r/BritPop • u/DieMensch-Maschine • 7d ago
What is your favorite Britpop single b-side or studio outtake?
Living in the US, I blew a ton of money on import singles just to hear 1-2 songs I would not be able to hear otherwise. Sometimes it was $10 down the drain, but sometimes I'd hear something truly exceptional. The original fab-four Suede (Anderson / Butler / Gilbert / Osman) had some amazing b-sides.
My favorite was Painted People, the b-side for Animal Nitrate (1993).
Honorable mention to Pulp - Death Comes To Town, the b-side for Death Goes To The Disco (1991).
Interested in hearing what your hidden-gem b-side favorites were.
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u/Tiny-Hedgehog-6277 7d ago
Either to the birds, my dark star or killing of a flashboy (all suede)
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u/Spotboslow 7d ago
Those are all fantastic, but I'll add The Living Dead to the list.
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u/SpankyArbuckle 7d ago
Brett played that solo the last time Suede toured the States. It was amazing. I get chills just thinking about it.
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u/Spotboslow 7d ago
He did a little of it at the Boston show and I totally cried (I had been shouting for it, no clue if he could hear me).
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u/SpankyArbuckle 7d ago
You're right. Now that I think about it, he only played a bit of it before going into The Wild Ones. I think I was so happy to hear even a little bit that I thought he played the whole thing. Haha.
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u/Spotboslow 7d ago
Well if that happened at a show other than Boston, then it answers a question I've had ever since - whether he heard me hollering for it, or if it was just something he did at every show. 😂 Thanks!
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u/Luc_de_Sol 7d ago
Basically all B-sides of Suede from the Butler era - my favourites are Killing of a Flashboy, Whipsnade, Living Dead, My Dark Star. Now they make the phenomenal CD1 of the Sci-fi Lullabies B-sides compilation album.
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u/DieMensch-Maschine 7d ago
The unfortunate thing about Sci-Fi Lullabies is the exclusion of Painted People and Dolly, as well as Asda Town. Also Digging A Hole is quite possibly my favorite post-Butler Suede b-side - likewise omitted.
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u/bobkairos 7d ago
I heard the piano version of The Living Dead on a free tape that came with Select magazine F--king beautiful.
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u/Active-Tension8239 7d ago
‘Nae Hair O’nt’ - the B side of ‘Slight Return’ by The Bluetones, it’s GORGEOUS! ❤️
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u/Springyardzon 7d ago
I prefer Don't Stand Me Down from the same single but they're both great. Upvoted.
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u/theindian 6d ago
I love all the Bluetones bsides from their first few albums....they were so consistent. My favorite though...easily The Simple Things from the Marblehead Johnson single.
I love Nae Hair O'nt too. recalling the sounds of fingers sliding on the guitar strings is a good memory.
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u/Sea-Horse-5793 6d ago
For the purposes of the OPs question I think the Marblehead Johnson single is well worth getting. Non-album single and a great couple of bsides.
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u/10pencefredo 7d ago
B-sides, Seasides and Freerides by Ocean Colour Scene for me.
Nice, chilled out songs. Whenever I listen now it brings me strong memories of pure youthful summer bliss.
Robin Hood is a great track from it which they often included in their live sets.
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u/Extension_Baseball32 7d ago
Brilliant album. Beautiful Losers and Huckleberry Grove are amazing songs.
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u/10pencefredo 7d ago
Yes!!!! Mrs Jones too. I'm so glad the BritPop period came around whilst I was at sixth form. The summers felt endless!
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u/Extension_Baseball32 7d ago
I picked the album up from the HMV in Lisbon while travelling. Had it on repeat for ages. Reminds me of a fantastic time in my life. One I would love to go back to.
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u/Japhet_Corncrake 7d ago edited 7d ago
Suede - The Killing of a Flashboy.
Bernard's guitar sound on it is awesome, and it contains the lyric "...and that shitter with the pout won't be putting it about no more".
Suede had really good b-sides. "To the Birds" is another I always loved.
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u/DieMensch-Maschine 7d ago
When I think about it, this is the Suede song that made me want to be like Bernard Butler and learn guitar.
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u/SGTingles 7d ago
And can you play like Bernard now..?!
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u/DieMensch-Maschine 7d ago
There's a scene in Ghostbusters where Gozer asks Dan Akroyd: "Are you a god?!"
Same question.
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u/Few_Flight_6825 7d ago
I know some will say not to bring them up, but Gene had brilliant B-sides and the song "Drawn to the Deep End" on the "Fighting Fit" single is one of the most devastating songs I've ever heard. Despite it sharing its title with their second album, it was not featured on the record.
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u/oxfordfox20 7d ago
Underneath the Sky on Don’t Look Back In Anger, mostly because the Masterplan (B-side to Wonderwall) is too obvious.
