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Rare Songs/B-Sides?

Dan

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Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if Michael had many B-Sides or rare tracks. I mean tracks that were officially released but people often forget about or forget were released. I'm not talking about tracks on the Ultimate Collection and albums like that. I have a list below but I wonder if there were anymore?

On the Line

Shout

Mind is the Magic

Streetwalker

Someone Put Your Hand Out

Someone in the Dark



Thanks,


~Dan~
 
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Can''t Get Outta The Rain (b-side to tgim & bj)
Come Together [unedited full version] (b-side to RTT)




there also some Jacksons rarities (w/o MJ):

Keep Her (b-side to 2300 Jackson Street)
When I Look At You (b-side to 2300 Jackson Street)
Please Come Back To Me (b-side to Nothin)
 
When Will I Grow Up (with Roberta Flack) [Free To Be... You And Me Soundtrack]

 
Jackson 5
Sugar Daddy / I'm So Happy [non album single]
Medley: Mama's Pearl / Walk On By / The Love You Save [Diana! Original TV Soundtrack]
Medley: I'll Be There / Feelin' Alright (with Diana Ross) [Diana! Original TV Soundtrack]
Love Song [B-side of Lookin' Through The Windows]
The Jackson 5 Talk & Sing Personally To Valentine Readers [flexi disc in a magazine]
What's Your Game? / Runnin' And Pushin' [M-D-L-T Willis single] The brothers wrote, produced, and played on these songs
I Wanna Be Where You Are [Save The Children Soundtrack]
Hum Along And Dance (15 minute version) [CD reissue of Joyful Jukebox Music / Boogie]

The brothers sing background on a few of the songs on Jackie's 1973 solo album. They're also on some songs on Jermaine's 1st & 2nd solo albums. Also some of the earlier J5 singles were released in mono.

The Jacksons
Surprise Song [fan club 45]
What's It All About? [B-side of interview disc, other side is Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis interview]
Time Out For The Burglar [Burglar Soundtrack] Mike & Marlon isn't on this song. I don't think Jermaine is either, not sure.
 
DuranDuran said:
Jackson 5
Sugar Daddy / I'm So Happy [non album single]
Click to expand...

Both songs are available as bonus tracks on the 2on1-compilation of Third Album & Maybe Tomorrow (mono mixes) as well as on MJ&J5-The Motown Years (stereo mixes).
 
Fuzball said:
Both songs are available as bonus tracks on the 2on1-compilation of Third Album & Maybe Tomorrow (mono mixes) as well as on MJ&J5-The Motown Years (stereo mixes).
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They're also on one of the Complete Motown Singles box sets. But those are not J5 only. Each box set goes by year and has every single (A & B side) Motown released in that year from 1959 up to 1972.
 
Dan said:
Hi everyone,
I was just wondering if Michael had many B-Sides or rare tracks. I mean tracks that were officially released but people often forget about or forget were released. I'm not talking about tracks on the Ultimate Collection and albums like that. I have a list below but I wonder if there were anymore?

On the Line
Shout
Mind is the Magic
Streetwalker
Someone Put Your Hand Out
Someone in the Dark

Thanks,


~Dan~
Click to expand...

Besides the ones already mentioned in this topic I can only think of "The Girl Is Mine" solo version as beeing rare on CDS.
To my knowledge this one is only available on a CDS version from 2008 but cant remember from what country at the moment.
Also some songs is only available on certain compilations from certain countries.....Carusel (complete version) and Got The Hots comes to mind.
They are included on some King Of Pop cd compilations around the world.I had to import it as they werent on my country edition of the double cd.
 
They weren't commercially released to buy, but the cereal jingles the Jackson 5 did for Alpha-Bits & Sugar Crisp commercials.

On a related note Barry Manilow wrote & sang songs for commercials early in his career and he used to sing some of them in a medley in his concerts when he became popular as a recording artist.
 
I was wanting to revisit this and here is a list I made (strictly b-sides):

I Can’t Help It
Workin’ Day and Night
Get On The Floor
It’s The Falling In Love
Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough
Can’t Get Outta The Rain
Baby Be Mine
Human Nature
Girlfriend
Don’t Be Messin Round
She’s Out Of My Life
Thriller
Beat It
Bad
Man In The Mirror
Dirty Diana
Smooth Criminal
Come Together
She Drives Me Wild
Scream Louder (Flyte Tyme Remix)
Streetwalker
 
As we can see, there are hardly any. Which is a shame, because that's the main reason people waste endless hours begging on message boards for "anniversary albums'' 20 years later.

