This song is not by Kojak

Back in the day, when vinyl singles played at 45 revolutions per minute, you sometimes discovered a hidden gem by just flipping the record over.  Led Zeppelin’s “Hey Hey What Can I Do” was originally the back of “Immigrant Song”.  Both of course became huge hits.  And you can’t forget the Beatles.  But maybe they don’t count — all their singles were basically two A-sides.

Radio people even did the flip once in a while.  Kiss’s “Beth” was actually just the back of “Detroit Rock City”!  A music director for an Ontario radio station started playing “Beth” because her daughter bugged her to.  And of course it ended up bringing Kiss a much bigger pile of cash than “Detroit”.

And as a kid, I used to do it sometimes, even though that wouldn’t make the song a hit except with me.  So it was that in 1970, I for some reason bought a pretty much forgotten record by The Mixtures called “Pushbike Song”.  You’ve probably never heard it and you’re not missing too much.

But I flipped that baby over and on the back was an excellent instrumental called “Who Loves Ya”!  It sounded so little like the front that it almost makes you think it wasn’t the same band.  But that doesn’t matter.  It’s a great tune!

I wish I could post the track for you, but you know those dang copyright laws.  But you can probably find it on YouTube.  Or you can do like I did and find the 45 on eBay.  (I bought it again a few years ago because my childhood copy was all worn out!)

Who loves “Who Loves Ya”?  Me!