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With this caveat, Part One includes the original ‘B’ sides of every record that entered the charts mentioned between Jan. 1st and 27th April in chronological order of chart entry, and they make for truly eclectic and fascinating entertainment. The story of how ‘B’ sides come to be what they are is a fascinating one and varies greatly from record to record. Some featured songs that were written by either the producer, the artist’s manager or someone else with sufficient influence to ensure that if the ‘A’ side were a hit, they would collect 50% of the publishing income from the sales. Others were, of course, complete throwaways, dashed off in the last 10 minutes of a session purely as make-weights. In contrast, some started life as the intended ‘A’ side, only to be overshadowed as promotion people or radio DJs spotted the potential of the ‘B’ side. The fascination is that, in most cases, with the passage of time, we will never know the true story, and the tracks will simply stand to be judged on their merits or otherwise. Whatever the case, they will very often provide collectors with a piece of the artist’s work that they have never heard before, and the majority, we suspect, will never have been available on CD before. We are sure that many purchasers of the main sets will be keen to acquire the ‘B’ sides to ensure the completeness of their collection.
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