I think if MJ had released proper B-sides, he would have had a lot more number ones, because otherwise, there's not much reason for a fan actually to buy the single.

This especially holds for the UK - where if MJ had released B-sides, you can guarantee that every single would have got to number one (no hyperbole, that can and does happen routinely over here).
 
R1chard said:
As we can see, there are hardly any. Which is a shame, because that's the main reason people waste endless hours begging on message boards for "anniversary albums'' 20 years later.

I think if MJ had released proper B-sides, he would have had a lot more number ones, because otherwise, there's not much reason for a fan actually to buy the single.

This especially holds for the UK - where if MJ had released B-sides, you can guarantee that every single would have got to number one (no hyperbole, that can and does happen routinely over here).
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Cry had Streetwalker and Shout.
It only peaked at #25 in the UK.
I wonder why.
 
I personally would have thrown the likes of nite line, she’s trouble, scared of the moon etc on B sides
 
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Hess said:
Now maybe I am just ignorant - But does anyone buy or not buy a single because of the cover design?
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The cover design of a single plays a big role because many people buy a specific single because of its nice cover design in order to put it on a certain place of their house as a way of decoration.
R1chard said:
As we can see, there are hardly any. Which is a shame, because that's the main reason people waste endless hours begging on message boards for "anniversary albums'' 20 years later.

I think if MJ had released proper B-sides, he would have had a lot more number ones, because otherwise, there's not much reason for a fan actually to buy the single.

This especially holds for the UK - where if MJ had released B-sides, you can guarantee that every single would have got to number one (no hyperbole, that can and does happen routinely over here).
Click to expand...
One of the main reasons of B-sides generally is also to offer a lesser known song in order for the listeners to delve deeper into the artist's music beyond the artist's big hits/number ones.

Such as, 'Shout' which is a B-side song apparently because it is a rather unconventional song of Michael Jackson (due to his vocal delivery).
 
Hot_Street said:
Cry had Streetwalker and Shout.
It only peaked at #25 in the UK.
I wonder why.
Click to expand...
Um... Because it was a terrible song, with a terrible video, that nobody knew about, from an artist that had fallen out of fashion.

My point stands. If MJ had done B-sides, then every single from Bad, Dangerous and History would have got to number one in the UK and several other countries.

It's literally the only reason people bought singles from bands like Oasis, Foo Fighters, Radiohead...

The MJ singles did well, but they lacked something extra to get them to number one. An unreleased song or 3 per single would have worked wonders. And by 1997 you needed a CD-ROM video as well.

Hess said:
Now maybe I am just ignorant - But does anyone buy or not buy a single because of the cover design?
Click to expand...
No. They don't... Just like they don't buy an album for this reason.

mj_frenzy said:
One of the main reasons of B-sides generally is also to offer a lesser known song in order for the listeners to delve deeper into the artist's music beyond the artist's big hits/number ones.
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It's just a case of offering value. A lot of people would pick up a single like Jam, see it has 4 versions of the same song, and put it straight back down. Same thing if it's just got the album version of Girlfriend.

On the other hand, if you had an unreleased song like Carousel, Price of Fame, Al Capone or Sunset Driver, every time a new single came out, you'd suddenly find that every MJ fan was buying every CD single.
 
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mj_frenzy said:
The cover design of a single plays a big role because many people buy a specific single because of its nice cover design in order to put it on a certain place of their house as a way of decoration.
Click to expand...
But many singles did not have artwork at all, they just came in a plain sleeve. Especially with smaller indie labels. Artwork is an expense, the label had to hire a designer, artist (illustrator or painter), or photographer. Also, most people didn't use record covers as decorations. What if they bought a cassette single when those came out in the late 1980s? That's too small. 😄 A lot of people didn't buy records, they recorded the songs they like off the radio onto a cassette.
 
MJ didn't do small releases. He wasn't interested until the late 2000s, when albums was falling out of fashion. He was a traditionalist with traditional opinions; albums were albums.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
MJ didn't do small releases. He wasn't interested until the late 2000s, when albums was falling out of fashion. He was a traditionalist with traditional opinions; albums were albums.
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B-sides existed before Mike was born. So what is more tradition than that? 😁 The entire long playing (LP) album concept was invented around 1949. Everything before that was 78s, which are basically singles. 78s could hold very little time, between 2 & 3 minutes per side. Even after LPs came out, it was common to have non-album singles, where neither side was on an album. Some acts had a singles only contract. If a single happened to get really popular (like Chubby Checker's The Twist), a album might be quickly recorded to capitalize on it. That's where the term "filler" came from, these quicky albums. "Filler" doesn't mean a song that somebody doesn't like, which is how some use it today.
 
