Ready for a brain cell workout? How many flipsides can YOU recall?
While driving down the road the other day and listening to The Animals' Animalisms, the song "Cheating" came on. I hadn't heard that tune since I played it on a portable record player about 1970.
What I vividly remember is that "Cheating" was the flip side of my favorite song as a child: "House of the Rising Sun."
A seven-year-old kid was likely to play both sides of a record that his older brother only heard on the hit side. Such is the nature of a seven-year-old. Curiosity is high, a sense of what song is hot has not yet developed.
Add that to a slightly-better-than-normal memory and you get factoids like the Beatles' "Thank You Girl" was backed by "Do You Want to Know a Secret."
Those records, that red-plaid colored record player, and I spent many a rainy afternoon in my room. Thus, I can state, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the flipside of Freddie and the Dreamers' "I'm Telling You Now" is a forgettable (not to me, of course) ditty called "What Have I Done to You."
Record companies have long put less-than-marketable-as-singles on the flipsides of 45's. Once in a while, a release like Hey Jude, backed with Revolution would sneak out, but by and large, the flipsides are thrown in as a freebie that the consumer would never buy on its own merit.
Now, of course, the flipside is a thing of the past, as 45's, while not extinct (thanks in large part to the jukebox industry), are certainly not available all over town like they once were.
Thus, today's kids are growing up without knowledge of trivial facts like Sgt. Barry Sadler's "Ballad of the Green Berets" was backed with something called "Letter from Vietnam."
A kid would enjoy the lesser-renowned tunes. "Hungry", by Paul Revere and the Raiders, was a great song, but then again so was "There She Goes." Crispian St. Peters' "Pied Piper" was a hit, but "Sweet Dawn, My true Love," the flip, would have been one too, had seven-year-olds determined the charts.
In 1972, I made a very regrettable mistake. I bought my first 45. Such an occasion should be marked by joyous memories of walking out of the Gibson's Discount Store with a classic. American Pie? Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress? Rick Nelson's Garden Party?
I bought the Osmond's "Down by the Lazy River." Oh, the shame.
By the way, the flipside was called "He's the Light of the World."
So now, readers, it's your turn. Dig deep in those memory banks and post your own flipside songs that you probably hadn't thought about in thirty or more years.
AAARGH! I have forgotten one. For the life of me, the flipside of Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter by Herman's Hermits has escaped from my memory banks. Can anyone help me out?
Comments (6)
Lucky you...you were 8 and not in the draft...
What would you had done if you were graduating from high school then...would you had fought in war that no on should have gone to?
Southern smiles and world peace,
Sharon
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
Posted by Sharon/The Baby Boomer Queen | November 19, 2008 9:17 PM
Posted on November 19, 2008 21:17
"I Gotta Dream On" according to http://www.hermanshermits.com/discography/45s/index.html
Posted by textechgeek | November 20, 2008 11:47 AM
Posted on November 20, 2008 11:47
Thanks, textechgeek. That was one of my favorite songs! I can't believe I forgot that.
Posted by Ron Enderland | November 20, 2008 5:06 PM
Posted on November 20, 2008 17:06
I was born in 1951. I had one sibling, a brother who was 14 years older than I. So at a very early age I was taught how to play his 45s on the wonderful portable 45 player. We had an older cousin who was office manager at the local radio station. In those days they regularly were flooded with demo copies of songs on 45s. She was allowed to obtain them and would give them to my brother. Some of those 45s turned into hits, but there were many by fledgling groups that did not ever make it. Nevertheless, all of those were so wonderful to a little kid like me. I would not know which side was the one that was supposed to have been promoted. Like you, I played both sides indiscriminately. When brother went to college, those 45s became mine. They were kept in a couple of orange crates (yes, real crates, made of real wood, circa 1940s). Sadly, in 1982, an Ex- made off with them. I still miss those 45s and all the colorful labels. Some of the popular tunes we had on 45s, I have been able to track down as mp3s. Nice for nostalgic listening, but that invisible digital data lurking around somewhere on my hard drive will never be the same as handling a good ol' vinyl 45!
Here are two titles that swim to mind at the moment:
Shake, Rattle and Roll
The Nutty Lady of Shady Lane
Posted by NCeddie | November 23, 2008 2:40 AM
Posted on November 23, 2008 02:40
Do you remember the flip side of Jackie Deshannon's
"What the World Needs Now"??
Give up? The song was "I
Remember the Boy".
By the way - I personally find it more satisfying than the A-side.
The strange part -- I cannot find that song on anything else that Jackie Deshannon recorded.
Posted by Ron/Mountain Man | December 29, 2008 8:37 AM
Posted on December 29, 2008 08:37
Well, as I recall, the Beatles were the exception in that they often put 2 good hits on a 45. I can’t always recall what they were but my brother and I accumulated stuff from 2 aunts and a babysitter who lived with us for 6 or 7 weeks, maybe. I recall “If I Fell, which might have had “And I love Her” on the back. Don’t Let Me Down had Old Brown Shoe on the back which I liked better. We had a number of the Capitol orange and yellow labeled Beatle Hits.
I also recall Alice Cooper’s Schools Out. The 45 version ended with the sound sort of resembling a jet with echo. But on the LP version, the same sound grinds to a halt. And on the flip side of the 45 was a song, Gutter Cat, which is a very good song in its own rite!
I bought a lot of oldies in the 80s, which do often put 2 hits back to back. I mostly bought albums in the 70s after School’s Out. I do think our generation was very lucky to have such an abundance of great music to enjoy, with good players of various media. Music was such a common experience of our time and treasured by me.
Posted by Scott Irv | June 2, 2009 11:02 PM
Posted on June 2, 2009 23:02