Favorite Demo and B-Side Recordings

My personal choice for best demos ever would have to be two particular tracks off the Girlysound demos for Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville. Exile in Guyville is easily one of 5 favorite albums ever, but I think the demo for Fuck and Run is even better than the album version. The last verse at the end of the demo is really devastating and it makes the song even sadder. But what ultimately makes the song better is the fact that it's just Liz and her guitar, which gives the song a lonelier feel. Her demo for Divorce Song manages to be more soulful than the album version.

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Back in the 80s, Duran Duran had a lot of great b-sides that never made it on albums... among them, "Late Bar" and "Secret October". Both are very good songs.

Good choice R2, I need to check those songs out. I just forgot that one of the greatest demo/b-side albums I've heard is Sci-Fi Lullabies by Suede. Many of their b-sides are better than what ended up on their albums. For instance, "This World Needs a Father" and "My Dark Star".

I meant R3, not R2

Mariah Carey had a song called "Slipping Away" that was on the b-side of the Always Be My Baby single. This song should have made it on Daydream. Great thumping beat to blast out of the car on a nice day.

R6, that song is great. It has a definite mid-90's sound, but is it weird that I can also sort of imagine it on her Emancipation of Mimi album too?

Prince's "Erotic City," the B-side to "Let's Go Crazy" from the "Purple Rain" soundtrack.

The acoustic version of "F.N.T." by Semisonic

Pet Shop Boys deserve to own this thread. So many great B-sides, some of which were better than the A-sides.

BUmp

Liquid Love by Madonna

Kate Bush, Under the Ivy, B-side of Running Up that Hill

This demo of Man-Size by PJ Harvey has a sound between the more intimate 4-track Demos and the aggressive, polarizing sound of the Rid of Me album. I like it as much as the Rid of Me version.

"What is the chance of that?" By Amy Grant. She recorded it for her Behind the Eyes album but it wasn't included. It's one of my favorites...different style for her.

I love Sci Fi Lullabies, OP. I was just going to post about that. PJ Harvey's 4 Track Demos is very good, too.

Madonna's "Wash All Over Me" sounds like a hit single here in demo form. On the CD, it's a draggy ballad. Ruined by fucking Kanye, I think. Part of her problem these days; who is she listening to?

'I Am The Walrus' was the B-side to 'Hello Goodbye'

What do I win?

"Cuban Slide", b-side to "Talk of the Town"

Courtney's America's Sweetheart demo album was amazing, the finished product not so much. Ditto for Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine (the version produced by the great Jon Brion)

"Nightmare Girl" by Aimee Mann

Yellow Submarine was the flip side of Eleanor Rigby

"Hey, Hey, What Can I Do?", b-side of "Immigrant Song". Recorded during the Led Zeppelin III sessions (1970), it didn't make the cut onto the album, and faded into obscurity, until the release of Zeppelin's first cd box set, in 1990.

R15, Sci-Fi Lullabies is so good, it's a pity that many of those songs were never released as A-sides. I really like 4-track demos for the new songs PJ Harvey put on there, but the ones from Rid of Me sound better on that album, I think. On 4-track demos, they lose their power.

R16, why would she ruin that song with Kanye? It sounds great in demo form.

"Shameless", B-side to "Go West"

"Dreamlike State" by Erasure (B-side to "Star")

"Gentle on My Mind" was only supposed to be a demo but the suits liked it the way it was and released it.

PJ Harvey's 4-track demos are brilliant.

I only just heard Martin Gore's demos for Depeche Mode's songs. Given that his voice is ten times better than Dave Gahan's, and the music is stripped back, I really like them (or live acoustic versions).

R27, have you ever seen Depeche Mode live? I've heard some of their live stuff and they sound really off-key most of the time. New Order isn't much better (and I'm a fan of both groups).

Seconding Kate Bush's "Under the Ivy".

For the first half of her career, Tori Amos was essentially the Queen of B-sides. In the later years, she just started shoving practically every song she'd recorded recently onto one disc and ending up with incoherent albums with a minimum of 18 tracks. "Flying Dutchman" is probably my favourite B-side of hers.

Jason Donovan's "Too Many Broken Hearts" was a #1 smash every where in the world except the U.S.; I always though they should've released the B-side, "Wrap My Arms Around You," instead; it certainly would've gone top ten on the AC chart.

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Bad mixing aside, Across the Sky is one of the best songs Madonna has done in the last 15 years. It was from the Hard Candy sessions.

"Love Won't Wait" by Madonna. Done for a post-Erotica album with Shep Pettibone. But she abandoned it to do Bedtime Stories. Love it. Even as a demo her vocal is better than any of the autotune crap she's been doing since Music.

