The Marvelettes "Paper Boy" "Please Mr. Postman" clone?

[Philles/Motown Gary]

Maybe one reason for deciding to issue old tracks on what were strongly intended as B sides arose around the time that both sides of Mary Wells' 45, "You Lost The Sweetest Boy" and "What's Easy For Two Is Hard For One", made the charts more or less simultaneously.

"Paper Boy" had been in the can for three years when it came out as the B side of "You're The One" in 1966. Although it might have been a minor hit if they'd put it out back when it was cut, it definitely sounded dated when the single was issued.

Keith -- and also to thisoldheart -- you both bring up a good point which I hadn't considered until now. Motown may have temporarily tried sticking an old, obsolete-sounding song on the B-side to prevent DJ's from flipping the record over and playing the B-side instead of the intended A-side, as Phil Spector did by pressing his Philles B-sides with Jazz instrumentals.

Personally, I wouldn't have minded Motown putting a track from an earlier album on the B-side if it had at least been a track containing "The Motown Sound". But to use those age-old cha-cha recordings before Motown developed its sound was annoying as all get-out -- especially when I was trying to impress fellow high-school classmates with the latest Motown releases, as I often did. Our Business class had one of those neat old 1960's Califone "classroom" record players [[which radiotvphononut is oftentimes restoring on his YouTube channel). Every time I bought a new Motown 45, I'd take it into Business class with me to play for the 9 or 10 classmates before the teacher showed up. Three or 4 of the students always loved what I brought in, but there was always one hard-rock fan who thought Motown was bubble-gum crap. One day, when I was playing The Tempts' "[[I Know) I'm Losing You", I tried to get away with not playing the B-side, "I Couldn't Cry If I Wanted To". As luck would have it, somebody requested that I play the B-side. I said, "No, it's time for Mr. K to arrive." They egged me on with, "Come on, just flip it over and play the B-side real quick. Out-numbered, I reluctantly honored their request. As expected, nobody liked it. And, what's worse, the hard rock-loving, Motown-hating creep said, "What the hell is that?" Embarrased that he of all people was there to hear it and criticize it, all I could say in embarrassment was, "I know. It sucks." In retrospect, Motown had tons of high-quality, previously-unreleased "Motown-Sound"-ing material they could have tapped to use as B-side filler for their 45 releases. Why they resorted to using that old, obsolete stuff is still beyond me.