I figured this would be an interesting thread since I'm listening to "Sawdust" by The Killers right now and think those guys delivered a great "in-between" album with a collection of b-sides from the two albums and a few new tracks and some unreleased material, yet it's actually a good album with very little filler. Made me wonder who else you guys think are in this vein where the songs that are wasted as b-sides and/or unreleased (but in the age of downloading, is anything truly unreleased?) are just as good as the official album tracks?

Others I can think of:
Prince
Tori Amos
Bjork
Dannii Minogue
Eurythmics/Annie Lennox

add others

Well, Im not sure about albums but, the flip side of the Creshendos "Oh Julie" , called "My Little Girl" is better than the A side in my opinion

Yeah, some people are even claiming that Sawdust is better than Sam's Town (which Brandon claimed to be the greatest record of the new century.) :\

I, for one, think that Gwen's The Sweet Escape is a better record than her solo debut. And that record is supposedly made up of several Love. Angel. Music. Baby. leftovers.

an older one that comes to mind, The Rolling Stones' Tattoo You. That album is generally regarded as the last great Stones album and the album every album since is instantly compared to. But a little known fact is that the album is in fact an "odds and ends" album of tracks from 1972-1980 that didn't make those albums, and yet it became one of their biggest sellers and gave them one of their signature songs ("Start Me Up"). Even tho it says something about the band when they try so hard and yet their albums generally suck nowadays while an album of rejects from previous albums was a huge #1 seller.

I wouldnt say that Shonen Knifes "Birds and the B-sides"* was better than most of their albums, but, its probably better than Strawberry Sound or Genki Shock

* B&Bss was a CD compilation of alternate takes and live perfomances by Shonen Knife

Almost any record by The Beatles or Elvis Presley. Back in the '50s and '60s,
when you bought a 45 rpm record you usually got your money's worth. Of
course, the music biz is totally different today. I guess no one buys singles
anymore when they can just download the music they want.

Almost any record by The Beatles or Elvis Presley. Back in the '50s and '60s,
when you bought a 45 rpm record you usually got your money's worth. Of
course, the music biz is totally different today. I guess no one buys singles
anymore when they can just download the music they want.
it's partially due to the greed of the record companies in the 90's when they saw single sales as eating into album sales, instead of just accepting some people are "singles artists", some people are "albums artists" and some can be both. They slowly phased out singles to the extent people stopped caring, and I think the industry is still suffering because of it, and it was a major factor into why downloading illegally became such a rage because there were so many one hit wonders out in the late 90's/early 00's that had one good song and nothing more but the labels insisted you drop $15 for a bunch of songs you'll never play more than once for the one good song... and then they blamed the consumer for choosing to download instead of wasting $15 when all they wanted was one track.

The Yardbirds. Definitely.

BEACH BOYS - Don't Worry Baby

RIGHTEOUS BROS. - Unchained Melody

I remember the first time I heard 17 Days. I liked it alot and thought it had a more commercial sound and should have been pushed as the single instead of the A side (When Doves Cry). I wouldn't say that now, especially since WDC became a huge hit, but back then that's what I thought. Some of Prince's best songs have been B sides.

I remember the first time I heard 17 Days. I liked it alot and thought it had a more commercial sound and should have been pushed as the single instead of the A side (When Doves Cry). I wouldn't say that now, especially since WDC became a huge hit, but back then that's what I thought. Some of Prince's best songs have been B sides.
17 Days never got airplay on it's own? That sucks. I know that Erotic City was a hit in it's own right even tho it was the b-side to Let's Go Crazy and not on the Purple Rain album.

A lot of Prince's b-sides would've been huge hits if they had been A-sides and on the studio albums. I think "She's Always In My Hair" would've been a better second single for Around The World In A Day than "Pop Life" was, and would've been a bigger hit, but instead it was relegated to backing "Raspberry Beret" up.

it's partially due to the greed of the record companies in the 90's when they saw single sales as eating into album sales, instead of just accepting some people are "singles artists", some people are "albums artists" and some can be both. They slowly phased out singles to the extent people stopped caring, and I think the industry is still suffering because of it, and it was a major factor into why downloading illegally became such a rage because there were so many one hit wonders out in the late 90's/early 00's that had one good song and nothing more but the labels insisted you drop $15 for a bunch of songs you'll never play more than once for the one good song... and then they blamed the consumer for choosing to download instead of wasting $15 when all they wanted was one track.
Wow, you make a great point there...one I never thought about....of course, as far as it goes, for me, the music itself just doesnt do anything for me, since about 1970 or so.

More on The Yardbirds:

B-sides: "Got to Hurry"* "Steeled Blues" "New York City Blues" "Puzzles"
*: There are two versions of this song.

Unreleased on album tracks**: "Someone to Love Pt. 1" (vocal mix) "Someone to Love Pt. 2" (inst. mix) "Jeff's Blues" "Pounds and Stomps"