There was a stretch in the mid-nineties when the single was where the real work happened. You bought the album for the hit — but the three-track CD single tucked two more songs behind it, and more often than not those were the ones worth keeping.
Most of those songs never got reissued. They're not on the streaming catalogue, not on the deluxe edition, and absolutely still sitting in the singles bin at your local op shop for a couple of dollars.
The album was the pitch. The B-side was the truth.
Why they vanished
When labels moved their back-catalogue to digital, they licensed the albums. Singles were a separate, messier rights problem — different masters, sometimes different artwork, occasionally a different label altogether — and most of them simply never made the jump.
Which is excellent news for anyone who likes a bargain and doesn't mind reading a tracklist.
What to look for
- Three- and four-track CD singles — more tracks usually means more non-album material.
- "Album version" listed first is a tell: everything after it is the good stuff.
- Live and acoustic takes that never appeared anywhere else.
Buy the single, rip the B-side, file the disc. You've just rescued two minutes of music the rest of the internet forgot existed. That's the whole hobby, really.