For the Heart and Promised Land

Lonely Summer · Postby **Lonely Summer** » Mon Mar 25, 2024 4:49 am

This often came up over on FECC - what were the A and B sides of these two singles? Well, a simple perusal of the record labels might answer that.

Rickeap · Postby **Rickeap** » Mon Mar 25, 2024 6:04 am

How could they consider Promised Land as a B-side???

foreverelvis · Postby **foreverelvis** » Mon Mar 25, 2024 7:39 am

Rickeap wrote:How could they consider Promised Land as a B-side???

Probably because it wasn’t similar to the songs Elvis was having success with on the country Charts at the time and It’s Midnight was.

It’s Midnight in concert was often referred to as his new record.

Interestingly, Hurt was introduced as his new record in concert, not For the Heart.

rockinrebel · Postby **rockinrebel** » Mon Mar 25, 2024 8:52 pm

I'm pretty sure there were times when there was an intended A side, but split airplay or radio stations preferring the so called B side, meant that this track charted higher.

I always liked the idea of For The Heart as an A side, as it was great to see Elvis return to this sort of material, but I can certainly see the appeal of Hurt, and I think that was quite a strong single coupling overall.

However, in respect of Promised Land, I really can't see how anyone at RCA could think that It's Midnight was the stronger side, and even if that was the case, the radio stations obviously felt differently.

It would be interesting to know how much input Elvis had during the '70's, as there were definitely some strange choices at times. I wouldn't class We Can Make The Morning or Take Good Care Of Her as single material irrespective of whether they were intended as A or B sides. And as we know Elvis didn't think much of Life, it doesn't seem likely that he would be pushing RCA for a single release of the track.

Lonely Summer · Postby **Lonely Summer** » Mon Mar 25, 2024 9:41 pm

Elvis had so many double sided hits, they probably decided it didn't matter. It's Midnight DID make the country and adult contemporary charts, as did For the Heart. Casey Kasem played both For the Heart on AT40, not sure if he ever played Hurt. I know he never played It's Midnight. The times I heard It's Midnight on the radio, it was on country, adult contemporary, or album oriented stations.

iplayastrat · Postby **iplayastrat** » Tue Mar 26, 2024 2:08 am

Lonely Summer wrote:This often came up over on FECC - what were the A and B sides of these two singles? Well, a simple perusal of the record labels might answer that.

I remember putting some money in the jukebox for Promised Land.
The jukebox even had Elvis' picture sleeve inside on display.

cadillac-elvis · Postby **cadillac-elvis** » Wed Mar 27, 2024 3:03 pm

There was another way to figure out which was the a or b side and that was the a side was always on the front
of the picture sleeve. If both songs named on the front, which ever song had the biggest font or was listed first.

epa747 · Postby **epa747** » Wed Mar 27, 2024 9:53 pm

cadillac-elvis wrote:There was another way to figure out which was the a or b side and that was the a side was always on the front
of the picture sleeve. If both songs named on the front, which ever song had the biggest font or was listed first.

Thats the way I remember it. Also the A side sleeve had a straight across top, while the B side had a slight cut on the top making it not straight across. Im talking USA sleeves

cadillac-elvis · Postby **cadillac-elvis** » Wed Mar 27, 2024 10:45 pm

epa747 wrote:
cadillac-elvis wrote:There was another way to figure out which was the a or b side and that was the a side was always on the front
of the picture sleeve. If both songs named on the front, which ever song had the biggest font or was listed first.

Thats the way I remember it. Also the A side sleeve had a straight across top, while the B side had a slight cut on the top making it not straight across. Im talking USA sleeves

Yep

foreverelvis · Postby **foreverelvis** » Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:25 am

cadillac-elvis wrote:There was another way to figure out which was the a or b side and that was the a side was always on the front
of the picture sleeve. If both songs named on the front, which ever song had the biggest font or was listed first.

But the other side of the sleeve often had the other song in bigger font. Negating that as an indicator.

foreverelvis · Postby **foreverelvis** » Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:27 am

epa747 wrote:
cadillac-elvis wrote:There was another way to figure out which was the a or b side and that was the a side was always on the front
of the picture sleeve. If both songs named on the front, which ever song had the biggest font or was listed first.

Thats the way I remember it. Also the A side sleeve had a straight across top, while the B side had a slight cut on the top making it not straight across. Im talking USA sleeves

This same thread is on FECC, I posted some pics and thoughts on this subject over there . With additional info provided by Keith Flynn.

A sides and B sides
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic? ... source=app

cadillac-elvis · Postby **cadillac-elvis** » Thu Mar 28, 2024 4:39 am

foreverelvis wrote:
cadillac-elvis wrote:There was another way to figure out which was the a or b side and that was the a side was always on the front
of the picture sleeve. If both songs named on the front, which ever song had the biggest font or was listed first.

But the other side of the sleeve often had the other song in bigger font. Negating that as an indicator.

But, I go with the indicators in a specific order.

the first thing would be which song was listed first on the front of the sleeve.

That would be the A side, no matter what the font size would be.

Generally though if a single had the title of for example, "good luck charm" which is on the front side of the sleeve,
AND the font is bigger than the B side.
That's all I was trying to say.
you are technically correct...the font size is really no indicator.
But, I know of no example where the A-side font is smaller on the FRONT of the sleeve.
Again, this is probably a moot point.

jokerlola · Postby **jokerlola** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 8:15 am

epa747 wrote:
cadillac-elvis wrote:There was another way to figure out which was the a or b side and that was the a side was always on the front
of the picture sleeve. If both songs named on the front, which ever song had the biggest font or was listed first.

Thats the way I remember it. Also the A side sleeve had a straight across top, while the B side had a slight cut on the top making it not straight across. Im talking USA sleeves

I always thought the front of the sleeve had the small cut at the top. On my non Elvis 45’s that had picture sleeves this was the case.

When the Hurt/For The Heart single came out, the record store I bought it from told me that Elvis’ new single was “Hurt”. I bought it the day it came in, but the single was just in the RCA paper sleeve. They didn’t have the picture sleeves till the next week.