Double B-side
On vinyl, double A-side singles had one song on either side of the record, while double B-sides contain two songs on the same side (on the B-side; altogether giving 3 songs). When such singles were introduced in the 1970s, the popular term for them was "maxi single", though this term is now used more ambiguously for a variety of formats. These would not quite qualify as EP singles – as that is generally 4 songs on a single. The term is also sometimes used in a self-denigrating fashion for a release with no A-side at all, suggesting neither side is of high quality.
Examples include "Styrafoam" / "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Boogie" by The Tyla Gang (1976), and "Jack Rabbit" / "Whenever You're Ready (We'll Go Steady Again)" by Elton John (1973).
Paul McCartney's 1980 single "Coming Up" had a studio version of the song on the A-side, while the B-side contained two songs, a live version of "Coming Up" and a studio instrumental called "Lunchbox/Odd Sox."
The singles from U2's album The Joshua Tree were released with two B-side songs each, which were pressed at 33 1/3 RPM. Versions for jukeboxes included only one of those songs, which played at 45.
Read more about this topic: A-side And B-side
Famous quotes containing the word double:
“In a symbol there is concealment and yet revelation: here therefore, by silence and by speech acting together, comes a double significance.... In the symbol proper, what we can call a symbol, there is ever, more or less distinctly and directly, some embodiment and revelation of the Infinite; the Infinite is made to blend itself with the Finite, to stand visible, and as it were, attainable there. By symbols, accordingly, is man guided and commanded, made happy, made wretched.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)