How Do You Know Which Is The A Side?

[Zaimejs]

I have a box of 50s and early 60s 45s. I don't know a lot of the artists, and when I listen, I can't tell which song is the "hit" and which is the B side. Is there a list or an easy way to tell. I appreciate the labels that knew that people were dumb. They specify A and B sides.

Just wondering if there is a database or anything that anyone knows of.

Having fun listening, but exhausted

[Zaimejs]

Oh, and is there some rule that newer 45s (80s) sound worse than older ones (60s?)

All of the newer 45s I have just SUCK.

[mysticfred]

To answer your first question most if not all singles have a serial number, some sides are marked A some are not, a little research on the artist will reveal list their main songs, though some records charted on the strength of their B sides, some had double A sides.

http://www.everyhit.com/index.html

As for sound quality, early singles were made on very early recording equipment and designed to be played on Juke boxes and primitive home playback systems, so they differ greatly from modern singles which share the same master tapes for CD's and vinyl releases, also modern record decks are calibrated for LP's so there may be some tracking error on a smaller 7 inch records. In theory newer singles should sound better, but many prefer the sharp and bassy sound of the old singles.



.

[rorenoren]

Hi,

I can´t say that for singles, but on LPs, there are markings in the plastic somewhere around the lable.

That is very often handwritten and says "a" and "b", sometimes "1" and "2".
(a "serial number" is weather written or stamped as well)

It looks like this:



or this:



Maybe singles are marked the same way.

Regards, Jens

[Alvabass]

Well, in the case of this particular single, it's not difficult to know which is the A side:



But there are many others from which, as the OP says, it's hard to tell which one is the A side if there's no such label. In my case, I found that plenty of those "side unmarked" singles have a number (different to the catalog #) for each side:





Consecutive numbers, as you can see. Don't know what they mean, but anyway they are enough side ID for me.

[GlutenAllergyBoy]

I agree with AlvaBass - on older UK singles, to the left or right of the hole in the middle, there's usually a number in biggish lettering, which is the same for both sides, but also a number in smaller type, which is different, consecutive numbers, lower number is the a-side. With so many artists listed in Wikipedia nowadays, that is indeed a good way to get a list of a-sides.

[plyscds]

BILLBOARD publishes "The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Hits" which alphabetically lists artists and their top 40 hit songs along with associated label and record numbers. My copy is a big help with the most popular songs, but sometimes digging a bit deeper than Top-40 is needed. I have found web sites which list a record label's discography, but you have to do the web search to find them. I have also found Wikipedia to be a big help with identifying an artist's records. "The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll" sometimes helps with songs that charted below the Top-40 cutoff, but not all artists are covered in every edition. Information is out there if you're willing to dig for it. And it may not all be in one place.

[gaslover]

The matrix numbers are never scribed on the stamper, they are scribed on the lacquer immediately after cutting. I used to do it.