Love Won't Wait, that's another gem she threw away.

The dance demo of Rebel Heart was much better than the final product.

What's wrong with her? The throws away these great songs then probably wonders why she doesn't sell anymore.

R33, maybe her management convinces her to bring on the current batch of stars on her albums in a shitty effort to sell albums, but it clearly isn't working. She should stick to her own instincts.

R32, I can't imagine that song fitting on any of the albums she released although it is a good song.

"Can't Stop A Heartbeat" by Tiffany. Another career ruined by making her record and release shitty songs. This was the B-side to Radio Romance...a truly vile piece of Kidz Bop trash...while this wasn't even on the album. But I wore this cassette single out!

The lyrics are all about forbidden love and her boyfriend being arrested. There's even police sirens in the background. A bit cheesy...but I loved it!

"They can tear us apart, send you away, but they can't stop my heartbeat."

You people have shitty mall taste.

TIFFANY for fuck's sake?

Madonna is long LONG overdue a mega box set with all of these B sides and slick demos. I'm ready. Spare no expense.

R36 is a Debbie Gibson fan.

OK Sherman, we're in the wayback machine now and listening to the Beach Boys' "In My Room", a B side of ??? (what I no longer remember) In My Room was the side to which I listened; over and over.

Datalounge, home of hetero-normative B-sides (giving R22 the stinkeye)!

How about late, gay bluesman Long John Baldry's 'Flying'? (A side: 'Rock Me When He's Gone'). It's wonderful.

This one is more personal than sexy celebrity stuff but I really am curious: One of my favorite women I ever met, not just in the L.A. years but in my life, worked as an assistant to some related department at HBO when we were doing that anthology show and (the celebrity part) was the wife of a cast alumnus from "SNL" which put her on the inside of that world too. This woman was so beautiful, though she absolutely didn't play on that, and just such a perfect human being that men and women alike, everyone in the office, adored her. Our social circles crossed somehow for a while there, beyond the HBO office, and I remember her being at a baby shower for a girl in the office even. Have no idea how to do it but I'd love to know what she is doing now, if she is still married to "SNL" cutie, all of it... and maybe this is the place to start (if anyone in the know can chime in, maybe without obvious names, ha). If she's reading this somehow, please let me know.

By the way, Herbert had a longtime Executive Secretary, truly more than a secretary, a woman named Eve that I also adored -- and we became friends/professional allies, stayed in touch for at least 15 years after. I need to get in touch again, want to see if she has some of our paperwork from that period, etc. And I bet she has amazing stories of her own; she'd be the one who dealt with Ms. Radziwill every day. And she stayed on with him long after I had left, maybe even to his death. So I think I'll write her a letter to the old address I have and invite her back into our world here. Man, the memories all this is jogging...

sorry, big time wrong thread, damn... ignore.

Fleetwood Mac's "Silver Springs" owns this thread

I love Carole King's demo of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" - more bite than the Monkees version.

The Smiths - "How Soon Is Now" was originally a B Side.

"I Will Survive" Gloria Gaynor.

"One of disco’s iconic feminist anthems, 'I Will Survive' was originally released as the B-Side to a cover version of the Righteous Brothers song 'Substitute.' When DJs started playing B-Side instead, Gaynor’s label quickly pressed new copies of the single with 'I Will Survive' as the A-side."

Another B-side that got flipped to A due to popular demand and ended up hitting #1 on Billboard's Hot 100:

Bobbie Gentry had interesting B sides on her hits, but hell, her whole catalog is intriguing and great.

My favorite is Sweet Peony (A side: Hushabye Mountain).

An extreme obscurity from Linda Ronstadt. A-side: Long Way Around.

Madonna's "Vogue" was originally intended to be released as a B-side.

"Ask Any Girl" by The Supremes

Gutter Cat is the B-side to School's Out by Alice Cooper.

Smoking Room /A - side: Tell Me Something Good ~ Rufus

Amen, Brother/A-side: Choice of Colors ~ The Winstons

Those are the ones off the top of my head.

The Everly Brothers - "Devoted to You" was originally the B-Side to "Bird Dog"

Bump

You and I Part One - Fleetwood Mac

Lindsey Buckingham sounds so fucking sexy on it.

Siouxsie and the Banshees have so many B-sides that one of their last official releases was a compilation box set called Downside Up.

There are so many gems that it's difficult for me to choose. In the end I pick the wonderful El Dia De Los Muertos

Pet Shop Boys - Sexy Northener

My absolute favorite B side of all time is Led Zeppelin's "Hey hey what can I do?" which was the B side of "The Immigrant Song."

Donna Summer - Sometimes Like Butterflies. It was the B-side to Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger).

Just in case this thread isn't dead yet.

R50 To what?