45 Singles You Just Had to Buy

When I was young with no capacity for downloading individual songs, I loved going to the record stores and scoring old 45s of songs I really liked but by artists whose full LPs I had no interest in owning. Used CDs back then were still likely to be more expensive than an old 45, buying a whole CD for 1 song was not my interest, and shopping for old 45s was just…fun. Especially if they came with the original picture sleeve.
So many:

“96 Tears” - ? and the Mysterians
”Alone Again, Naturally” - Gilbert O’Sullivan
”Reminiscing” - Little River Band
“Voices Carry” - ‘Til Tuesday
“Eyes Without a Face” - Billy Idol
“Just the Two of Us” - Grover Washington Jr./Bill Withers

to name a few off the top of my head.

That kind of stuff was my much-more-fun version of plucking select songs from iTunes. I love being able to go and nab these single songs with ease now (so many great artists have several weak albums but each LP has 1 or 2 killer gems on them that aren’t available on comps), but my enjoyment of that process was rich, and my ignorance as to how poor the sound quality was on the majority of those 45s was bliss.

@lowrider57 my 12” “Cat People” single by Giorgio Moroder/David Bowie sounds ridiculously good.

@lowrider57 Yeah, I don’t know the degree to which those transcontinental track listings were decided by the artists, if at all.
“We’ll just decide for the US LP that track 3 is expendable and replace it with a single.”  
“This previously-released EP should be an album. We’ll just tag some other stuff onto it, call it a ‘new album.’” 

@lowrider57 technically, yes, but it kinda depended on which version of the albums one purchased.
For UK releases, singles and LPs were very often mutually exclusive.
The US LPs would often include those UK singles at the expense of album tracks, or the US LPs would function as something of a hodgepodge of contemporaneous songs.

Viewing the “true” release chronology, the “true” catalog as being solely the UK one, then, yes, singles/EP releases and LP releases were often mutually  exclusive, song-wise.

@officerat I love my “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” 12”.  
Mainly because it has “Irresistible Bitch” as the B-side

@mksun +1

Dick Vivian at Rooky Ricardo’s Records in San Francisco will blow your mind with his knowledge of ‘60s 45s.  
Between his store and his home he’s got over 100,000 of ‘em.  

He has a CD series of custom compilations (28 songs apiece) of these direct 45 rips packed to the brim with uber-rare ‘60s 45s from artists like Dolly and the Fashions, Maureen Grey, Stormie Winters (a few of his personal faves) and innumerable artists no one’s ever heard of (some of my favorite tracks I’ve not even found on YouTube, let alone iTunes or any streaming services)

Those custom CD compilations (again, direct 45 rips and most of the sides sound terrific - again, most of this stuff you’re literally not going to find anywhere else) run for roughly $10, IIRC, and are worth so much more than that.  
One could always just pick up a few 45s outright.