Supremes B Sides On the Radio

[RanRan79]

Which b-sides of the Supremes have you heard played on the radio, whether it be at the original time of release or over the years? [[Please specify whether original time of release or over the years, if possible.) I don't believe I've heard one. You can include Diana's solo releases as well, as I'd be interested to learn if radio was ever flipping those over.

[daviddh]

Ive heard/read that Ask Any Girl and Theres No Stopping Us Now were but,... i personally I never have heard anything but the A side,.. with exception to a radio DJ that plays rare b sides and vocals groups on sunday evenings .

[floyjoy678]

I've heard Ask Any Girl and He's All I Got played in the Philly area.

[danman869]

I've heard Ask Any Girl and He's All I Got played in the Philly area.

Funny you should mention that, Floy... In my early years of being a Supremes/Motown/Oldies fan growing up in Northern New Jersey in the late 1980s, I could also pick up Philadelphia radio stations. For variety from WCBS-FM and NJ 101.5, I would often listen to WOGL 98.1 FM "Oldies 98" out of Philly. I still remember being flabbergasted when I first heard "There's No Stopping Us Now" being played in semi-regular rotation. [It wasn't being played once every hour, but I might have heard it once a week.] I think I also might have heard "Ask Any Girl" sometimes--but definitely not as frequently as TNSUN. The late '80s and early '90s were when 1960s music [and Motown] seemed to be in heavy rotation on Oldies radio.

Not quite the same topic, but I still remember listening to WCBS-FM late on Saturday night [technically Sunday morning] in the early '90s and hearing "Forever Came Today." I nearly fell out of bed! I can't recall now whether it was during "an hour of rarities" or just a rare coincidence, but it was the one and only time I ever heard that song on oldies radio.

[reese]

In the 80s, I recall my local soul station playing REMOVE THIS DOUBT and GOING DOWN FOR THE THIRD TIME during their Saturday morning oldies show, THE TIME TUNNEL.

[johnjeb]

In the Boston area, Everything Is Good About You and There's No Stopping Us Now received generous radio airplay, but not as much as the A-sides. Everything, considered an upbeat formula Supreme song, was played as an alternative to the gloomy My World. I always wondered if Everything helped My World reach its #5 peak or prevented it from reaching #1. Only My World charted.

No Stopping received a little help from Billboard. It reviewed the single as a double-sided hit right out of the box. However only Love Is Here charted despite local stations playing the flip.

I can't remember if I heard Young Folks on the radio although at the time I was aware it was charting after Sign dropped-off the charts.

Of course Twinkle, Twinkle Little Me was played for a few Christmases and was more popular than the A-side Children's Christmas Song. Particularly in 1965, all the songs on the Christmas album were played on the radio.

When More Hits and A' Go-Go were released all the songs from both albums were played for a week or two with contests running to win the albums. I don't recall that happening for any of their other albums.

I think playlists on major radio stations were getting tighter as the decade progressed. I don't recall many, or any, Motown B-sides receiving airplay. Hell, they hardly played A-sides from anyone but the top-tier artists.

[theboyfromxtown]

I can remember a few being played on the UK pirate stations - There's No Stopping Us Now was played quite a bit. I bought The Happening after hearing flip side of The Happening - All I Know About You which is still one of my favourites. Going Down For The Third Time received some extra plays too.

[floyjoy678]

Funny you should mention that, Floy... In my early years of being a Supremes/Motown/Oldies fan growing up in Northern New Jersey in the late 1980s, I could also pick up Philadelphia radio stations. For variety from WCBS-FM and NJ 101.5, I would often listen to WOGL 98.1 FM "Oldies 98" out of Philly. I still remember being flabbergasted when I first heard "There's No Stopping Us Now" being played in semi-regular rotation. [It wasn't being played once every hour, but I might have heard it once a week.] I think I also might have heard "Ask Any Girl" sometimes--but definitely not as frequently as TNSUN. The late '80s and early '90s were when 1960s music [and Motown] seemed to be in heavy rotation on Oldies radio.

Not quite the same topic, but I still remember listening to WCBS-FM late on Saturday night [technically Sunday morning] in the early '90s and hearing "Forever Came Today." I nearly fell out of bed! I can't recall now whether it was during "an hour of rarities" or just a rare coincidence, but it was the one and only time I ever heard that song on oldies radio.

