My top 40 double-sided 45 rpm singles
- Little Richard: Rip It Up/Ready Teddy
- Shirelles: Will You Love Me Tomorrow/Boys
- David Bowie: Rebel Rebel/Queen Bitch
- B52s: Rock Lobster/52 Girls
- New York Dolls: Showdown/Puss ‘n’ Boots
- Sly and the Family Stone: Stand!/I Want to Take You Higher
- Aretha Franklin: Respect/Dr. Feelgood
- Rolling Stones: Happy/All Down the Line
- The Clash: Tommy Gun/1-2 Crush on You
- Chuck Berry: Almost Grown/Little Queenie
- CCR: Green River/Commotion
- Otis Redding: Amen/Hard to Handle
- Grateful Dead: Truckin’/Ripple
- Sam Cooke: Having a Party/Bring It on Home to Me
- Neil Young: Four Strong Winds/Motorcycle Mama
- Beatles: Help!/I’m Down
- Ramones: She’s the One/I Wanna Be Sedated
- English Beat: Tears of a Clown/Ranking Full Stop
- Janis Joplin: Get It While You Can/Move Over
- The Who: My Generation/Out in the Street
- Prince: Let’s Go Crazy/Erotic City
- Monkees: I’m a Believer/Steppin’ Stone
- CCR: Have You Ever Seen the Rain/Hey Tonight
- Rod Stewart: Maggie May/Reason to Believe
- Chuck Berry: Sweet Little Sixteen/Reelin and Rockin
- Toots and the Maytals: In the Dark/Sailin’ On
- Buffalo Springfield: Bluebird/Mr. Soul
- Jimmy Cliff: You Can Get It if You Really Want/The Harder They Come
- CCR: Down on the Corner/Fortunate Son
- Beatles: Can’t Buy Me Love/You Can’t Do That
- Etta James: Tell Mama/I’d Rather Go Blind
- Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze/The Wind Cries Mary
- Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues/She Belongs to Me
- Jerry Lee Lewis: Great Balls of Fire/You Win Again
- Chuck Willis: What Am I Living For/Hang Up My Rock ‘n’ Roll Shoes
- Johnny Cash: Guess Things Happen That Way/Come in Stranger
- Buddy Holly: Oh Boy/Not Fade Away
- Allman Brothers: Melissa/Blue Sky
- Ray Charles: I Can’t Stop Loving You/Born to Lose
- Pretenders: Back on the Chain Gang/My City Was Gone
Catalog highlights: Four of these on the list contain my top two songs by that artist: the Little Richard, David Bowie, Jimmy Cliff and the Monkees. In two of those cases, the Richard and Bowie, the B-side is the clear favorite; in the other two, it’s a toss-up. Honorable mentions in this category include Ricky Nelson (Travelin’ Man b/w Hello Mary Lou), Carole King (It’s Too Late b/w I Feel the Earth Move), Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes b/w Honey Don’t), and solo George Harrison (My Sweet Lord b/w Isn’t It a Pity). Again, two of the flip sides are my dominant picks: the King and Harrison.
Specialists, honorable mentions: Several artists excelled in making these double-sided treasures routinely. The most under the radar were the New York Dolls, highlighted by personal fave Personality Crisis appearing as its own hit side (b/w Looking for a Kiss) as well as the B-side to Trash. Other notables are Bad Girl b/w Subway Train and Jet Boy b/w Vietnamese Baby.
As expected, given her can’t miss productivity during this period, almost every Aretha Franklin hit from 1967 through 1972 features a notable flip side. My top three choices after the knockout pairing of Respect and Dr. Feelgood are personal favorite Since You’ve Been Gone backed by Ain’t No Way, Rock Steady b/w Oh Me, Oh My, and Think/You Send Me.
Sly and the Family Stone didn’t waste a flip side during their heyday; honorable mentions include Everyday People (b/w Sing a Simple Song), Thank You Falettin’ Me Be Mice Elf (Everybody Is a Star), Hot Fun in the Summertime (Fun), and Family Affair (Luv and Haight).
Specialists, medal stand: The bronze goes to one of the pioneers. Two-sided hits were more common in Chuck Berry’s heyday, as Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly were among many who excelled in this area. Other than the two Chuck singles that made my 40, the most notable Berry 45 is the colossal combo of Johnny B. Goode/Around and Around. Two of the classics on my beloved St. Louis to Liverpool album both feature terrific B-sides as well: You Never Can Tell (Brenda Lee) and No Particular Place to Go (You Two). And that’s not even mentioning Memphis/Back in the U.S.A. and other two-sided winners.
In second place is the Beatles, who probably have more excellent 45s than anyone. The most famous are Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane and Hey Jude/Revolution, both outstanding. But I’m a middle Beatles guy, as exemplified by the Help! and Can’t Buy Me Love singles listed above, along with worthy runners-up Nowhere Man/What Goes On, I Feel Fine/She’s a Woman, and I’ll Cry Instead/I’m Happy Just to Dance with You. Just like with their early albums, there are occasional geographic differences, and as with the LPs, I prefer the British version: in this case, Things We Said Today as the B-side to A Hard Day’s Night in a close call over the American flip side I Should Have Known Better. Part of that is that Things We Said just feels like a great B, whereas Should Have Known feels like it should have been an A-side in its own right, maybe backed with Anytime at All or I’ll Be Back Again.
My number one double singles artist didn’t have as many stellar ones as the Beatles, but like fellow Bay Area titan Sly and the Family Stone, they made the most of their opportunities. Creedence Clearwater Revival is the only artist on my top 40 with three selections, and it could have been four: Lodi is my pick of their off-tempo pieces, but hit-side Bad Moon Rising, while perfectly classic, doesn’t quite get me the way Green River or Fortunate Son do. They’ve got some awesome also rans as well: Travelin’ Band/Who’ll Stop the Rain, Up Around the Bend/Run Through the Jungle, and most notably the concept 45 of Proud Mary b/w Born on the Bayou. Indeed, every one of their singles featured a song just about as great or in some cases even better on the flip side. Turns out the band that could do no wrong through their prolific peak also presented an under the radar masterclass on B-sides.
A lost art: It’s no surprise that this list skews old. In addition to my increasing lack of familiarity with 21st century music, the 45 was generally phased out toward the end of the eighties. Even before that, my preferred genres of punk and hip-hop were heavily leaning toward the 12-inch single, a different animal in many ways. So my only selections after 1979 are the Prince and the eked-in Pretenders, although the Husker Du covers came close. Prince did as well, repurposing my personal favorite When You Were Mine as the B-side of the follow-up album Controversy’s title track.
The rabbit hole: I was inspired to do this list after realizing fairly recently that my favorite Little Richard song Ready Teddy was actually the flip side of Rip It Up, a knockout in its own right. Otherwise, this effort is a throwback to a childhood 45 obsession refreshed and augmented by numerous Wikipedia searches. No doubt it will change as I become aware of other majestic single combinations. No doubt one of Bob Marley’s more than 100 singles would make the cut; ace A-side Get Up, Stand Up was a close call, omitted primarily because I prefer the flip side Slave Driver in its conceptually perfect position on the Catch a Fire LP.