pet shop boys had a b-side called 'shameless' which was i think the flip of 'Go West'; they were in their 'let's make the b-side sound like the a-side' except in this instance it was better by a country mile. For 1993 it was miles ahead of its time in that it foresaw the whole 'cult of celebrity' thing...get it here - best 79p you'll spend all day, probably

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=1...

Prince had a couple of buried B sides - Erotic City, Shockadelica

Recently made a compilation of The Jam's b sides for a pal who has the greatest hits and all the albums but was still missing out on ...

Aunties & Uncles
So Sad About Us
Butterfly Collector
Smithers Jones
See Saw
Dreams Of Children
Liza Radley
Tales From The Riverbank
Get Yourself Together
The Great Depression
Pity Poor Alfie
Shopping
Stoned Out Of My Mind
Move On Up

It adds up to a pretty decent album by anyone's standards.
The Jam were like The Beatles in that a lot of their singles (and b sides) weren't on albums.
A similar compilation of Beatles b sides, otherwise unavailable on albums, would be pretty impressive too:

Thank You Girl
I'll Get You
This Boy
I Call Your Name
Bad Boy
She's A Woman
Yes Its Is
I'm Down
We Can Work It Out
Rain
The Inner Light
Revolution
Don't Let Me Down
Old Brown Shoe
You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)

The Who's Ready Steady Who EP has two great lost singles: Disguises and Circles. The latter was briefly the B side of Substitute until it was withdrawn and included on the American edition of the My Generation album. The Kinks I'm Not Like Everybody Else was a B side and A Well Respected Man was an EP track. Stoneswise, I've always really liked Through The Lonely Nights (B side of It's Only Rock n Roll, Jimmy Miller's production credit and the general feel of the track makes me think it's a Goats Head Soup outtake) and Everything's Turning To Gold (B side of the American Shattered single).

I've still got my mum's old single of I Want You, with the live version of Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues from Liverpool (14th May 1966) on the B side. Never even played it, as Nigel Tufnel would say.

...is a good song, but Half the World Away is Oasis' best B-side I reckon

It seems almost mainly Mod based B Sides and out takes so far, and to add to the retro role call

Wellers - Fly On The Wall
well worth digging out

Bowie - In The Heat Of The Morning (BBC Version)
Has a some fantastic keyboard funking at the end

Blind Faith
Can't Find My Way Home - Electric Version (out take) later released on the expanded edition, breath of fresh to hear this loose rolling version

But there were some Punk/New Wave nuggets too
Ian Dury
Wake Up And Make Love
Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards

Sex Pistols - two flip side stormers
Did You No Wrong
Satellite

And Adam Ant B Sides were always better than the A Sides

The Smiths are another band who peppered their B-sides and extra tracks on 12" singles with quality. Examples include Handsome Devil, Back To The Old House, Asleep, Oscilate Wildly, Rubber Ring, Unloveable, Half A Person, London, Is It Really So Strange and Sweet And Tender Hooligan. Best 12" of all was the William It Was Really Nothing single, where you had the title track, Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want on the b-side and thrown away as an extra track on the 12" the majestic How Soon Is Now. They can change your life, singles like that.

One only has to listen to the brilliance of "Union Sundown" to understand why this was left off "Infidels"
...Not to mention "I and I"

Siouxsie & the Banshees reserved some of their more interesting songs for their B-sides, including Voices, Pulled to Bits, Eve White Eve Black, Obsession II etc.

Pet Shop Boys B-sides were collected on the Alternative CD, which is as good as any of their "proper" CDs. (Great band incidentally, who somehow managed to be simultaneously immensely popular and somewhat underrated).

Totally agree with the previous comments about the Jam and Smiths B-sides.

Any examples of bands with persistently rubbish B-sides??

Amsterdam by David Bowie was a great B side of Sorrow.
Kill em at the hot club tonight was a great b side by Slade but for the life of me I cant remember what the A side was.

And..... (dont laugh) The Sweet had great B sides that were rockier than the A sides and were self penned as opposed to the Chinn/Chapman 'hits'.

It's true about Sweet - the B Sides were stompers

Burn on the Flame (labelled as Bum on the Flame when I downloaded it)is a corker, and Turn it Down is one of the great lost singles

Bolan's Raw Ramp is a hidden treat as are Sunken Rags, Jitterbug Love and Thunderwing

Watch That Man
Lulu does a better version of than Bowie, on the B side of Man Who Sold the World.

I Pray Ole
A Bowie outtake from Lodger is hidden gem, only available on the Rykodisc release .

Insecure Me - Soft Cell
B Side of Torch is better than the A Side

Tiny Steps was far superior to Radio Radio and Just A Memory on the New Amsterdam ep is just one of his best songs ever.

How about the entirety of those tracks rejected by Dylan for Blood on the Tracks? The original sessions are just superb - definitely superior to the re-recorded album.

Just been reminded by Colonel P's selection , about some of the Stranglers B Sides

Go Buddy Go
Old Codger
Tank

That'll be me spinning these up this weekend then

A few of my favourites:

Ian McNabb - fantastic version of They shoot horses don't they with Let the Young Girl... A side

Pulp - PTA, came as a 4 track CD with Common People

Jesus & Mary Chain - Kill Surf City - only now I can't remember the A side, but it was one of the early ones !

I can think of others now but can't remember the A sides. Loved Oasis's version of Cum on Feel the Noize - seemed even louder than the original ! And Warren Zevon's Factory, though I think this was also an album track. Wasn't the Stones Colours also a B side ?

Janice

As mentioned Shockadelica and Erotic City aer great tunes but maybe would not have been mainstream hits.

I always thought the 'She's Always in my Hair' and '17 Days' could have been hits.

Stay Young was the B-side of Do ya' know what I mean. Not sure what went wrong there.

Stay Together by Suded never made it onto an album and they had a B-side called Killing of a Flashboy and I taped it off the Jo Wiley show on Radio 1 and played it to death and was delighted when they bought out their b-sides album.

Some of the Arctic Monkeys b-sides are great. I would say Despair in the Departure Lounge off the Who the Fuck are Arctic Monkeys ep is the pick.

And the Smiths as previously said. Obviously.

Oh and if we are talking about outtakes then I'm Not There by Dylan is the clear winner for me.