Forty classic rock songs never released as singles, selected by Ultimate Classic Rock

Many of the greatest songs ever made were released on the 45 rpm format. But there are also plenty of tracks that became classics despite never being issued as singles. The online magazine Ultimate Classic Rock has compiled them into its new list, writing in its introduction: “Before albums became the benchmark for artists with grand ambitions, it was singles that best represented an artist's worth… As albums grew in popularity and importance, singles lost some of their weight. Yet music is still carried by songs, fragments of life distilled into instantly memorable, radio-ready moments: joy, sadness, anger, nostalgia and every other emotion. That's where singles still serve their purpose. Formats have changed over the past century — from shellac to vinyl, from CDs to digital and back to vinyl — but their purpose has remained more or less the same for over a hundred years: selling the song. The following list of 40 classic rock songs never released as singles includes dozens of tracks that could have worked perfectly well as singles, both for steady radio rotation and for their sheer recognizability. Yet all of them exist only as album tracks. To be clear: these songs were not released as singles at the time of their original release in the United States or the United Kingdom; some of them, however, were in fact issued as singles in non-English-speaking countries — such as Belgium, France and the Netherlands — sometimes years after their original release. The list also includes songs that were never A-sides, even though some of them did turn up as B-sides.”

Here are the 40 classic rock songs never released as singles selected by Ultimate Classic Rock (full feature here).

• Jethro Tull — "Aqualung"
• The Who — “Baba O’Riley”
• Pearl Jam — "Black"
• Creedence Clearwater Revival — “Born On The Bayou”
• Joni Mitchell — "Both Sides Now"
• Grateful Dead — "Casey Jones"
• Fleetwood Mac — “The Chain”
• The Beatles — “A Day In The Life”
• Led Zeppelin — “Dazed And Confused”
• Traffic — "Dear Mr. Fantasy"
• Eagles — "Desperado"
• The Rolling Stones — “Gimme Shelter”
• The Beatles — “Here Comes The Sun”
• The Velvet Underground — “Heroin”
• The Doors — “The End”
• Van Morrison — “Into The Mystic”
• Led Zeppelin — “Kashmir”
• Fleetwood Mac — “Landslide”
• Jackson Browne — “Late For The Sky”
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience — “Little Wing”
• Bob Marley & The Wailers — “Lively Up Yourself”
• Yes — “Long Distance Runaround”
• Paul McCartney — “Maybe I’m Amazed”
• Bob Dylan — “Mr. Tambourine Man”
• Billy Joel — “New York State Of Mind”
• The Band — “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
• Bruce Springsteen — “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”
• Billy Joel — “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant”
• Led Zeppelin — “Stairway To Heaven”
• The Rolling Stones — “Sympathy For The Devil”
• The Monkees — “(Theme From) The Monkees”
• Bruce Springsteen — “Thunder Road”
• Bob Dylan — “The Times They Are A-Changin'”
• The Rolling Stones — “Under My Thumb”
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience — “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”
• The Beatles — “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
• The Allman Brothers Band — “Whipping Post”
• Pink Floyd — “Wish You Were Here”
• Carole King — “You’ve Got A Friend”
• David Bowie — “Ziggy Stardust”

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