any more. It’s because it appears to advocate drink driving.
In The Summertime was part of the short-lived jug band revival of 1970/71
See also The Pushbike Song by The Mixtures and, er, that’s it.
Other examples of non-songs becoming big hits around that time: Medicine Head’s <I<(And The) Pictures in the Sky and One and One Is One
Sorry, stuffed up the coding, that should read
Medicine Head’s (And The) Pictures in the Sky and One and One Is One
It was hardly momentum carrying Baby Jump to No 1.
In The Summertime entered the charts in June 1970. Mungo Jerry didn’t capitalise on this hit and waited some time with Baby Jump not released until February 1971.
It’s odd – I probably know (to hear) every chart topper from the mid-sixties up to at least the early noughties, but that one I don’t think I’ve ever heard before, though I was familiar with it by title (I even have it on a 70s compilation). It’s as if it’s raucousness killed it’s airplay. In fairness I was only 5 when it came out, but that didn’t prevent me from becoming aware of loads of chart hits from around the same time.
It’s alright (alright, alright), but I prefer “Dust Pneumonia Blues”, B-side to “In The Summertime”.
Not sure it was serendipity. But that Acker Bilk’s theme for a British TV show, Stranger on the shore, should go on to become a monster worldwide hit and be the first British record to top the US charts, was probably unexpected.
Would it have been such a hit if it had kept its original name, Jenny? (named after Acker’s daughter I believe)
See also Simon Park Orchestra – Eye Level, the theme to Van Der Valk. It was number one for four weeks.
Even more so in Eye Level’s case, as it was originally a music library track picked out to be the show theme as opposed to specially composed.
And for jazz pianist Vince Gauaraldi…
“Inspired by the 1959 French/Portuguese film Black Orpheus, Guaraldi hit the studio with a new trio — Monty Budwig on bass, Colin Bailey on drums — and recorded his own interpretations of the haunting soundtrack music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfa. The 1962 album was called Jazz Impression of Black Orpheus (Fantasy 8089), and “Samba de Orpheus” was the first selection released as a single. Combing the album for a suitable B-side number, Guaraldi’s producers finally ghettoized a modest original composition titled “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.”
Fortunately, an enterprising Sacramento, California DJ turned the single over…
…and the rest was history.
Buck Herring and Tony Bigg, program director and music director (respectively) at Sacramento’s KROY, began playing “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” every two hours. In Anatomy of a Hit, a San Francisco area-produced documentary made a few years later, Fantasy Records’ Saul Zaentz quite frankly credits them, and KROY, with helping transform “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” into a hit.
“Cast Your Fate to the Wind” earned a Gold Record and won the 1963 Grammy as Best Instrumental Jazz Composition. It was constantly demanded during Guaraldi’s club engagements, prompting interviewers to ask if the composer ever tired of his most famous composition. Guaraldi always shook his head, choosing instead to view such requests as an affirmation of his popularity: “It’s like signing your name to a check.”
(from http://fivecentsplease.org/dpb/pccbio.html)
Quite a story! I remember asking an American pal what his favourite piece of music was back in about 1973 and Caste your fate was his choice. I’d never heard of it.
Older and wiser now, I love the music that Vince did for the Charlie Brown Xmas cartoon. Wonderfully melancholic and absolutely in keeping with the film.
Here’s a quick one for the Deadheads out there – the connection between Vince Guaraldi and the Dead is?
Guaraldi is rumoured to have played a gig or two with the Dead in the Bay area in late 1970/early 71 (i.e. after the departure of Tom Constanten, and before the arrival of Keith Godcheaux).
He’s also on the back cover of Aoxomoxoa. He’s the one at the back, next to the horse. Not pictured on the back, despite her claims to the contrary, is Courtney Love…
A Charlie Brown Christmas is my absolute favourite album of holiday music. The film celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Both are an absolute delight from start to finish.
