Hidden, uncredited, on the B-side of Mercury Rev’s first CD single Car Wash Hair is Untitled, a 30-minute bad acid comedown of scathing guitar loops and low sine waves, soured by repeated screams of “I want to be inside you”. New blog: b-side.website/2025/03/31/un…

Performed at New York’s Baseball Hall of Fame on a bat-shaped guitar, Centerfield’s broad appeal put Creedence Clearwater Revival songwriter John Fogerty back in the game. Its riff-based homage helped A-side Rock And Roll Girls into the US charts, 40 years ago this month.

Released #OTD 60 years ago, Who’ll Be The Next In Line was a passive-aggressive tune about broken hearts. The nagging, nervous flip of Ev’rybody’s Gonna Be Happy, it continued the Kinks tradition for B-sides better than their A-sides (and later gained top billing in the US).

A game-changer that set the pop-disco template for the remainder of Hot Chocolate’s career, You Sexy Thing didn’t initially float the boat of super-producer Mickie Most. He made it B-side of Blue Night #OTD 50 years ago before having a change of heart.

North Carolina songwriter Ben Folds didn’t delete the expletives with his uninhibited piano take on Dr Dre’s Bitches Ain’t Shit, B-side of Landed. Released 20 years ago, it quickly became a live favourite. Wary of getting ‘cancelled’, Folds excised it from his sets in the 10s.

The greatest song of hope was initially given B-side status. A Change Is Gonna Come came to Sam Cooke fully-formed, following an altercation at a whites-only motel. That incident reprised itself with tragic consequences prior to its release, 60 years ago, on the flip of Shake.