NJ 101.5 I listened to often and oldies 98.1 now plays 80s and 90s music mainly. I remember when they started shifting away from 50s and 60s music, I wrote them a letter about how disappointed I was as a listener. They wrote back at least and told me they had to keep up with the times pretty much. 92.1 I was able to pick up and would listen to that often as well. I forget which station it was, it may have been 97.5, but they had a big billboard up of the Supremes [[DMF) on I-95 around the mid-late 90s. I remember loving looking at it.

[sup_fan]

didn't people also say Bill When You Coming Back was played a lot, along with Ladder? because for several months those were the only 2 songs public of the New Supremes

[sup_fan]

i was also wondering if anyone flipped I Guess I'll Miss or Bad Weather to play Over and Over or Oh Be My Love, respectively, since the A sides didn't so much on the charts. of course at this time, the girls' records really weren't being played at all so guessing not

also same thought on Give Out [[which backed both HMM and Where do i go). or if stations were unimpressed with Driving Wheel and flipped to You're What's Missing

on single that SHOULD have been flipped was You Gotta Have Love. I'm Glad About It was one of the best duets the mag 7 did and it's a shame it was relegated to the b-side of an inferior song

[reese]

i was also wondering if anyone flipped I Guess I'll Miss or Bad Weather to play Over and Over or Oh Be My Love, respectively, since the A sides didn't so much on the charts. of course at this time, the girls' records really weren't being played at all so guessing not

also same thought on Give Out [[which backed both HMM and Where do i go). or if stations were unimpressed with Driving Wheel and flipped to You're What's Missing

on single that SHOULD have been flipped was You Gotta Have Love. I'm Glad About It was one of the best duets the mag 7 did and it's a shame it was relegated to the b-side of an inferior song

I think at a certain point, Motown started putting the A-side on both sides of the singles that they provided to radio. So that would probably cut down on the instances of split play or DJs going for the b-side.

[johnjeb]

I can remember a few being played on the UK pirate stations - There's No Stopping Us Now was played quite a bit. I bought The Happening after hearing flip side of The Happening - All I Know About You which is still one of my favourites. Going Down For The Third Time received some extra plays too.

I, also, loved All I KNow About You right off. I was disappointed it was so short and wondered why it was so short. Thankfully the HDH EE gave us a full version, which is absolutely fabulous. I wonder if Motown feared a full-length version on the B-side might have competed with the A-side. I was not a fan of The Happening until about the mid-80s, now it's in my Top 10 of Supremes singles. So maybe All I Know might have been a stronger B-side in it's full-length.

I also think the Extended Mixes of The Happening and Going Down on the HDH EE are top-notch.

[sup_fan]

I think at a certain point, Motown started putting the A-side on both sides of the singles that they provided to radio. So that would probably cut down on the instances of split play or DJs going for the b-side.

true - forgot about that. when we've found those white-label promo copies in the used record bins, they're often just the A side on both

[woodward]

Which b-sides of the Supremes have you heard played on the radio, whether it be at the original time of release or over the years? [[Please specify whether original time of release or over the years, if possible.) I don't believe I've heard one. You can include Diana's solo releases as well, as I'd be interested to learn if radio was ever flipping those over.

If you do a SEARCH at the top right hand corner and enter Harvey Holiday Motown Oldies Show you will see a listing of 48 songs that were played on WOGL in May of 1993. Four of the 48 were Supremes songs. He played two A sides Nathan Jones and You Can't Hurry Love as well as two B sides Whisper You Love Me Boy and Everything Is Good About You. Naturally, these were not at the time they were released.

[johnjeb]

true - forgot about that. when we've found those white-label promo copies in the used record bins, they're often just the A side on both

I first learned about the white-label promos at a record hop in early 1967. A Boston radio DJ was the guest DJ. I requested No Stopping Us Now, which they were playing on the radio, but the DJ told me he only had the promo with Love Is Here on both sides. He showed me the record and it was the first time I saw a white-label promo! I can't recall if both sides were mono or if the one side mono the other side stereo promos weren't started until a later time. As of this time there were still mono albums being released.

[sup_fan]

I first learned about the white-label promos at a record hop in early 1967. A Boston radio DJ was the guest DJ. I requested No Stopping Us Now, which they were playing on the radio, but the DJ told me he only had the promo with Love Is Here on both sides. He showed me the record and it was the first time I saw a white-label promo! I can't recall if both sides were mono or if the one side mono the other side stereo promos weren't started until a later time. As of this time there were still mono albums being released.

and i think some times other non-a sides might have been released as promo singles. for the Sups, i think the only one was Young Folks. but with the other groups, it might have happened more often. like with MRATV - like Love Makes Me Do. or maybe they did it was the Marvelettes with Forever.