And yet it very nearly didn’t happen. Apparently the network viewed the finished product and were adamant that certain changes be made, otherwise it was going to be a runaway steaming flop…
– dump the real kids’ voices
– delete the bit where Linus explains what Christmas is all about
– install a laugh track
– get rid of that bloody jazz and put in some proper cartoon music
Thankfully Schultz et al stood firm.
Andrew Jackson Grant has a passage on this very topic in his book 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year In Music. I recommend it.
Did The Venerable Peel playing a song on his ever lead to it being a serendipitous hit?
DJs are often the unsung heroes in these stories. They fall in love with a tune and play it remorselessly until the penny drops with their audience.
There was a doc on SVT recently about Walking on Sunshine. A Canadian DJ really believed in the song and gave the band their first real break. It’s the Rumour’s horn section playing on it, by the way.
I’m sure Peel was the first to play many acts on the radio. But, how many actually bothered the charts as a result.
I think his persistence broke The Cure. He seemed to play Killing An Arab every night.
Hmm, wasn’t the Miner’s strike ’84? Was Thatch doing battle with Scargill for 3 years previously?
The battle raged from the moment she was elected. Scargill was constantly on the telly box complaining about her government in 1981 and 1982. In the meantime, the Tories were stockpiling coal, so that when the strike actually happened the impact on lighting and heating was minimal. They had learnt from what happened to Ted Heath. Thatcher didn’t care if the miners down-tooled for years. She knew she could outlast them. Scargill should have called the strike three years earlier.
Surely some of Peel’s protégés must have made some impression on the charts?
Or maybe not.
Teenage Kicks peaked at No 31. And that’s rather catchy.
BTW, the Lorraine Ellison track is absolutely gigantic.
@kaisfatdad unless I am missing something I am sure the list of John Peel protégés is very long indeed. The Cure have been mentioned, Siouxsie, Joy Division, Smiths, Echo and his Bunnymen, Pulp, The Fall (of course) and the first time I heard Half Man Half Biscuit was on his show. In fact, in my mind, I always hear Peel’s voice saying Half Man Half Biscuit when I hear those words.
The Misunderstood. They were a band Peel met during his time in America. They turned up on his doorstep in London in 1966 and John championed them until the day he died.
They never made it big, but Misunderstood members Glenn Ross Campbell went on to join Juicy Lucy, while Tony Hill formed progsters High Tide.
The list of wonderful Peel protegés is very long. Mr Celebration. But how many made an impact on the charts? The Fall and HMHB are out for starters. I would love to think that Joy Division Oven Glove had been a Xmas Number One, but that’s in an alternative universe that only Dr Who has access to.
But here’s an exception that proves the rule. In June 1973 Medicine Head, a decidedly Peelesque band, reached Number 3 and stayed in the charts for 13 weeks.
Funnily enough, Johnny C dissed that record higher up the thread. A jug band playing a non-song, he said.
On the plus side, the two man Medicine Head did have fabulous haircuts – and they had an LP titled Dark Side Of The Moon a year before Floyd.
Like this:
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/rr342/Music-man1980/AA-47.jpg
You mean girl’s hair!
Aw, dad!
Fabulous: tremendous, stupendous, prodigious, phenomenal
I prepared a little something for KFD’s Mster and Missus thread but he beat me to it. It fits here.
The Kings Of Rhythm ripped up a storm live. A young nursing assistant, Anna Mae Bullock, saw them perform and they were so good they put her in a trance. Soon, she was dating the saxophonist. During an intermission, the drummer gave her a microphone and she sang along. From then on, she became the official backing vocalist and went on tour as Little Anna.
Life gets complicated on the road. It wasn’t long before the band leader impregnated her even though he remained in a relationship with someone else.
One day, expensive studio time was booked and a song prepared for a new single. The lead vocalist, Art Lassiter, failed to show up, so a pregnant Anna was allowed to sing instead.
Now the world is very familiar with her rasping growl.
Ike & Tina Turner – A Fool In Love
The ‘relationship’ didn’t end well.
Nice one Tigger. What a story!
A bit of cross-fertilisation between threads going on here. Ike and Tina frenetically dashing backwards and forwards to appear on two in the same day.