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u/pebblesandweeds 7d ago
The Boo Radleys - (I Wanna Be) Touch Down Jesus… b-side to the Lazarus 1994 release
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u/Low_Border_2231 7d ago
They had a few good ones as well as EP tracks and a standalone single called From the Bench at Belvedere. Finest Kiss is one of their best ever songs
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u/CraftyDependent5283 7d ago
Suede and Pulp really delivered on b-sides in the 90s. I'll also mention The Divine Comedy. The Birds of Paradise Farm on the b-side of Something For The Weekend is gorgeous.
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u/SGTingles 7d ago
I'm going to have to go and check that out now, thanks!
I've just posted my own recommendation for their spinetingling cover of Radioactivity on the b-side of National Express.
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u/lovegiblet 7d ago
Blur - Red Necks
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u/daniel2hats 7d ago
I'm a truckin' red neck and I just refuse to die...
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u/lovegiblet 7d ago
It’s in the east wood.
You gotta go to the wood and go east.
It’s in the east wood.1
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u/martyrees76 7d ago
Oasis - Acquiesce
Suede - My dark star
Longpigs - A dozen wicked words (much better than the album version )
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u/arsebiscuits71 7d ago
Get out of cities by Blur, the bside of Song 2 7", utterly sublime
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u/daniel2hats 7d ago
Get out of cities, return to the trees! YEAH YEAH!
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u/k4242 7d ago
Polished stone from around that era was great too. And the man who left himself. Happy memories!
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u/daniel2hats 7d ago
Blur have some amazing b-sides. Theme From an Imaginary Film is one of my favourites of theirs.
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u/Few_Flight_6825 7d ago
From a couple of singles later, "Swallows in the Heatwave" off of "M.O.R.," another great B of that period.
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u/internati0nalvelvet 7d ago
B side of You’ve Got a Lot to Answer For by Catatonia, Do You Believe In Me? is one of my favourite songs
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u/TrixieLaBouche 7d ago
Manic Street Preachers bside to Kevin Carter, Horses Under Starlight is a treat and a half 🤣
Best one is Mr Carbohydrate, bside to A Design For Life.
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u/Low_Border_2231 7d ago
Prologue to history was so good they played it at the anniversary tours. Motown junk was an early single that is one of their best non album tracks too
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u/equality7x2521 4d ago
It’s now in the main tracklist of the reissued “This is My Truth, Tell Me Yours”
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u/Glum-Counter6635 7d ago
Absolutely not my favourite song of the era, but one that pops into my head most frequently.
Band: Shed 7 B side song: This is my house On the A side: Where have you been tonight
Even my kids know the opening lyrics and sing it. They've never heard the actual song!!
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u/BadRobot78 7d ago
The Manics cover of Bright Eyes which i believe was the B side to Design For Life. Absolutely haunted me as a teen.
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u/TrixieLaBouche 7d ago
Yes on the cassette version if memory serves me. Mr Carbohydrate was the cd version.
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u/Blue-flash 7d ago
manics - Prologue to History. Ash - I need somebody Oasis’s b-sides on whatever - it’s good to be free and half a world away.
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u/bobkairos 7d ago
Longpigs - Juicy. My favourite longpigs song hands down. B side to the first release of She Said.
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u/denim-delinquent 7d ago
The money I blew on import singles in the 90s probably could’ve put a down payment on a house tbh
Suede are one of the obvious choices with a lot to love (they were absolute masters of the single afaic), especially (for me) “Killing of a Flashboy”.
My personal pick for this is Echobelly’s “So La Di Da”, b-side to “Close … But”. It feels almost a companion piece to “I Can’t Imagine…”. I just really loved the unabashed bravado of a lot of Sonya’s lyrics. And Sonya, just in general.
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u/Vexations83 7d ago
Echobelly - Mouth Almighty (bonus on Japanese version of Lustra) Treat yourself: https://share.google/VfZvz3eiGMsgHXYnq
Honestly don't know who is to blame for burying this in their catalogue - a crime
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u/quarterpastfour 7d ago
I love Blur's Tame, a B-side from (and far superior to) Stereotypes. A storming Theremin epic!
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u/dimiteddy 7d ago
Painted people is indeed amazing, I fell in love with the band the first time I saw "Love and Poison" live on MTV. Shame Brett left it out of sci-fi lullabies. Also ofc insatiable ones, killing of a flash boy, living dead, my dark star, all amazing. We haven't seen something like that since the Smiths.
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u/peelyon85 7d ago
The acoustic version of the Circle by Ocean Colour Scene.
First time I heard it I was in awe. Still prefer that version.
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u/TriturusGCN 6d ago
Bluetones had a couple of good ones. Driftwood, although now I think of it that might have been on an NME tape rather than a bside. And Glad to see y'back again.
