Wait until next year

I was just going to post one of my favourite Christmas songs today, because I’m too lazy/busy to actually write anything, and if nothing else this place is a handy vessel to inflict my tastes on the five to ten people who flock to the site each day. Then I found out via the wonders of Google that said song, Christmas Time Is Here Again by The Flirtations, was in fact the B side of Nothing But A Heartache, and so Christmas Time Is Here Again is not only one of the great Christmas songs, but is quite possible one half of one of the great singles – Northern soul brilliance and classy Christmas soul, all on one piece of vinyl.

Sure, the technology has moved on, but I do kind of miss the old seven-inch format, particularly on the occasions like this one when the B side is as good as the A side and isn’t just filler. If I had the time/inclination, I’d go on for a few thousand words about great B sides, peppering the piece with examples of B sides that became bit hits in their own right. I’d probably go on to suggest that B sides were a great way for artists to experiment, try something different and grow, or failing that, B sides enabled artists to quite easily and quickly share songs that were great but just didn’t make it on to an album. I’d probably talk about the run of fantastic Smiths B sides. It would get pretty boring I imagine. So, instead, here is some lazy YouTube embed-ery. Enjoy.