A-side and B-side are terms frequently used to refer to the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes, often directly on the labels of two-sided music recording themselves. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company intends to receive the initial promotional effort and radio airplay and hopefully become a hit record. The B-side is a secondary recording that typically receives less attention, although some B-sides have been equally or more successful than their A-sides.
An extended play, often referred to as an EP, or mini-album is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but is usually unqualified as an album or LP. Contemporary EPs generally contain a minimum of three tracks and maximum of six tracks, and are considered "less expensive and time-consuming" for an artist to produce than an album. An EP originally referred to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play (SP) and LP, but it is now applied to mid-length CDs and downloads as well.
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording is longer than the capacity of the medium. Recording artists often think of double albums as being a single piece artistically; however, there are exceptions such as John Lennon's Some Time in New York City and OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below . Since the advent of the compact disc, albums are sometimes released with a bonus disc featuring additional material as a supplement to the main album, with live tracks, studio out-takes, cut songs, or older unreleased material. One innovation was the inclusion of DVD of related material with a compact disc, such as video related to the album or DVD-Audio versions of the same recordings. Some such discs were also released on a two-sided format called DualDisc.
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued as a collection on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78-rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl LP records played at 33 1⁄3 rpm.
"Killed by Death" is a song by the English heavy metal band Motörhead. Released in 1984, in 7" and 12" vinyl pressings. It peaked at number 51 in the UK Singles Chart.
"Theme from Harry's Game" is a 1982 song by Clannad commissioned as the theme for Harry's Game, a Yorkshire Television miniseries adapted from a 1975 novel set in The Troubles in Northern Ireland. It was released as a single in October 1982 and became a surprise hit, reaching number 5 in the UK Singles Chart the following month and number 2 in the Irish Singles Chart.
The Kink Kronikles is a compilation double album by the Kinks, released on Reprise Records in 1972, after the band had signed with RCA Records in 1971. It contains thirteen non-album singles, fourteen tracks taken from five albums released by the band from 1966 to 1971, and one track previously unreleased. Designed specifically for the American market, it peaked at No. 94 on the Billboard 200. The single versions and mixes were not necessarily used for each track.
Monkee Business is a compilation album of songs by the Monkees, issued by Rhino Records in 1982. It was the first American Monkees rarities collection and was released on both LP and cassette formats, with the LP being a picture disc.
Private Eye, the British fortnightly satirical magazine, has produced various comedic audio recordings since its founding in 1961.
Pastpresent is a compilation album by Irish folk group Clannad, released in 1989. It is a collection of selected songs recorded by the band from 1982 up to 1989, including two new songs exclusive to this release – "The Hunter" and "World of Difference".
"In a Lifetime" is a pop song performed by Irish artists Clannad and Bono. It was written by brothers Pól Brennan and Ciarán Brennan and produced by Steve Nye. The single was released in January 1986, and was the third single to be released from Clannad's eighth studio album Macalla (1985). It charted well in many countries including United States, Ireland, UK, Italy and Brazil. It is one of Clannad's most successful songs and it remains as Bono's most successful solo effort.
"The Call Up" is a song by English punk rock group the Clash. It was released as the first single from the band's fourth album, Sandinista!. The single was released in November 1980, in advance of the release of Sandinista!, with the anti-nuclear "Stop the World" as its B-side.
Merry Christmas is a compilation album by Bing Crosby that was released in 1945 on Decca Records. It has remained in print through the vinyl, CD, and downloadable file eras, currently as the disc and digital album White Christmas on MCA Records, a part of the Universal Music Group, and currently on vinyl as Merry Christmas on Geffen Records. It includes Crosby's signature song "White Christmas", the best-selling single of all time with estimated sales of over 50 million copies worldwide. The album has sold over 15 million copies and is the second best-selling Christmas album of all-time behind Elvis' Christmas Album, which has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. The original 1945 release and subsequent re-releases and re-packages spent a total of 39 weeks at no. 1 on the Billboard pop albums chart.
"Sara" is a song written by singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac as a single from the 1979 Tusk double LP. The vinyl album version is 6:22 minutes and the edited version is 4:41 minutes. The song peaked at No. 7 in the US for three weeks, No. 37 in the UK for two weeks, No. 11 in Australia and No. 12 in Canada.
Past Masters is a two-disc compilation album set by the English rock band the Beatles. It was originally released as two separate volumes on 7 March 1988, as part of the first issue of the band's catalogue on compact disc. The set compiles every song released commercially by the band that was not available on the Beatles' 12 original UK albums or the US Magical Mystery Tour LP. It includes liner notes by Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn.
Mono Masters is a compilation album by the Beatles, and is an alternate, all-mono version of the album Past Masters. Mono Masters was originally a two-CD set included as part of The Beatles in Mono box set. The premise of this box set was to compile only Beatles material which was released or prepared for release with a dedicated mono mix. As a result, the track listing for Mono Masters differs from Past Masters on the second half of disc two, omitting some later songs that never had a mono mix, and adding several songs released on stereo-only albums that had unreleased mono mixes. Tracks 9–12 and 15 were prepared in March 1969 for release as a 7" mono Yellow Submarine EP, two months after the release of the similarly titled soundtrack album, but the project was scrapped, although the EP was mastered. Subsequently, the tracks were only released in stereo, while the true mono mixes remained unreleased. "Get Back" was the final Beatles single mixed for mono format. It was released in the UK in mono, though the US release was in stereo. Thus, the songs that were originally released on stereo singles in the UK are omitted on this release.
"Tomorrow" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear from her 1977 album I Am a Photograph, released as a single the same year. The song was a commercial success and remains one of Lear's biggest hits.
Why Pink Floyd...? was a re-release campaign of Pink Floyd's back catalogue, released in three stages over 2011–12. Under the campaign, multiple forms of the band's material were released, with new remasters and unreleased tracks. The albums were available in three different configurations: "Discovery", "Experience" and "Immersion". The "Immersion" boxsets of The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here featured 5.1 surround sound mixes of the original albums, while that of The Wall did not. Wish You Were Here was also released in an SACD version. A new best-of album, titled A Foot in the Door – The Best of Pink Floyd was released, as well as Sampler, a Best Buy exclusive compilation.
"Tváre pred zrkadlom" is a song by Slovak singer-songwriter Marika Gombitová, released on OPUS in 1989. The composition wrote Gombitová in collaboration with Kamil Peteraj.
A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. If from several performers, there may be a theme, topic, time period, or genre which links the tracks, or they may have been intended for release as a single work—such as a tribute album. When the tracks are by the same recording artist, the album may be referred to as a retrospective album or an anthology.