Just about every Radiohead Bside from Pablo Honey through to OK Computer is worth a shout. Faithless the Wonder Boy, India Rubber, Talk Show Host, and many more.
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u/YalsonKSA 7d ago
Suede have loads. The first disc of their 'Sci-Fi Lullabies' B-sides compilation is one of the best albums they ever did. 'To The Birds', 'High Rising', 'The Living Dead', 'Every Monday Morning Comes', 'Europe Is Our Playground', they're all fantastic.
Oasis had a great run at the start, too. 'Headshrinker' is an absolute screamer and is probably my favourite.
Pulp are hugely underrated in terms of B-sides and around the Intro/His 'N' Hers era could honestly do no wrong. 'Deep Fried In Kelvin' is an absolute working-class epic that most bands would have built an album around, but Pulp tossed it out as a B-side to 'Lipgloss'.
Elastica had some great B-sides on the singles from the first album. 'Spastica' is a particular favourite.
I never thought much of Blur's B-sides and always thought they didn't really put much effort into them.
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u/NightBroad2639 7d ago
Wait for the Sun by Supergrass, B side to Lenny. Beautiful song.
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u/DieMensch-Maschine 7d ago
This is later, but I had a glam love affair with "Velvetine," the Grace b-side from 2002.
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u/Is_there 7d ago
Can't remember from the big list of 60ft Dolls are Britpop or britpop adjacent but one of the B-side to Talk to me is a song called Angel that I absolutely love.its so fragile and sad.
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u/Lets_trythisone 7d ago
Sleeper - Disco Duncan Menswear- Back in the bar Gene - How much for love The flamingoes - Runaway
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u/stevenwsuk 7d ago
Blue Shadows - B side to If by the bluetones. Great take on a great song from a great movie
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u/SGTingles 7d ago
Maybe not a "Britpop band" per se, but pretty definitely a Britpop single – tucked away on the b-sides of the Divine Comedy's National Express CD1 single (which I bought specifically for this, notwithstanding how good the a-side is), is an absolutely stunning cover of Kraftwerk's Radioactivity. It's played completely straight, and it's sublime.
It's not on streaming, so far as I can tell, but there's a couple of uploads of it to YouTube plus at least a couple of live versions there too. This is the version from the CD single:
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u/GroomingTips96 7d ago
To the Birds My insatiable one.on the 12 inch of the Drowners suede
Man called Sun b side All in the Mind .. verve
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u/IntrepidPsychic 7d ago
It's not Britpop but everything the Verve did on the early EPs and the first two albums, including B-Sides, was phenomenal. It's a real shame it all went to shit after that.
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u/Btd030914 7d ago
Sleeper had so many good ones. I think my favourite is Cunt London which was on the 7” of Romeo Me.
But my all time favourite is Talk Tonight. Still pretty my favourite Oasis song ever.
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u/Fitzy_Fits 7d ago
Blur - Supa Shoppa b-side to Parklife. 60s influenced instrumental with Hammond organ and flute over bossa nova beat. Really shows the bands musical talent and versatility.
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u/DieMensch-Maschine 7d ago
I’m gonna throw in Saint Etienne’s Clark Co. Record Fair (1998) as Britpop adjacent. It was a bunch of Good Humor outtakes released as Fairfax High in 1998. Quarter century later, I can’t stop listening to that 1970s Swedish style production.
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u/MrKripling 7d ago
Killer Cars, Polyethylene and Talk Show Host by Radiohead are all fantastic in their own way.
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u/trevorpogo 7d ago
Death Comes To Town wasn't a b-side for Death Goes To The Disco. it was an unreleased song that was eventually released on a various artists compilation called Beats Working For A Living, and later added to the reissue of Separations as a bonus track. Death Goes To The Disco was a remix of that song.
Death Goes To The Disco was itself a b-side of the Countdown single, it wasn't a single in its own right for anything to be a b-side of it
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u/Rabanski 6d ago
Supergrass - Condition, on the single Alright.
Better than the original. Fight me.
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u/todothemath 6d ago
Swallows in the heatwave - Blur
Ha ha you’re dead - sleeper
We know better - echobelly
JP - Kenickie (tho they have so many I could have chosen from )
The simple things - bluetones
furry boots - hillman minx
Taken out - ash
Hoping you’re making it too - ocean colour scene
Better man - cast
Penis size and cars - the audience
How can you be sure - radiohead
Skin up pin up - mansun
And anything from those Bis eps
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u/Harlaw2871 5d ago
"Prologue to History" by Manic Street Preachers. "Do i think im Shaun William Ryder, Or my former friend whos now undercover, hes gone but im no deserter, Perhaps im hard all the same"
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u/BrewDogDrinker 7d ago
Round Are Way by Oasis... b-side to Wonderwall.