Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The reverse side of a phonograph record, especially a single.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The reverse side of a phonograph record, especially of a vinyl single.
  • noun Any song included on a compact disc single, besides the first song (the A-side).

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the B on the record's label.]

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Examples

  • Urban Dictionary even goes so far as to call a B-side “not good enough to be on the album” and just plain “left-over,” a “sub-par” track.

    Save as draft Cavanaugh Lee 2011

  • Urban Dictionary even goes so far as to call a B-side “not good enough to be on the album” and just plain “left-over,” a “sub-par” track.

    Save as draft Cavanaugh Lee 2011

  • and to a new category, B-side, which is for unwieldy or alarming amusements that don't fit well on the homepage or in the main RSS feed.

    Boing Boing Rob Beschizza 2011

  • Released anyway that fall as the B-side of a 45-rpm record, the song soared to No. 21 on Billboard magazine 's Hot 100 chart — launching the hit-making careers of Ms. Warwick and songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

    The Copycats 2010

  • I'd once read a Pete interview where he said that whenever The Who were suffering through an awful show, they'd play "Daddy Rolling Stone" the import-only B-side of their second single, "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"... a great, but, to even most Who fans, unknown R&B song.

    Binky Philips: The Who Arrive Late, Beatles News Arrives Early, Central Park, August 1968 Binky Philips 2011

  • Bell recorded this song in 1961, and it appeared as a B-side on the 16th single ever to be released by Stax.

    How music can reach out and touch us 2011

  • One is a single, All Our Yesterdays, and the other is the B-side instrumental, Alpha Centauri.

    All Our Yesterdays : Bev Vincent 2010

  • Like the B-side of an A-side that you know cos it was used on a mobile phone advert.

    This week's new singles 2011

  • One is a single, All Our Yesterdays, and the other is the B-side instrumental, Alpha Centauri.

    2010 July : Bev Vincent 2010

  • I'd once read a Pete interview where he said that whenever The Who were suffering through an awful show, they'd play "Daddy Rolling Stone" the import-only B-side of their second single, "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"... a great, but, to even most Who fans, unknown R&B song.

    Binky Philips: The Who Arrive Late, Beatles News Arrives Early, Central Park, August 1968 Binky Philips 2011

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