DuranDuran said:
B-sides existed before Mike was born. So what is more tradition than that? 😁 The entire long playing (LP) album concept was invented around 1949. Everything before that was 78s, which are basically singles. 78s could hold very little time, between 2 & 3 minutes per side. Even after LPs came out, it was common to have non-album singles, where neither side was on an album. Some acts had a singles only contract. If a single happened to get really popular (like Chubby Checker's The Twist), a album might be quickly recorded to capitalize on it. That's where the term "filler" came from, these quicky albums. "Filler" doesn't mean a song that somebody doesn't like, which is how some use it today.
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Well, not every tradition is a good tradition. You certainly don't have to like em.

MJ was selective with his music, that's the point. If he didn't wanna put out music all the time, that was his right.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
Well, not every tradition is a good tradition. You certainly don't have to like em.

MJ was selective with his music, that's the point. If he didn't wanna put out music all the time, that was his right.
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He didn't follow tradition. It was not traditional to milk an album for 2 or 3 years and release just about every song as a single like with Thriller/Bad. Before the mid-1970s, many record labels required acts to release at least 2 albums a year. On average, only 1, 2 or maybe 3 singles was released from an album. A 4th single (from an album) was rare, because the next album had been released. That was still going on with The Jackson 5. In some years they had more than 1 album as a group plus solo Mike/Jermaine. Then it has been said that the brothers have over 200 unreleased songs on Motown. The idea of a blockbuster album probably started around Dark Side Of The Moon, although Pink Floyd was not really popular with Top 40 radio singles in the US. From 1969 up til 1982, there was at least 1 album each year. Thriller was released at the end of 1982, so technically it can be considered a 1983 album. The there was Victory in 1984. After that there were only 4 albums in a 25 year period til 2009.
 
DuranDuran said:
He didn't follow tradition. It was not traditional to milk an album for 2 or 3 years and release just about every song as a single like with Thriller/Bad.
Click to expand...
Well that's fine. That's a new tradition.

But OTW and Triumph both had a few singles off them.
 
When you say B sides ...

With all this streaming now a days, what makes a, B side?
 
B-Side
(original title: B-Seite by Jan Delay, a.k.a. Eissfelt, German hip hop artist, also from the group „Absolute Beginner“

[Verse 1]
Life is torture on the record shelf
Are you 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th, or 5th choice
Always just standing around and no one ever is looking for you
And if so, then they play side A, but they never turn that shit over
Each record has two sides, like the sausage ends
If you can't stand one of them anymore, you have to turn that shit over

[chorus]
A little B-side that was waiting to be released
She wanted to get out of anonymity, she wanted to just run
from morning to night

[Verse 2]
She sees the others all charting, starting with big videos
But she never will, all she can do is wait, wait, wait
All she does is pray that one day the DJ's will play her
People come and ask “what’s going on?
Why is this hit on side B?"
All records have two sides, like the sausage ends
If you can't stand one of them anymore, you have to turn that shit over

[chorus]
 
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SoS said:
When you say B sides ...

With all this streaming now a days, what makes a, B side?
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That's the thing. Today, in 2024, there is no such thing as a single, let alone a B-side. They died out over a decade ago, they don't exist any more.

It's almost the same thing with the word album. These days you just have songs and that's it. Anybody can listen to any song, at any time, regardless of what disc it was on, or whether it was even on a disc at all.
 
R1chard said:
That's the thing. Today, in 2024, there is no such thing as a single, let alone a B-side. They died out over a decade ago, they don't exist any more.

It's almost the same thing with the word album. These days you just have songs and that's it. Anybody can listen to any song, at any time, regardless of what disc it was on, or whether it was even on a disc at all.
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Here's the thing. I posted a comment earlier saying this exact thing. Without a physical, tangible object (i.e. 7" or 12" single) there is no such thing as a B side. But then I wondered if I'd misunderstood @SoS 's question. If they are specifically talking about songs that Michael originally released as B sides but which are now available online then I can understand people continuing to use that term (although maybe not since he often used previous album tracks as B sides)

But, generally speaking, in this streaming era? Yeah, it's a meaningless concept now.
 
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